Jim Halsey Presents · Xavier Cugat, King of the Rhumba · Pictures of Xavier Cugat
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Jim Halsey Pesents
The Xavier Cugat Collection
(Available for Exhibition)
I started collecting Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) art during the mid-1960's. Mr. Cugat was having an exhibition at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada and I was privileged to meet with him. I was there with my client, Roy Clark, who was co-headlining with Petula Clark. The first painting purchased was "Little Girl on Park Bench with Pidgeons," oil on canvas (15" x 30"). It reminded me of my daughter Gina, who was 8 years old at that time.
Our lives were intermingled for a number of years as I was booking my stellar artists, Roy Clark, Hank Thompson, Minnie Pearl, The Oak Ridge Boys, Tammy Wynette, Freddy Fender and Mel Tillis on a variety of television shows--Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore, Joey Bishop, Johnny Carson, etc. Many times Mr. Cugat, and his wife Charro would be booked also as guests on the same show. Over the years I would be fortunate enough to acquire pieces of Mr. Cugat's art. Mr. Cugat passed in 1990.
As my son Sherman was producing the Oak Ridge Boys hit variety show "The Oak Ridge Boys Live from Las Vegas" (1998 TNN cable network), he was able to secure Charro as a guest on one of the segments.
My appreciation for Xavier Cugat's art and the enjoyment of being a collector, as you can see, has a personal side.
His stylistic images always conjure a feeling of happiness and fun. The two dimensional characters, his use of flat line and color is reminiscent of some of the early American Indian artists that I love (and also collect).
Mr. Cugat's art always brings a smile and makes you feel good. That's a blessing we get from art and music--and he was a master at both.
I would be happy to show this collection in an exhibit for schools, museums, galleries, or special events that would be able to properly display these wonderful paintings.
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Xavier Cugat, King of the Rhumba
Xavier Cugat was born in Gerona, Spain, on January 1, 1900. His family emigrated to Cuba when he was four. He received a violin from the local luthier at a young age and quickly became proficient. By the age of twelve, he held the position of first violinist in the National Theater Symphonic Orchestra in Havana. It was in Cuba that Cugat became intrigued with the rhythms and melodies of the tropics. A year later, he would meet and accompany the great Enrico Caruso at a symphonic concert series held in Havana in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York. Over the next month, Caruso and Cugat would become good friends. Caruso was impressed with the young man's talent on violin as well as his artistic abilities; both shared a talent for drawing caricatures.
Caruso oversaw Cugat's move to New York and arranged for young Cugat to study violin under Henry Schradieck, New York's premier violin teacher. Despite Schradiek's advice to wait, Cugat debuted at Carnegie Hall in his late teens. Reviews were lukewarm and discouraging to Cugat. Schradiek was still confident in Cugat's talent and arranged for him to be enrolled in the prestigious Conservatory of Music in Berlin, Germany. After studying the greatest and most difficult works of the master violin composers, he returned to New Yorkand Carnegie Hall to considerably better reviews. But Cugat had set a higher standard for himself than the New York critics could deliver and soon began having thoughts of forsaking the violin altogether. After a year in a popular music orchestra led by Vincent Lopez which offered no challenge to the astute Cugat, he did set the violin aside.
Another weave in the artistic tapestry of Cugat's life would begin. Ignacio Abadal, a wealthy art and antiques dealer offered Xavier a business deal where he would sell art treasures from Spain. This venture would place Cugat in Los Angeles, where his charm proved to be a valuable asset to his sales acumen. It also put him in contact with influential patrons of the arts. After learning of his past concert experience, they persuaded him to perform at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. Despite lackluster reviews which would cause Cugat to turn his back on classical music for good, it was because of this fateful concert that he would come into contact with the great Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin enlisted Cugat to provide violin tracks for movies Chaplin was making, thus making Cugat a pioneer in movies with sound. It was also fertile grounds for Cugat's charm to pay off. He met and married Carmen Castillo. It was she who first encouraged him to form a Latin Dance Orchestra. Not only did the band become wildly popular among the Hollywood hipster scene, they also popularized the Tango, Conga, Bolero, and most importantly, the Rhumba. As his reputation grew, so did opportunities.
Rene Black, an executive of the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria in New York, offered Cugat a house band job at the famed hotel; but not as a headliner. That would soon change. New York embraced Cugat's Latin music even more passionately than did Los Angeles. Without a contract, his band would become the highest paid ever up to that point in history at the Waldorf-Astoria. Such was the 16 year engagement that solidified Cugat's reputation as extraordinary, innovative, incomparable, and unsurpassed.
Throughout his life's musical journey, he always kept a hand (or brush, you might say) in art. His approach was always his own, whether in music or painting. His distinctive style is evident in his drawings and paintings. Again, his personality shines out through this medium as extraordinary and incomparable.
Xavier Cugat died on October 27, 1990. Both his music and his art live on.