Today he would be turning 79 years old, who made several generations of Cubans and foreigners dance. The chairs of the musical are made by the towns with the best of their music and it is proven that Formell, founded his empire, wrote the entity in his profile of the social network Twitter.

To the remembrance of the birth of the also bassist, arranger, composer, record producer and founder of the emblematic Los Van Van orchestra, other cultural institutions on the island such as the National Library of Cuba and the Music Recordings and Editions Company were added.

Born in the city of Havana, the multifaceted artist has, precisely, in the central avenue of the capital's vedado (23 and P), a commemorative plaque to his figure, right in the place where he debuted with his orchestra in 1969.

According to the specialists, Formell removed the musical currents with an authentic stamp and incorporated new electroacoustic elements , giving greater prominence to drums and trombones.

With his style came the evolution of the charanguero format and the path of a new concept known as timba and songo was defined, genres now fused with other sounds based on the expressive resources of son.

But it was not only dance music that kept him busy, as his professional work was also notable in the song genre with the musicalization of the verses of the Cuban Poet, Nicolás Guillén.

Likewise, he wrote music for plays, among which are La barbecue (1984, directed by Abraham Rodríguez) and Vivir en Santa Fe (1986, by the playwright Nicolás Dorr).

Formell was also the author of the soundtrack of classics of Cuban cinematography such as the film Los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta (1984) by the filmmaker Rolando Díaz, and he ventured into television in the program La rueda de casino (1992, from José Milián).

Marilú's father, one of his popular songs premiered in his musical beginnings, won the National Music Prize in 2003 and the Special World Music Prize awarded by the jury of the World Entertainment Organization in 2008.

Likewise, he was awarded the Honorary Doctorate from the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba in 2010, the 2013 WOMEX Artist Award in recognition of his musical excellence and inspired the Festival de la Timba Por siempre Formell, created in Cuba in 2019.

As the journalist Pedro de la Hoz stated: If Cuban music for dancers has reached new and very high qualitative heights from the 1960s to the present day, it is largely due to Formell's contributions.