Three guitars and three voices boleros that have accompanied us for decades.
Trio Los Panchos is a Mexican-Puerto Rican ensemble that made the bolero an international phenomenon. The combination of three guitars and three voices is simple, but the sound is anything but – full of fine chords, precise vocals and restrained swing.
We originally found Los Panchos by chance on a record shelf and have since picked up several records from different lineups from different decades. Below is a brief overview of the kind of records we have collected and how they have connected to our own trips and evenings.
We first encountered the music while visiting for two weeks in Cienfuegos, Cuba in 1990, where else?
Our dinner at the Jagua Hotel was spiced up with absolutely wonderful Latin music by a local trio. Unfortunately, the atmosphere cannot be described better here.
That same year, while on vacation in Spain, we got to know the music of Los Panchos which was amazingly similar. And since then, no other music has been offered at gala dinners.
This great music spices up every dish we eat.
Our first Los Panchos album was a collection that included many familiar boleros – among songs that we had heard before by other artists. However, the combination of three guitars and three voices made the same repertoire sound completely new.
Gradually, more albums from different formation stages and different releases began to accumulate on the record shelf. Some of the albums are still listened to a lot, while others are listened to more “as a snapshot of the times”.
Los Panchos has been playing in the background for us both during everyday chores and at parties. The three-part vocals and acoustic guitars work both in a quiet background and when listened to carefully with headphones.
In addition to boleros, the albums also contain other songs – Mexican tradition, international classics and sometimes even surprising borrowed songs.
The trio was founded in 1944 by lead singer Hernando Avilés (Herminio Avilés Negrón), backing singer “Chucho” Navarro (José de Jesús Navarro Moreno) and requinto player Alfredo Gil (Alfredo “Güero” Bojalil Gil). Their formula was that everyone played both guitar and sang polyphonically.
Along the way, the lead singer changed several times. Raúl Shaw Moreno replaced Avilés in 1951, but after just one year, he was replaced by Julio Rodríguez Reyes (“Julito”). Avilés returned for a few more years in 1956, and the trio performed with their original line-up until Johnny Albino replaced them in 1958. This was perhaps the most successful decade for Los Panchos.
Albino left the band in a stormy manner in 1968, when Enrique Cáceres replaced him for a four-year period. After this, Ovidio Hernández (who did not play guitar) also continued for a four-year period, after which Rafael Basurto Lara joined the band as the final replacement.
The Los Panchos trio was already buried after Alfredo Gil retired in 1981, but the mourning was premature as Navarro and Lara decided to continue the band's career with numerous guitarists. After Chucho Navarro's death in 1993, Lara has continued to perform solo as the "voice of Los Panchos".
The first collection I acquired, which includes most of the “must-have” boleros. A good introduction to the trio's style.
A collection that expanded the repertoire and included songs that we had not heard before.
Albums where the lineup has changed somewhat, but the soundscape is still recognizably Los Panchos.
In this section you can later list live albums, duets with other artists or for example Christmas albums, if there are any in the collection.
The lyrics page is a separate entity with the Spanish lyrics of the most popular songs. This link takes you directly there.