I am, El Benny!
“At the end of it all, he always returned to his life of a true bohemian, a slave to his small audiences in the streets, working his magic, and passing on his hat.”
He was only 43 when he died and he did so as a legend.
Benny Moré, one of the greatest legends of Cuban music passed away in 1963. Yet, when one walks the streets of Santiago de Cuba these days and ask anybody, just anybody, if they have seen “El Benny,” the response will be something like, “Of course, I saw him yesterday at the Cespedes Park,” or, “I heard he was playing in the Tivoli neighborhood this afternoon,” and even, “Sure, I just saw him enter the Bar La Isabelica with his guitar five minutes ago.”
The explanation for this is simply that Benny Moré has resuscitated! He now lives in the body of Juan Manuel Villy Carbonell, alias “El Benny.” This at least, is how he tells the story. El Benny was born in 1962 and it took him some time to come to the conclusion that he is the reincarnation of the legend himself. He is and always has been a bohemian; he fought his way through life as a clown, as a boxer, as a magician, and he also learned how to play the guitar. More importantly, he learned how to sing and as his skills improved, people started to recognize the voice — that voice — and nicknamed him “El Benny,” and slowly but surely, his identity blended together with that of the great Benny Moré himself.
All images in this gallery ©Sven Creutzmann.
El Benny has had some success over the years; he has played with several bands, done auditions, and even received invitations to tour Europe. But at the end of it all, the call of the street was too strong — he always returned to his life of a true bohemian, a slave to his small audiences in the streets, working his magic, and passing on his hat.
In all the years since the early nineties that I have personally known El Benny, only one thing has changed. Back then, he used to change homes every week or second week when one girlfriend kicked him out and he would go on searching for another woman. He would grab all his personal belongings, which fit in a couple of plastic bags and look for his next shelter, until he would get kicked out again. It was in 1998, when he finally got to meet THE woman, with whom he is still together today. Her name is — and it is almost too good to be true — Amores.
All images in this gallery ©Sven Creutzmann.
In 2006, when Cuban film maker Jorge Luis Sanchez was preparing to make a movie about the legendary “Barbaro del Ritmo: Benny Moré,” he faced a unique problem— the original recordings from over 50 years ago would not live up to the technical standards of a modern feature movie. But Sanchez had heard of El Benny, so he rushed to Santiago, asking in the streets for the well-known bohemian till he found him. They went to El Benny’s home, and when he starting singing, Sanchez asked him, if he dared to sing and be the voice of Benny Moré in the movie. Juan Manuel Villy Carbonell looked at him, stunned at the preposterous fact that Sanchez would even ask such a question, and just said, “But, I am, El Benny!”
So, if you want to hear the live voice of the legendary “El Sonero Mayor: Benny Moré,” who died close to six decades ago, you just have to go to Santiago de Cuba and ask anybody, literally anybody in the streets if they have seen El Benny.
©Sven Creutzmann. 'El Benny', performs at home, together with a friend.
