by Antonio Mejías-rentas
Francisco Aguabella
MASTER CONGUERO: Francisco Aguabella, a veteran Cuban percussionist who appeared and recorded with some of the top Latin jazz and jazz musicians, has died. He was 84.
Aguabella died May 7 in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. The Matanzas-born musician left Cuba in the 1950s and became an international star when he performed with Katherine Dunhamin the 1957 movie Mambo. He later joined the dancer on a world tour. Recording sessions with artists ranging from Mongo Santamaría and Dizzy Gillespie to Peggy Lee and The Doors often took him to Los Angeles, where he settled and taught Afro Cuban drumming at UCLA. In 1992, Aguabella received a national heritage fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Also, Peruvian singer Luis Barrios, known for his performance of the Latin American bolero, has died at 75. Known outside of Perúas Lucho Barrios, he recorded 150 albums and 1,000 songs.
ONE LINERS: Pablo Picasso’s oil painting Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold at auction for $106.5 million, setting a record for an artwork… Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar confirmed he will reunite with actor Antonio Banderas for his next movie… and 38-yearold Mexican singer Paulina Rubio posted a message on Twitter announcing she is pregnant with what will be her first child.
COMING FROM CUBA: Two of the most iconic and best loved living Cuban artists, including one who has not been in the United Statesin more than 30 years, are visiting this country next month. Concerts on a tour by folk singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez will include a June 4 appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall as well as dates in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.
Rodríguez, a founder of Cuba’s socially and politically inclined Nueva Trova songwriting movement, is as well known for the poetic beauty of songs such as Unicornio and Ojalá as for his staunch support of the Castro regime. While Rodríguez hasn’t toured the United States since 1979, he is part of a wave of artists from Cuba taking advantage of an increase of cultural exchanges under the Obama administration.
He had been expected to perform in a New York tribute to folk
singer Pete Seeger last year but wasn’t able to obtain a U.S. visa in time. A San Francisco lawyer negotiating visas for a number of Cuban acts says he expects Rodríguez’s visa to be delivered in time for the summer tour
Also traveling to New York next month is prima ballerina Alicia
Alonso, returning to the city’s American Ballet Theater, where shegot her start 70 years ago, for an early 90th birthday celebration.
The Ballet Nacional de Cuba confirmed that its legendary director has already received a visa to attend a June 3 performance of Don Quixote that is part of the ABT’s 70th anniversary commemoration.
Alonso began dancing in the United States, joining the American Ballet Caravan in 1937 and becoming part of the company four years later. She returned briefly to Cuba but rejoined the U.S. company in 1943. She was promoted to principal dancer three years after that. Hispanic Link.
