Cruz, Celia

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CELIA CRUZ

Born: Havana, Cuba, 21 October 1924; died Fort Lee, New Jersey, 16 July 2003

Genre: Latin, Tropical, Salsa

Best-selling album since 1990: La Negra Tiene Tumbao (2001)

Hit songs since 1990: "La Vida Es un Carnaval," "La Negra Tiene Tumbao"

The undisputed Queen of Salsa entered the twenty-first century still active, exuberant, and on top of the charts. Known for her elaborate costumes, her trademark cry of "Azucar!" (sugar), and her improvisational skills, Celia Cruz influenced three generations of tropical music makers.

Cruz was born in the poor Santa Suarez barrio of Havana, the second oldest of four children. In 1947 Cruz left the teacher's school she was attending to concentrate on her singing career. She studied voice and theory at Cuba's Conservatory of Music from 1947 to 1950.

Her first shot at the big time came in August 1950, when she joined Cuba's legendary Sonora Matancera. Her fifteen-year association with the group would represent the first golden age of her career. The group headlined at the Tropicana nightclub and casino during Havana's final years as a tropical playground for the rich and famous.

Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba's 1959 revolution, and La Sonora Matancera defected to the United States on July 15, 1960, under the pretext of a tour. Cruz settled in New York City for good in 1962. A furious Castro did not let her return to Cuba to visit her ailing mother or attend her father's funeral. Cruz married Matancera trumpeter Pedro Knight on July 15, 1962. In 1965 Knight stepped down from the band to become her personal manager and musical director. Cruz also left La Sonora Matancera that year.

By the early 1970s, young Hispanics looking for identity and roots rediscovered the Afro-Cuban music their

parents listened to. Now dubbed "salsa," the music encompassed rhythms such as mambo, rumba, and guaguanco, and featured piano, a horn section, and a Cuban drum set with congas and timbales. The time was perfect for Cruz to bring her music to a new audience. In 1974 she teamed up with Johnny Pacheco for the landmark Celia and Johnny. The album went gold, and Cruz's second golden age had begun. She teamed up with Sonora Matancera one more time in 1982 for Feliz Encuentro. She was awarded a Grammy Award in 1989 for Con Ritmo En El Corazón, with conga player Ray Barreto. In the 1990s, she ventured into acting, playing nightclub owner Evalina Montoya in the movie The Mambo Kings (1992) and making a cameo in The Perez Family (1995).

Cruz entered the new millennium winning three straight Latin Grammys—2000 Best Salsa Performance for Celia Cruz and Friends: A Night of Salsa, 2001 Traditional Tropical Album for Siempre Viviré, and 2002 Best Salsa Album for La Negra Tiene Tumbao. But her biggest hit of the early 2000s, "La Vida Es un Carnaval," was not from any of those albums. Included on the album Mi Vida es Cantar (1998), it became a hit after being included in the soundtrack of the Mexican movie Amores Perros (2000). In keeping with the "carnaval" title, the song features bouncy samba trumpet blasts as Cruz delivers a message of maintaining defiant optimism in tough times. No one who listened to her weathered but powerful voice could doubt she had experienced, but overcome, her share of heartaches.

In 2001 actress Whoopi Goldberg announced her interest in producing and possibly starring in a Cruz biopic. TV talk show host Cristina Saralegui and husband Marcos Avila were developing the script. Cruz died in her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on 16 July 2003 from a brain tumor. She remained an innovative force in salsa music more than fifty years after beginning her career.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Cuba y Puerto Rico Son (Tico, 1966); Mi Vida Es Cantar (RMM, 1998); Siempre Viviré (Sony, 2000); La Negra Tiene Tumbao (Sony, 2001). Soundtrack: Amores Perros (Universal Latino, 2000).