Biography
Manuel Galban (1931-2011) is a Grammy Award winner Cuban guitarist, pianist and arranger native from Gibara, in the Holguín Province of eastern Cuba. Along his long career he has worked with Los Zafiros, La vieja Trova Santiaguera, Ry Cooder and Buena Vista Social Club among many other musical projects.
In 2001 he and Ry Cooder recorded Mambo Sinuendo, which won the 2003 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Cooder explains that in the making of the album “Galban and I felt that there was a sound that had not been explored, a Cuban electric-guitar band that could re-interpret the atmosphere of the 1950s with beauty, agility, and simplicity.”