Rubén Rada

Omar Rubén Rada Silva ( * July 16 (according to other sources on July 17 ), 1943 in Palermo, Montevideo, Uruguay) is an Uruguayan singer, percussionist, composer and actor. He is regarded since the late 1960s as one of the most influential musicians of his country and as a symbol of Afro-Uruguayan minority and their culture. His music blended especially the traditional Afro-Uruguayan Candombe music style with indigenous music, various other styles of Latin American music and Western music genres like jazz, rock and funk.

Youth and early career

Rada grew up in the Palermo district of the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, where he came into contact with the music of the Uruguayan carnival, candombe and the Murgas. In addition to working as a singer in the group Murga his uncle, for which he received an award as the age of twelve "discovery of the carnival ," he made in the early 1960s as a teenager, first experience in the professional music business. Through as the frontman and singer of the Dixieland band Los Hot Blowers, which released a total of three EPs and an extensive tour - first as a singer in the orchestra of salsa and candombe musician Pedro Ferreira, then 17 years old - under the pseudonym "Richie Silver" Chile undertook. Other band members included the young Federico García Vigil and the brothers Osvaldo and Hugo Fattoruso that a short time later as Los Shakers were important representatives of the sloshing to South America beat wave. His album Richie Silver from 2006 is a tribute to the music of the period, in the Rada was heavily influenced by the music of Little Richard and by means of phonetics tried to sing in English to his former idols in the field of rock and roll and Rhythm and Blues come close. The album includes as bonus tracks the old original recordings of the songs " Angélica " and "Mil Carinos " Hot Blowers.

El Kinto and Totem

Shortly thereafter, however Rada developed his own musical style. He reached first major notoriety the mid-1960s as a singer and percussionist of the band El Kinto Conjunto (later to El Kinto shortened ) in which he developed together with Eduardo Mateo and other band members the traditional Candombe music in experimental form to a style of music that later Candombe Beat or Candombe was called rock. They justified this style of music by first playing Candombe with electric instruments and supplemented by influences of beat music, the psychedelic rock music, bossa nova, and other genres. In contrast to many other - mostly beat -influenced - Uruguayan bands of this time, the members of El Kinto sang exclusively in Spanish. The band won in Uruguay fast gaining in popularity; numerous television and festival and club gigs followed.

In 1971, Rada, et al with the former El Kinto members Mario " Chichito " Cabral and Daniel " Lobito " Lagarde, the band totem. This band introduced the idea of Candombe Rocks further and thus generated attention to the musical legacy of Afro-Uruguayan minority. All three albums of this band were first published in the local De la Planta label, which also published the influential solo debut Eduardo Mateos and LP Musicación 4 of El Kinto.

Solo career and band projects

Also Rubén Rada's long career as a solo artist is characterized by the blending of different musical influences. Although Rada had received in 1969 a solo LP called Los manzanas for Sondor label, he became known as a solo artist until the exile into which he by the military coup of 1973 - was pushed - like many other Uruguayan musician. His stay in the USA in 1977-78 led him among other things, with Ray Barretto, Flora Purim, Tom Scott and Hermeto Pascoal together. In addition, he there founded the Fattoruso brothers, with whom he had worked at the Hot Blowers early 60s, the jazz - fusion band OPA, before returning late 70s to South America, where he and regularly between Buenos Aires Montevideo commuted. As a result, he published several albums, including at Universal and EMI, Gold or Platinum status achieved in Argentina and Uruguay. In recordings, he worked with various international artists, such as Hiram Bullock, Anton Fig, Joan Manuel Serrat and Jon Anderson. Songs from his pen have been covered, among others, Milton Nascimento and Herb Alpert.

Rada has repeatedly won the Premio Gardel, the most important Argentine music prize awarded. In July, 2011, the Latin Recording Academy officially announced that Rubén Rada will be honored on November 9, 2011 in Las Vegas with a Latin Grammy for lifetime achievement.

Other activities

Rada took over since the 1960s minor roles in movies and TV series. He was part of the ensemble of the comedy show Telecataplúm. In addition, he directed various television and radio broadcasts. In 2004, he lent his voice as the voice actor of the character Lucius Best / Frozone in the Argentine version of the animated film The Incredibles - The Incredibles. A major role he played in 2007 in the Uruguayan sitcom " La oveja negra " ( "The Black Sheep" ).

Discography (selection)

El Kinto

• Musicación 4 ( De la Planta, 1971)
• Circa 1968 (1978)

With dead

• Totem ( De la Planta, 1971)
• Descarga ( De la Planta, 1972)
• Corrupción ( De la Planta, 1973)

Rubén Rada

• Las manzanas ( Sondor, 1969)
• Camerata Punta del Este ( Sondor, 1975)
• Radeces ( Ayui, 1975)
• Botija de mi país ( Sondor, 1987)
• Montevideo ( Big World, 1996)
• Montevideo Dos ( Big World, 1999)
• ¿ Quién va a cantar? (Universal, 2000)
• Alegre Caballero ( Zapatito, 2003)
• Candombe Jazz Tour (EMI, 2005)
• Richie Silver ( EMI, 2006)
• Bailongo (S -Music, 2008)
• Fan (MMG, 2009)
• Confidence - Rada Instrumental (MMG, 2011)
• El negro album, 50 obras maestras, 3CDs set (MMG, 2011)