With a big crush on life, Cuban music and Habanos –Montecristo No. 4 was his favorite brand- the creator of Chan-Chan is very much alive in his 100th birthday, thanks to the unflagging endeavor of the band he put together.

Compay Segundo’s jaunty spirit, with his unforgettable hat, his Montecristo No. 4 cigar gently caught between his lips and his trademarked Chan-Chan in the tip of his tongue, are very much alive and kicking in music, thanks in part to the Compay Segundo Band’s tireless effort to rescue Cuba’s traditional music.

Maximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz, Compay Segundo, was born on November 18, 1907, in Santiago de Cuba’s Siboney. Though he rubbed elbows with some of the greatest Cuban musicians at the time –Sindo Garay, Miguel Matamoros, Ñico Saquito or Benny More, just to name but a few- as weird as it may sound he reached the pinnacle of fame beyond the age of 90 when he joined the Buena Vista Social Club project alongside top performers like Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez and Omara Portuondo.

Compay Segundo, who passed away at age 95 on July 14, 2003, couldn’t make good on his wish to “live 116 years like my grandma,” from whom he inherited, as he himself owned up, his blissful, rebellious spirit, the love for his people and also the liking for Habanos –he rolled and smoked cigars since he was 10 years old and never quit.

Compay would have turned 100 years old, “his first century of life.” The band he founded, where two of his sons –Salvador and Basilio- now play, has decided to plan a fair tribute to one of the greatest acts of Cuban music. That homage includes the opening of the Compay Segundo House, the place the artist called home till the end his time.

Concerts, lectures, colloquia on his life and musical work, a nationwide tour staged by his band, fine arts exhibits, a musical performance contest, the launch of the Compay Segundo fashion line, together with the unveiling of a monument of the performer at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, are also part of the 100th birthday celebrations.

The main course, however, is the work the band he founded has been carrying out since November 2006 with a grand concert that counted on the Orient Symphonic Orchestra, outstanding Italian tenor Francesco Grollo and the conductor of the Veneto Symphonic Orchestra from Italy.

Marked by a unique sound and the combination of Cuban son and classical music, the Gollo and Veneto Symphonic Orchestra project has been one of the most important musical developments ever pieced together to pay tribute to the famous Cuban musician, now coupled with some breaking news: a 2006 Grammy Award nomination to Siempre Compay (Always Compay), the first album cut by his band after his death.

“Beyond any effort to preserve Compay’s songs, we want to carry on his dream of putting Cuba’s traditional music on the map, a rhythm people from around the world like so much and that gets little airplay in our own country,” explains Salvador Repilado, the band’s bass player.

In the meantime, the other offspring –Basilio Repilado- admits it hasn’t been easy to sit in for Compay Segundo in the band. “It’s taken a couple of persons to do that. I’m doing my father’s singing, while three-string player and guitarist Felix Martinez has managed to master the harmonic, the unique seven-string instrument Compay invented and that only he could play.”

“It took months and months of practice and for a moment I thought I was going bonkers while trying to master the harmonic,” Felix confesses with humbleness, though many have praised the way he’s tamed the unusual instrument with a degree of mastery that has helped the Cuban maestro’s music live on and get stronger with each passing day.

“To us, this is first of all a commitment to Cuba, to its people and to the world, a commitment that’s all about trying to keep burning the flame of that Cuban traditional music he fought for all his life,” says Salvador.

“The point is that when you travel around the world and get in touch with other musicians, with different audiences, you understand that Compay Segundo is as rooted on Cuban soil as the royal palm trees, as the rum and the Habanos he loved so much and smoked till his demise.”