Narrative / Team 4This is a featured page


Narrative / Team 4 - Inglés Instrumental II Celia Cruz, Biography

Born Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alonso, 21 October 1924, Santa Suarez district, Havana, Cuba, died 16 July 2003, New Jersey, USA. Described as the "Queen of Salsa" - just one of her several superlative epithets - Cruz will be remembered as the most influential female in the history of Afro-Cuban music. Her family and neighbours became aware of the young Celia's singing ability from listening to her croon lullabies to her younger relatives. Her 1983 biography refers to 1947 as the year when this contest occurred, but the sleeve notes to two of her early albums, Canta RPM (RPM Sings) and Cuba's Queen Of Rhythm, mention 1935. Celia concluded her teacher training and did some classes at Havana's National Conservatory of Music. She eventually switched to singing full-time when a trusted teacher advised her that she would be foolish to do otherwise. On 3 August 1950, Cruz replaced Myrta Silva, who had returned to her native Puerto Rico, as lead vocalist of Sonora Matancera on their weekly show on Radio Progreso. She made her first appearance in New York at the old St. Nicholas Arena in 1957. After finishing with Sonora Matancera in 1965, Cruz switched to Tico Records - then a division of Morris Levy's Roulette Records - and released a series of 12 albums (excluding compilations) between 1966 and 1972, including seven in partnership with Tito Puente and four recorded in Mexico with the band of Memo Salamanca. Cruz was touring in Mexico in 1973 when it was decided that she would sing the part of Gracia Divina on Larry Harlow's Latin opera album Hommy on Fania, a version of the Who's Tommy. Cruz's outstanding performance at the all-star Carnegie Hall presentation of Hommy on 29 March 1973 served to re-launch her career and connect her with a new, younger audience. Her new-found popularity was consolidated the following year. She joined a reunion of 13 former lead singers of Sonora Matancera for a series of three concerts by the band in June 1989 in celebration of their 65th anniversary and was commemorated by a double album release. Cruz signed to the RMM label in 1989, and the following year licensed her product for release in Spain on the newly formed BAT label. Azucar Negra gave Cruz her first gold record on the Spanish charts, and she spent the rest of the 90s establishing her presence in an important market. During a decade which saw the assimilation of Latin music into the US mainstream, Cruz was garlanded with several important titles, not least of which was 1995's Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award. At the end of the decade she signed to Sony, debuting for the label in 2000 with Siempre Vivir The "Queen of Salsa" died three years later at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

http://www.biggeststars.com/c/celia-cruz-biography.html

See Text Analysis




ComponenteDocente
ComponenteDocente 		Latest page update: made by ComponenteDocente , Jul 9 2007, 4:50 PM EDT (about this update About This Update ComponenteDocente Edited by ComponenteDocente

1 word deleted

view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags: None
More Info: links to this page

Threads for this page

Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
lamaslinda Lilia Garcia 0 Jun 28 2007, 5:22 PM EDT by lamaslinda
Thread started: Jun 28 2007, 5:22 PM EDT  Watch
Me parece excelente el video de Celia Cruz. Al igual el contraste de las letras en la entrada de los textos me gusto mucho..
Do you find this valuable?    
Keyword tags: None
Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page