To salsa fans around the world, Cuban-born singer Celia Cruz is one of a kind. In the course of her career, which by now has yielded more than 60 albums, she has been elevated to an icon status on par with...
[more]To salsa fans around the world, Cuban-born singer Celia Cruz is one of a kind. In the course of her career, which by now has yielded more than 60 albums, she has been elevated to an icon status on par with Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith, or Edith Piaf. After decades as the reigning queen of the Latin music scene, Celia Cruz is finally being accorded the crossover acclaim that most stars in her genre have never been awarded.
Sometime in the late '30s, Cruz was bullied into competing in a radio talent contest. Her winning performance was a turning point, causing Cruz to move her studies from a teachers' college to the Havana Conservatory of Music. Prior to her embrace of popular song idioms, she specialized in religious material. Cruz became the vocalist for the group La Sonora Matancera in 1950 and would remain in the group for the next 15 years, eventually defecting to live in the U.S during a Mexican tour with her bandmates. Though this move initially resulted in a loss of status in Cuba, she gained fame in America, recording the first of what would be 14 albums for the Tico label. Half of the albums were collaborations with the famed Mambo King, bandleader Tito Puente.
In the early '70s, Cruz was embraced by a new generation of salsa fans, who were wowed by her Carnegie Hall performance as Gracia Divina in bandleader Larry Harlow's Latin opera, "Hommy" (his salsafied send-up of the rock opera "Tommy"). She recorded for the Vaya label with Johnny Pacheco and his band; their first effort together, "Celia and Johnny," went gold. She then rejoined Tito Puente's band, embarking on a rigorous touring schedule that continues through the present day. Other noteworthy '70s recordings to feature Cruz's inimitable vocals include two volumes of "Live At Yankee Stadium" (with the Fania All-Stars) and Tito Puente's 1979 tribute to Cuban bandleader Beny Moré, "Homenaje a Beny."
In the '80s and '90s, artists from all genres have paid homage to the unstoppable power of the voice of Celia Cruz. Her duet with David Byrne ran during the opening sequence of director Jonathan Demme's film "Something Wild." Celia Cruz's discs are staple programming for salsa disc jockeys in English clubs. Her hand prints adorn Hollywood's Walk of Fame and she has received an honorary doctorate from Yale. She participated in Tito Puente's ambitious three-CD opus, "50 Years of Swing," in 1997 -- today, as an indefatigable stage presence, Celia Cruz continues to perform in concert with Puente's band.
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