[Mb-civic] CBC Arts - CUBAN SINGER IBRAHIM FERRER DIES

[CBC Arts]

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CUBAN SINGER IBRAHIM FERRER DIES
WebPosted Sat Aug  6 21:51:43 2005

---Ibrahim Ferrer, a Cuban singer who vaulted from obscurity to
international fame when he came out of retirement to perform in the Buena
Vista Social Club, has died.

Ferrer, who was 78, fell ill after returning from a month-long European
tour that took him to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Britain,
Holland, Austria, France and Spain.

He was admitted to a Havana hospital with gastroenteritis and died
Saturday of a heart attack, his wife, Caridad Diaz, told the AFP
news agency.

Ferrer, a wiry man in a trademark cap, was a master of the traditional
Cuban son and bolero styles.

By the early 1990s, however, he had been all but forgotten and was
augmenting his state pension by shining shoes when the U.S. musician Ry
Cooder recruited him.

Along with singer Compay Segundo, pianist Ruben Gonzalez and other
vintage Cuban musicians, Ferrer performed on Cooder's Buena Vista Social
Club album.

The album, which won a Grammy in 1997, became hugely popular and vaulted
the aging musicians into the international limelight.

Their fame grew when they appeared in the 1999 film of the same name by
German director Wim Wenders.

Ferrer released solo records in 1999 and 2003, racking up another Grammy
award and two Latin Grammies.

Ferrer was born during a social club dance in the eastern Cuban city
of Santiago on Feb. 20, 1927, after his mother unexpectedly went
into labour.

He started singing professionally at age 14 and by the 1950s, had won his
place with well-known Cuban bands.

In 1959, he joined the group of the legendary bandleader Pacho Alonso,
where he stayed for more than two decades while making guest appearances
with other stars such as vocalist Benny More.

In the early 1980s, Ferrer set aside his musical career, not taking it
up again until Cooder persuaded him out of retirement more than a
decade later.

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