Compay Segundo

Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles (18 November 1907 – 13 July 2003), known professionally as "Compay Segundo", was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.

Compay Segundo also invented the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, to fill the harmonic jump between the Spanish guitar and the tres.

Greater international fame came later, in 1997, with the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album, a hugely successful recording which won several Grammy awards.

However, it seems his interests went much further: At a fiesta he sang to President Fidel Castro, who took his pulse and joked about his vitality despite his 90-plus years.

In 2007, the 100th anniversary of Segundo's birth was celebrated with a concert of his compositions performed by a symphony orchestra in Havana with some of his musicians and sons.

The tomb of Compay Segundo at the Cementerio de Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba . March 2014