Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer Graciela Perez-Gutierrez, dubbed the first lady of Latin American jazz, has died at the age of 94. The Grammy-nominated singer, alternately known by the surname Perez Grillo, died in New York on Tuesday of natural causes after having been in hospital for some time, according to her spokesman, Richie Viera.
"Graciela was one of the most brilliant divas that Cuba had to offer the world," documentary filmmaker Ivan Acosta, who has written, directed and produced several documentaries about Cuban music and musicians, told El Nuevo Herald.
Born in Havana in 1915, Perez Grillo was a singer and musician who had her start as a teen member of Cuba's Orquestra Anacaona — a celebrated all-female troupe that performed gigs in New York, Paris and in the Caribbean throughout the 1930s.
Her brother-in-law, Mario Bauza, summoned her to New York in the early 1940s to fill in for her bandleader brother, Machito, when he was drafted into the U.S. army. She stayed on to front the band, Machito and the Afro-Cubans, even when he returned.
Though perhaps not as well known as some latter Latina singers and musicians, Perez Grillo nonetheless helped pave the way more contemporary artists, according to friends and music historians.
"[She] was where it all started," Bobby Sanabria, who played on three of her records, told the New York Daily News. "Without her, there is no Celia Cruz or La Lupe or any of the stars today."
With Machito's band, her hits included songs like Si, Si, No, No and Ay Jose. Her other best-known songs include Esta es Graciela (This is Graciela) and Yo soy asi (That's the Way I Am).
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