Ruben Blades
...led to New York on $20, his brother who worked with an airline helped him out with the ticket. On this first visit to New York City he contacted Pancho Cristal a producer who heard him sing in Panama and he proposed Ruben a recording gig. Ruben was happy to accept and that's how his recording career began. In 1970, he traveled to New York to record “De Panama A Nuevo York” with the band of star Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez. When Ruben went back to Panama he found the political situation uptight, intense, and a very sensitive issue; still, he decided he was going to finish law school no matter what. In 1973 he was about to graduate but his father, then with the Detectives State Corps, faced a very bad situation where general Noriega, then responsible for the Secret Police, accused a group of Panamanians of trying to assassinate General Omar Torrijos. His father was not directly accused, but his relationship with some of those accused forced the family to flee the country in order to avoid vengeance against them. It also prevented them from having to be involved in the dark schemes Noriega had with the CIA. Even thought he faced many problems, Ruben Blades remained in the country until he managed to get his law degree, this was a goal he had to accomplish and follow through with. Once he had his title as a lawyer in his own country and given the impacts his father's political problems could have had on his career he had to worry about that and the perspective of being a lawyer under a dictatorship on the other hand. Ruben Blades options were to join the group which kept the dictatorial policies of the country, which he was totally against, or to leave for Miami with his family, which was what he did in time. When Ruben Blades finally made it to Miami, there were no obstacles in his way to set off what would be a great music career. Ruben didn’t last to long in Miami though, he shortly after moved to New York in search of opportunity. New York indeed was the place to be for the “Salsa Scene.” His first job in New York was organizing and carrying the mail for Fania Records. This recording company was “the” place for the “elite” salsa musicians. Even though his job was set away from the music side, the connection was there. Ruben had contact with some important individuals of the musical scene in New York, which was very vital for him to get involved with it. Now Ruben was going at it, with keeping in touch with these people and just sticking to it, then his big break finally came through. Ray Barreto was looking for someone to replace the lead vocal in his band. Someone told Ray about Ruben, and how they heard him sing in Panama, and that he might be the man he was looking for. Ray then set up an audition for Ruben to hear this awesome voice he was hearing so much of. The audition went very well and Ruben then quit his Fania job and joined Barreto’s group immediately. This big break was the start of Ruben’s great career as a professional musician. When Barretto left to form a fusion concert band, Blades stayed with his former musicians renamed Guarare for a short while, as well as appearing on the Barretto Live: Tomorrow, the debut set by Barretto's new band. He composed and sang lead vocals on Willie Colón's hit track "El Cazangero", featured on his 1975 set The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. The song won him the Composer Of The Year award in the 1976 Latin NY magazine poll. Blades supplied songs for a number of bands and artists during the 70s, including Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz, Ismael Miranda, Bobby Rodriguez Y La Compańia, Cheo Feliciano, Conjunto Candela, Tito Rodríguez II, Tito Puente, Roberto Roena, Tito Gomez, Hector Lavoe and Pete "El Conde' Rodriguez. Twelve original recordings of his compositions by other artists were collected on 1981"s Interpretan A Ruben Blades. In 1976 he joined the Fania All Stars, making his debut with them on that year's Tribute To Tito Rodriguez. He continued as a member until 1980. Three years earlier, he sang lead and chorus on Larry Harlow's acclaimed salsa suite La Raza Latina. In 1976 Ruben had solved his inevitable immigration problems, he then became the vocalist replacement of Hector Lavoe, one of the greatest salsero’s of all time, who had left the Willie Colon band. Together both the bandleader and Ruben started what eventually would represent the most important change Caribbean music has experienced in all its history. History indeed was going to be made. You see, Ruben Blades was a writer and a singer, this was a powerful combination. Not only was Ruben all these things, he also integrated his political side and created a new sound to salsa. On his first LP with Colón, "Metiendo Mano", two of Ruben Blades songs "Plantación" and "Pablo Pueblo" stood out and had a tremendous impact amongst salsa fans as well as with the musicians who interpreted them. The following record, "Siembra", expands on the musical and social vision of Ruben Blades. The impacts of the song "Pedro Navaja" topped all records a song of its style ever achieved, turning into one of the most representative themes of Latin American music of all time. The LP sold more than a million copies and was first place on all the Spanish speaking countries charts and also those of the United States. This LP reached gold and platinum in most of its distribution locations. "Pedro Navaja" opened salsa to a world which didn’t understand or like what salsa originally was. People didn't like salsa because they thought of it as low projec...