La Sonora Matancera is a Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music.

Founded in 1924 and led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Rogelio Martínez, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music.

Notable singers to have sung and recorded with the band include Bienvenido Granda,[1][2][3] Daniel Santos, Myrta Silva, Miguelito Valdés, Leo Marini, Celia Cruz,[4] Nelson Pinedo, Vicentico Valdés, Estanislao "Laíto" Sureda, Alberto Beltrán, Carlos Argentino, and Celio González.

[7] A different source credits the new name to the vocal range of the singer and maracas player, Carlos Manuel "Caíto" Díaz Alonso, who became a member the same year.

[9] A third source posits that Caíto and Rogelio joined the collective in 1926; both had recorded with pianist and bandleader Antonio María Romeu.

[10] The group lost Domingo Medina, Julio Gobín, and Juan Bautista Llopis in their attempt at a more modern sound.

In 1929, the band signed a contract to perform live on the airwaves of Radio Progreso, making appearances on this station for many years.

[1] Valentín Cané, having ceded to his eldest son the tres chair, remained a valuable member of the collective, as he still sang, composed and — in a new role — played tumbadora.

Dámaso Pérez Prado (later, in the 1950s, famous as El Rey del Mambo) was the band's first pianist and one of its earliest arrangers from 1936 to 1939.

[14] Pedro Knight and Ezequiel "Lino" Frías left Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto to join Sonora Matancera on the same day in 1944.

[1] He continued to receive pay as if he were an active member of La Sonora Matancera till he died two years later.

[1] In 1946, in place of Valentín Cané, Tata Güines, who was a member of the groundbreaking ensemble led by Israel "Cachao" López in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, became the conguero for a short time.

[5] Its long tenure in the academias served La Sonora Matancera well as it transformed the ensemble into an excellent dance band.

[5] From the mid-1940s till the end of the 1950s, the collective had a program as "artistas exclusivos" ("exclusive artists") on Radio CMQ called "Cascabeles Candado".

As this decade drew to a close, Sonora Matancera decided on a course of action that would become standard practice: the incorporation of non-Cuban lead singers into its ranks (without excluding the use of Cuban artists).

The cooperative returned to airing live broadcasts at Radio Progreso in 1948 with Daniel Santos as the featured lead vocalist.

[10] During this decade, the band — besides these regular bookings on Cuban radio — had its calendar filled with club dates, film appearances, and tours overseas.

[20] Seeco had an extensive distribution network, allowing it to ship its recordings of different artists, including La Sonora, throughout Latin America.

[1] In 1959, the conjunto undertook another overseas tour, playing in Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay; the year is considered the ensemble's high-water mark.

[18] The cooperative began the decade with a tour of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, and Curaçao,[18][23] but the political upheaval following the Cuban Revolution affected the group greatly.

Having signed a lucrative contract to perform in Mexico City, the group, accompanied by Celia Cruz, left Havana on June 15, 1960.

On July 15, 1960 two new singers joined the group, Willy "El Baby" Rodríguez and Alberto Pérez Sierra.

[1] In 1962, Sonora Matancera established itself in New York City, where it continued to perform Cuban/Afro-Cuban urban popular dance music.

[24] In that same year, Caíto and Lino were among the vocalists and instrumentalists gathered by Dominican-born Johnny Pacheco for a classic studio recording.

[citation needed] During this time, La Sonora Matancera continued to record, perform at dance clubs, and tour overseas.

[1][33] Contemporary touches were added to the cooperative's instrumentation, with electronic piano, organ and electric guitar employed during this session.

[1] Chocolate also left in this year, being succeeded by Héctor "Bomberito" Zarzuela,[1] a long-time member of Pacheco's conjuntos.

[1] In 1993, La Sonora Matancera recorded an album in Mexico, De Nuevo, with Adalberto Santiago on lead vocals.

[citation needed] Javier Vázquez, with the blessing of Rogelio Martínez, Jr., leads a group of the same name in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It usually consisted of Rogelio Martínez and Carlos Manuel "Caíto" Díaz Alonso, whose falsetto delivery was derived from a traditional singing style of the earliest soneros (called in Cuba voz de vieja).