By Carlos Flores
Kalinda! Newsletter, Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, 1996
CHICAGO - For the last two decades I have watched and listened to Rafael "Congo" Castro perform his music throughout Chicago's Latin nightclubs. During a recent interview with Mr. Castro, I learned about his rich musical history, which spans six decades.
Rafael "Congo" Castro is a retired 83-year-old singer, dancer, and percussionist who was born in the neighborhood of La Marina in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His mother died in 1917, and in 1924 he arrived in New York City with his father and stepmother. The family lived in the first Puerto Rican barrio, located on 102nd Street between Second and Third Avenues. Rafael attended public school up to eighth grade when he decided to leave school and get a job to support his family. At the age of seventeen, shortly after his father's death, Rafael began to pursue a musical career.
Pursuing a Dream
By the time he began to pursue his dream in the late 1920s, many Puerto Rican musicians were living, performing, and recording in New York City, attracted by the North American recording industry based in New York City. According to Ruth Glasser, author of the book My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities 1917-1940, the Puerto Rican musicians played and recorded plenas, danzas, and boleros for their compatriots; cumbias, sones, and pasillos for other Spanish-speaking groups; and fox trots, tangos, jazz, and rumbas for African-American and European-American audiences. It was during this time that Castro joined the ranks of many versatile and talented Puerto Ricans and Latino musicians.
One of the first musical groups that Rafael joined was the Sexteto Moderno. He says that during this early period, many Puerto Rican singers were singing in the style of boleros (ballads); but he became fascinated with the Afro-Cuban music that was introduced to New York in the late 1930s. Castro was determined to learn the singing skills of a sonero, a lead singer who improvises rhythmically, melodically, and verbally against the refrain of the coro (chorus) in the Afro-Cuban son. In order to achieve his goal, Rafael befriended the famous Cuban singer Antonio Machin from the Cuarteto Machin, who was also the singer of the Don Aspiazu Havana Casino Orchestra. Rafael credits Machin with teaching him the fine points of becoming a sonero.
According to Rafael, during the period between 1938 and 1948, he perfor med with various groups in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York including Los Happy Boys and Augusto Coens Golden Casino Orchestra. He also performed with Alberto Socarras, a major bandleader and the first flutist to record a jazz solo, at the Savoy Ballroom. From 1938 to 1939, Rafael joined the Pedro Flores Quartet where he recorded one song with the group. He also composed several songs, including "Dos Corazones," which was recorded by Mario Hernandez, and "Alma Borincano," recorded by Pedro "Davilita" Ortiz.
During our conversation, I asked Rafael how he got the name "Congo." He replied that, at one gathering the famous Pedro "Piquito" Marcano, from the Cuarteto Marcano, called him "Congo," reacting to how afro-Cuban he sounded- "like someone from the Congo." The name stuck.
Chicago Connection
In 1948 Rafael traveled to Chicago for a one-week engagement in a downtown nightclub, playing bongos and percussion with a West Indies dance show titled Show Calypso. During his stay in Chicago he became reacquainted with Puerto Rican pianist Kiki Orchard, who offered Rafael a job; he played with Orchard at the Glass Hat Cocktail Room in the Congress Hotel.
In the 1950s Rafael formed his own band, El Congo y su Combo, which performed in a handful of nightclubs that provided Latin music in Chicago- the Cuban Village, the Palladium (on Lawrence and Broadway and where famous Green Mill Lounge is now located), Mambo City (located on Randolph Street in downtown Chicago), and El Mirador (at Roosevelt and Halsted), The group also performed for local community organizations and social clubs such as Puesto Boricua, the Puerto Rican Congress, and La Sierra Club.
From 1960 to the 1980s Rafael continued to perform with local groups, including the Manny Garcia and Augie de la Rosa orchestras. In the early 1960s he had the opportunity to perform with the great Cuban composer, tres and bass player, Arsenio Rodriguez, when Arsenio performed in Chicago for several weeks at Las Americas Theater, located on Madison near Western. Rafael also remembers performing with Rafael Cortijo and his orchestra in the early 1970s, during Cortijo's short stay in Chicago and making various recordings under a local label called Arlinda.
Many local musicians appreciate and respect Rafael's talent. Victor Parra, musician, bandleader, and radio program host, says that "Congo was my favorite local singer because he had a unique style different than any other singer in the area, and Congo's singing style was reflected the era of the 1940s." Mike Maldonado, a local veteran singer, says that Congo was not only a great singer, musician, and dancer, but also a warm individual who was always there to assist friends.
In the last six decades Rafael Castro has lived, performed, and recorded with some of the greatest Puerto Rican and Latino music legends of this century, devoting most of his life to bringing joy to many individuals through his music. He retired from music in the late 1980s, so I am glad I had the opportunity to meet, see, and hear Rafael perform. The father of nine children and grandfather to twenty-seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, he is one of the last musicians of his generations.
Note: Rafael "Congo: Castro died on September 14, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois
Copyright, Columbia College, 1996. Originally published in Kalinda! Newsletter, Spring 1996, published by the Center for Black Music Research. Reproduced by permission.