Enric Madriguera

From the time he fronted his first orchestra in the late 1920s, Spanish-born violin prodigy Enric Madriguera did much to popularise Latin-American music in America. After completing studies at the Barcelona Conservatory he performed with several bands while still in his teens. He briefly worked in South America as musical director for Columbia Records. Following a spell at the Havana Casino, he moved on to the United States and formed a society-style dance orchestra in New York. Madriguera specialised in Latin or Afro-Cuban music, including standards by well-known composer/songwriters like Noro Morales as well as such original compositions as the band's theme song "Adios", "Flowers of Spain" or "Minute Samba". Madriguera was later honoured with the sobriquet "Ambassador of Music to all the Americas", bestowed upon him by the U.S. State Department and by the resident ambassadors of the South American republics. After opening on the roof of the famed Hotel Biltmore, Madriguera secured engagements at other swank New York Hotels and managed to finagle a lucrative recording contract with Columbia, which helped to further cement his popularity. In addition to a good reed section, the band employed a number of capable vocalists: Adelaide Moffett (who was heiress to a newspaper empire), Helen Ward (who subsequently came to fame with Benny Goodman) and Patricia Gilmore (who joined from NBC and later became Mrs. Madriguera). For most of the forties, the band toured major hotels and theatres in the U.S.. When the Big Band era came to its end in the early fifties, Madriguera and wife left public life and retired to their country estate in Connecticut.