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| Birth Name(s) : Ruben Blades |
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Full Ruben Blades Biography
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948) is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres. As songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova to salsa, creating thinking persons' dance music.
He remains wildly popular in Panama and much admired throughout Latin America, and he managed to attract 18% of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos. He holds law degrees from the University of Panama and Harvard School of Law.
Blades is an anglosaxon surname, but as many other names the mispronunciation in Spanish became widely used. His surname is either pronounced in its original English form or using Spanish phonemes; his family uses the English pronunciation.
Blades's father Rubén was a percussionist-turned-detective and his mother Anoland was a singer and pianist. Her great-uncle Juan Bellido de Luna was active in the Cuban revolutionary movement against Spain and was later a pro-US writer and publisher in NY. Blades' father's father, Reuben Blades, was an English-speaking native of St. Lucia who came to work on the Panama Canal, as he tells in the song West Indian Man on the album Amor y Control ("That's where the Blades comes from.") (1992)
Blades earned degrees in political science and law at Panama's Universidad Nacional, performing legal work at the Bank of Panama as a law student. Upon his graduation in 1974, Blades moved to the United States, staying temporarily with his exiled parents in Miami before moving to New York City.
Blades began his formal musical career in New York writing songs while working in the mailroom at Fania Records, perceived as a talented songwriter who still had to develop a singing style of his own. The proverbial mailroom job was a good opportunity to stay close to the company until the right opportunity came along. Soon Blades was working with salseros Ray Barretto and Larry Harlow. Shortly thereafter Blades started collaborating with trombonist and band leader Willie Colón, and they recorded several albums together, and participated in albums by plena singer Mon Rivera and the Fania All Stars.
Blades became dissatisfied with Fania and tried to terminate his contract, but was contractually obliged to record several more albums. With the exception of Maestra Vida, which could be considered the first Latin American opera, and its follow-up Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos, these are forgettable. In 1984 Blades signed with Elektra, and assembled a top-notch band (known variously as Seis Del Solar or Son Del Solar) and recorded a number of albums with them including the Grammy winning albums "Escenas" and "Antecedente." Fania continued to release recordings compiled from their archives for some years afterwards.
Also in 1985 he earned a master's degree in International Law from Harvard University School of Law. He was also the subject of Robert Mugge's documentary The Return of Ruben Blades, which debuted at that year's Denver Film Festival.
His many film appearances include The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Two Jakes (1990), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Color of Night (1994), and Devil's Own (1997). In 1999, he played Mexican artist Diego Rivera in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. In the 2003 film Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas, and Willem Dafoe, he played the role of a retired FBI agent.Performing in New Haven CT in 2002.
Blades' 1999 album Tiempos which he recorded with musicians from the Costa Rican groups Editus and Sexteto de Jazz Latino, represented a break from his salsa past and a further rejection of commercial trends in Latin music. Ironically, the album won a Grammy in the Latin Pop category. Even more eclectic was the 2002 album Mundo with the 11-member Editus Ensemble with bagpiper Eric Rigler.
It has been said that releasing an English-language album in 1988 was a mistake, but in fact, he tends to avoid commercial choices and ignore conventional wisdom. After winning his first Grammy for Escenas in 1986 he recorded the album Agua de Luna based on the short stories of Gabriel García Márquez in 1987. The next year he released the English language collaboration with rock artists Sting, Elvis Costello, and Lou Reed the same year as Antecedente, another Grammy winner. In 2003 he followed the World Music Grammy and Latin Grammy winner Mundo with a web site free download project. As he said in 2005 when receiving the ASCAP Founders Award about his non-commercial choices, "That's the way I think."
Blades is the personification, or at least the American version, of the Renaissance man, and has continually strived to sharpen his skills (which are considerable), and to keep on the cutting edge of music. He has recorded with numerous up-and-coming younger artists in both supportive and feature roles.
In 2004 he put his artistic careers on hold when he began serving a five year appointment as Minister of Tourism of Panama. |
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