Xavier Cugat (1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was an American bandleader from Catalonia, Spain who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba . A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music . He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman . In New York, his was the resident orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria before and after World War II . Entering the world of show business, he played with a band called The Gigolos during the tango craze . Later, he went to work for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist . Cugat's caricatures were later nationally syndicated . His older brother, Francis, was an artist of some note, having painted the famous cover art for F . Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby .[citation needed] For 16 years Cugat helmed the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel's Orchestra . He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next 30 years, alternating hotel and radio dates with movie appearances in You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Bathing Beauty (1944), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), On an Island with You (1948), and Neptune's Daughter (1949), among others .[citation needed] In 1940, his recording of "Perfidia" with singer Miguelito Valdés became a big hit . Cugat followed trends closely, making records for the conga, the mambo, the cha-cha-cha, and the twist when each was in fashion . Several of the songs he recorded, including "Perfidia", were used in the Wong Kar-wai films Days of Being Wild and 2046 . In 1943, "Brazil" was a big hit, reaching #17 in the Billboard Top 100 . He is referenced in The Ziegfeld Follies (1946) . When Keenan Wynn is asked to spell "Plaza," for the letter "Z" he says, "As in Xavier Cugat!" .