Microphone, used by Graciela: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Felipa Graciela Pérez y Gutiérrez (1915-2010) was an Afro-Cuban vocalist at the forefront of the fusion between jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Graciela’s musical career began when she joined the Orquesta Anacaona as their main vocalist in the 1930s. As jazz became increasingly popular, they began to experiment with incorporating jazz sounds with popular Cuban music. When Graciela left Cuba and the Orquesta Anacaona, it was to join her brother-in-law Mario Bauza in New York City as the lead singer for his band the Afro-Cubans while her brother Francisco “Machito” Grillo served in the military. From playing son music in Cuban aires libres with Anacaona to mambo hits at the Palladium Ballroom in New York City, Graciela brought the sounds of Afro-Cuban music to audiences around the world. Her risqué anthems “Sí Sí No No”, “Mi Cerebro”, and “Ay Jose” fueled the mambo craze of the 1940s and 1950s.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: microphone
• Physical Description: metal (microphone; case material)
• Physical Description: plastic (case material)
• Measurements: microphone: 7 in x 1 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 3.81 cm
• place made: Austria
• ID Number: 2018.0078.13
• accession number: 2018.0078
• catalog number: 2018.0078.13
• Credit Line: Gift of Lisa Sokolov
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.