Ruben Blades is a Panamanian-born singer and musician who has helped to revolutionise the salsa sound. Together with Willie COLÓON and others, he blended the movement called La Nueva Cauti\00F3;n (New Song) with salsa, producing a style that is both musically modern and politically aware. Blades’ willingness to mix politics with his music has earned him the nickname “the Latin Bruce SPRINGSTEEN.”
Blades was born in 1948 to a musical family: his mother was a well-known singer in Panama and his father was a conguero (conga player). The two had met while playing the club scene in Panama City. Blades grew up listening to the music of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Elvis PRESLEY, the Platters, and the BEATLES, as well as the Latin jazz of MACHITO and the local Afro-Cuban sounds.
As a young man, Blades began singing with local Afro-Cuban ensembles, achieving some success. He deferred his blossoming music career while he studied law at the University of Panama and passed the bar exams. After a short visit to New York City, the burgeoning capital of the salsa sound, Blades resurrected his musical dreams and by 1974 had taken up permanent residence in New York. There he worked at various odd jobs while making connections on the salsa scene. He was befriended by Fania Records’ Jerry Masuchi and Ray Barreto, a then popular salsa artist who now concentrates on Latin jazz. Blades has been involved in music ever since, except for a brief hiatus in 1984, when he completed a master’s degree in inter- national law at Harvard.
It was at Fania that Blades made his first recordings, originally with Barreto, then several in collaboration with Willie Col\00F3;on, with whom he played a major role in shaping La Nueva Caution. Colon was looking for something new after the departure of his singer Hector Lavoe, and he found it in the young, fiery, literate, and politically charged Blades. Ruben replaced the typical salsa “party” songs with visceral stories of love, life, and desperation in El Barrio (the term used for the Spanish-speaking ghetto neighbourhoods in America’s major cities). His lyrics tackled topics of social and political protest while denouncing injustice every-where and the deplorable conditions under which many Latino people live worldwide. Musically, Blades replaced or augmented the typical salsa horn-section with synthesizers, and also added a full drumset to the standard Afro-Cuban percussion of bongos, timbales, congas, and claves. Strains of jazz, doo-wop, and rock were integrated into Blades’ unique salsa mix.
Blades has made some 25 records to date, some with fellow salsa legends Ray Barreto and Willie Colon, and others as a solo artist leading his bands Seis del Solar or Son del Solar on the Fania, Elektra, and Sony record labels. A five-time Grammy nominee, Blades finally took home the award for the 1996 release “La Rosa de los Vientos,” in the category of Best Tropical Latin Recording.
Quintessential Blades works include Metieudo Mauo (1977) and the 1978 release Siembra, one of the biggest selling salsa albums of all time (both in collaboration with Willie Colón), as well as his solo ventures Ruben Blades y Son del Solar: Live!, Buscando America, Agua de Luna, and Antecedentes. His major cross-over successes involve recordings with such non-salsa artists as Joe Jackson, Lou Reed, and Elvis Costello.
Rubén Blades has also established himself as an actor, with appearances in several major films, on Broadway and on TV shows since his emigration to the U.S. Although he failed to win the office of President of Panama in 1994, Blades continues to pursue a career in politics, while remaining a major influence on the musical scene.
Gregg Juke
SEE ALSO:
DOO-WOP; JAZZ; LATIN JAZZ; ROCK MUSIC; SALSA.
Figueroa, Rafael. Salsa and Related Genres:
A Bibliographical Guide
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992).
Agua de Luna; Antécédentes; Buscando America;
Ruben Blades y Son del Solar. Live!;
with Willie Colon: Metiendo Manio; Siembra;
Tras la Tormenta.