A tribute to Ibrahim Ferrer

The veteran Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer has died in a Havana hospital, aged 78.

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He was a master of the son and bolero styles, but was in obscurity when US guitarist Ry Cooder recruited him for the Buena Vista Social Club.



The 1997 record of the same name gave him an international reputation in his seventies, and led to numerous tours.

awww... what a huge loss to the music world... i had the privilege of watching him perform live in skopje, macedonia, last year with his traveling entourage of musicians, singers and dancers... besides being a sell-out and a fantastic show, every one of the performers was stellar, they went non-stop for well over 2 1/2 hours, and ibrahim himself, at the age of 77, was on stage for all but two sets... watching macedonians get down to salsa was an added treat in addition to watching them mob the stage getting ibrahim and the others to sign a cuban flag...

back story: in the former yugoslavia (macedonia was one of the 8 yugoslav republics), tito led the formation of the non-aligned nations group of which cuba was one and macedonians still feel a special affinity for cuba...

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