Bola de Nieve

Ignacio Jacinto Villa was a singular artistic phenomenon that has a place in the Cuban and international music hall of fame under the name of Bola de Nieve. He was born in Guanabacoa, a town in Havana on September 11, 1911. His great aunt enrolled him in the municipal academy. Her name was Mamaquina and she would say that he was going to be an artist, according to what she had foreseen. Thanks to her, Bola de Nieve embarked on his first studies in a small private school and at age 12, also at Mamaquina’s urging, he took music theory lessons.

According to many the nickname that would immortalize him was created by Rita Montaner on a performance night in the Sevilla Hotel in Havana in 1930 or 1931, while Bola de Nieve accompanied her on the piano in El Manisero and Siboney.
Bola de Nieve did not create a style; he became one, as a result of the ancestral essences that flowed in him and which melted into one singular expression. His voice, his way of playing the piano, his theatrical gestures and his way of singing his own songs or those of other artists, gave him a unique and attractive label.

After his debut in Mexico in the thirties, he showed the world what he was all about and earned the respect of musicians such as Edith Piaf – who was surprised because nobody could sing her song ‘La vie en Rose’ like he did – and Andrés Segovia. He died in Mexico on October 2, 1971, on the way to Lima for a tribute that was being prepared to him by Chabuca Granda.

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