RUBEN BLADES
Name: Ruben Blades Bellido de Luna
Born: 16 July 1948 Panama City, Panama
Ruben 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 cancion and
Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired
Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance music.
Blades has composed dozens of musical hits, the most famous of which is "Pedro
Navaja," a song about a neighborhood thug whose day to die has come, inspired by
"Mack the Knife." He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider
their second national anthem. The song is titled "Patria" (Motherland).
He remains wildly popular in Panama and much admired throughout Latin America,
and 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 Martin Torrijos. He holds law degrees from the
University of Panama and Harvard School of Law.
Blades is an Anglo-Saxon surname, but as with many other such 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' father Ruben 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 writer
and publisher in New York. Blades' paternal grandfather, 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).
In Blades' early days, he was a singer in Los Salvajes del Ritmo with fellow
university students, and also a songwriter and guest singer with a professional
Latin music conjunto Bush y sus Magnificos. His strongest influence of the day
was the Joe Cuba sextet and Cheo Feliciano, whose singing style he copied to the
point of imitating his voice tone and vocal range.
Blades earned degrees in political science and law at Panama's Universidad
Nacional and performed 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.
He 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
Colon, and they recorded several albums together and participated in albums by
plena singer Mon Rivera and the Fania All Stars.
Blades' first notable hit was a song on the 1977 album Metiendo Mano that he had
composed in 1968: "Pablo Pueblo," a meditation about a working-class father who
returns to his home after a long day at work. The song later became his
unofficial campaign song when he ran for president of Panama. The Colon and
Blades recording on the same album of Tite Curet Alonso's composition, "Plantacion
Adentro," which dealt with the brutal treatment of Indian natives in Latin
America's colonial times, was an enormous hit in various Caribbean countries. He
wrote and performed several songs with the Fania All Stars and as a guest on
other artists' releases, including the hits "Paula C," written about a
girlfriend at the time; "Juan Pachanga," about a party animal who buries his
pain for a lost love in dance and drink; and "Sin Tu Cariño," a love song,
featuring a bomba break. The latter two songs feature piano solos by Papo Lucca.
The Colon and Blades album Siembra (1978) became the best-selling salsa record
in history. It has sold over 25 million copies, and almost all of its songs were
hits at one time or another in various Latin American countries.
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.
In 1982, Blades got his first acting role in The Last Fight, portraying a singer-turned-boxer
vying for a championship against a fighter who was played by real-life world-champion
boxer Salvador Sanchez. In 1985, Blades gained widespread recognition as co-writer
and star of the independent film Crossover Dreams as a New York salsa singer
willing to do anything to break into the mainstream. Blades also began his
career in films as a composer of soundtracks.
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.
During the 1990s, he acted in films and continued to make records with Seis/Son
del Solar. In 1994 he mounted his unsuccessful presidential bid, founding the
party Movimiento Papa Egoro. The album that followed this experience was La Rosa
de los Vientos with songs by other Panamanian songwriters, using all Panamanian
musicians.
In 1997, Blades headed the cast of singer/songwriter Paul Simon's first Broadway
musical, The Capeman, based on a true story about a violent youth who becomes a
poet in prison, which also starred Marc Anthony and Ednita Nazario.
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.
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 and 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 Garcia Marquez 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 [Latin] 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 Panama's minister of tourism.
Beginning in June 2007, however, Blades turned some of his attention back to his
artistic career, presenting an "online tv show" titled Show de Ruben Blades (SDRB).
Name: Ruben Blades Bellido de Luna
Born: 16 July 1948 Panama City, Panama
Ruben 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 cancion and
Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired
Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance music.
Blades has composed dozens of musical hits, the most famous of which is "Pedro
Navaja," a song about a neighborhood thug whose day to die has come, inspired by
"Mack the Knife." He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider
their second national anthem. The song is titled "Patria" (Motherland).
He remains wildly popular in Panama and much admired throughout Latin America,
and 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 Martin Torrijos. He holds law degrees from the
University of Panama and Harvard School of Law.
Blades is an Anglo-Saxon surname, but as with many other such 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' father Ruben 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 writer
and publisher in New York. Blades' paternal grandfather, 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).
In Blades' early days, he was a singer in Los Salvajes del Ritmo with fellow
university students, and also a songwriter and guest singer with a professional
Latin music conjunto Bush y sus Magnificos. His strongest influence of the day
was the Joe Cuba sextet and Cheo Feliciano, whose singing style he copied to the
point of imitating his voice tone and vocal range.
Blades earned degrees in political science and law at Panama's Universidad
Nacional and performed 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.
He 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
Colon, and they recorded several albums together and participated in albums by
plena singer Mon Rivera and the Fania All Stars.
Blades' first notable hit was a song on the 1977 album Metiendo Mano that he had
composed in 1968: "Pablo Pueblo," a meditation about a working-class father who
returns to his home after a long day at work. The song later became his
unofficial campaign song when he ran for president of Panama. The Colon and
Blades recording on the same album of Tite Curet Alonso's composition, "Plantacion
Adentro," which dealt with the brutal treatment of Indian natives in Latin
America's colonial times, was an enormous hit in various Caribbean countries. He
wrote and performed several songs with the Fania All Stars and as a guest on
other artists' releases, including the hits "Paula C," written about a
girlfriend at the time; "Juan Pachanga," about a party animal who buries his
pain for a lost love in dance and drink; and "Sin Tu Cariño," a love song,
featuring a bomba break. The latter two songs feature piano solos by Papo Lucca.
The Colon and Blades album Siembra (1978) became the best-selling salsa record
in history. It has sold over 25 million copies, and almost all of its songs were
hits at one time or another in various Latin American countries.
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.
In 1982, Blades got his first acting role in The Last Fight, portraying a singer-turned-boxer
vying for a championship against a fighter who was played by real-life world-champion
boxer Salvador Sanchez. In 1985, Blades gained widespread recognition as co-writer
and star of the independent film Crossover Dreams as a New York salsa singer
willing to do anything to break into the mainstream. Blades also began his
career in films as a composer of soundtracks.
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.
During the 1990s, he acted in films and continued to make records with Seis/Son
del Solar. In 1994 he mounted his unsuccessful presidential bid, founding the
party Movimiento Papa Egoro. The album that followed this experience was La Rosa
de los Vientos with songs by other Panamanian songwriters, using all Panamanian
musicians.
In 1997, Blades headed the cast of singer/songwriter Paul Simon's first Broadway
musical, The Capeman, based on a true story about a violent youth who becomes a
poet in prison, which also starred Marc Anthony and Ednita Nazario.
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.
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 and 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 Garcia Marquez 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 [Latin] 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 Panama's minister of tourism.
Beginning in June 2007, however, Blades turned some of his attention back to his
artistic career, presenting an "online tv show" titled Show de Ruben Blades (SDRB).