Moisés Simons

He then moved to the Teatro Payret under contract to the Spanish composer, Vicente Lleó, who directed a zarzuela company with whom he toured throughout Latin American including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Central America.

It consisted of piano, violin, alto and tenor saxophones, flute, banjo, double bass, drums, and timbales.

Other celebrated composers during this Afro-Cuban awakening were Alejandro García Caturla, Amadeo Roldán, Ernesto Lecuona, Eliseo Grenet, Gonzalo Roig, Rodrigo Prats, and Jorge Anckermann.

He then moved to the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife and later to Madrid, Spain where he signed a contract to provide music for the film, Bambú, which included his last known composition, Hoy Como Ayer (Today Like Yesterday in English).

The band included a number of star musicians such as Julio Cueva (trumpet) and Mario Bauza (saxophone); Antonio Machín was the singer.

[9] On the published score both music and lyrics are attributed to Simons, though there is a persistent story that they were written by Gonzalo G. de Mello in Havana the night before Montaner was due to record it in New York.

Cristóbal Díaz says "For various reasons, we have doubts about this version... El Manisero was one of those rare cases in popular music where an author got immediate and substantial financial benefits... logically Mello would have tried to reclaim his authorship of the lyrics, but that did not occur.

For Ortíz, the true author was an unknown Havana peanut seller, of the second half of the 19th century, who served as the basis for a danza written by Gottschalk.

Simons' musical compositions include lyric theater scores for the following operettas or zarzuelas: Deuda De Amor, La Negra Quirina, Le Chant Des Tropiques, Niña Mercé, and Toi, c'est Moi ‒ several of which were premiered in Paris during the 1930s.

[12] Noted compositions written by Simons include the following: Cubanacan, Los Tres Golpes, Así Es Mi Patria, Chivo Que Rompe Tambó, La Trompetilla, Paso Ñáñigo, Serenata Cubana, Vacúnala, Marta, Hoy Como Ayer, Danzas Cubanas, and Rumba Guajira.