Artist Snapshot
The son of a violinist in the Havana Philharmonic, pianist Jose Curbelo was born in 1917 and came up through one of Havana’s finest music conservatories. At 22 years of age, he moved to NYC where he played with Xavier Cugat and Fiesta Records’ founder, Jose Morand. Within a few short years Curbelo formed his own orchestra which featured at times no less than the likes of Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, and Candido. After cutting records for labels such as RCA, Curbelo found a home at Morand’s Fiesta Records, where he released several LPs and countless singles in the late 50s and early 60s. Several of his compositions became Latin classics and were recorded by the likes of Ray Baretto, Oscar D’Leon, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Rodrguez and dozens, or even hundreds of others. Later in the 60s, Curbelo would move into artist management, and spent the rest of his life successfully advocating on behalf of Latin artists.