Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a Cuban singer who played with Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in 1991, he was brought back in the studio to record with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and

Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the gr ...

in March 1996. He then toured internationally with these revival groups and recorded several solo albums for World Circuit before his death in 2005.

Early life

Ferrer was born at a dance club in San Luis, near the city of

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

. His mother died when he was 12, leaving him orphaned and forcing him to sing on the streets ( busk) to earn money. The following year, Ferrer joined his first ever musical group—a duet with his cousin—called Jovenes del

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

( es, Youths of Rhythm). They performed at private functions and the two youths managed to scrape together enough money to live.

Career

Over the next few years, Ferrer would perform with many musical groups, including Conjunto Sorpresa and Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental. As lead singer of the latter, Ferrer recorded in 1956 his biggest hit: "El platanal de Bartolo". In 1961, he also sang lead for Mario Patterson y su Orquesta Oriental on "Cariño falso", a

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

of the

guaracha The guaracha () is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical thea ...

repertoire.

Los Bocucos

In 1953, Ferrer began performing with Pacho Alonso's group in Santiago, Cuba. In 1959, the group moved permanently to

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, renaming themselves Los Bocucos, after a type of

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

widely used in Santiago, the '' bocú''. With Alonso, Ferrer primarily performed sones, guarachas and other up-tempo songs. However, he yearned to sing

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

s. Ferrer remained a member of Los Bocucos until his retirement in 1991. Starting in 1967, Los Bocucos became an independent group, since Pacho Alonso started a new band, Los Pachucos. Since then, Ferrer began to sing lead more often, instead of performing as a backing singer. The group released several LPs in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1998, Cuban label

EGREM EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales, Spanish for ''Enterprise of Recordings and Musical Editions'') is the national record label of Cuba. It is headquartered in Centro Habana, where its main record studios (''Estudios Areito'' 101 ...

released on CD ''Tierra caliente'', a compilation of tracks recorded by Los Bocucos between 1970 and 1988, featuring Ferrer as lead singer. The songs were directed and arranged by Roberto Correra, the group's lead trumpeter.

Career revival

In 1996, Ferrer took part in Nick Gold's World Circuit sessions, when it was announced that an old-style bolero singer would be required. He first participated in the recording of the album ''

A Toda Cuba le Gusta ''A Toda Cuba le Gusta'' is the first studio album by the Afro-Cuban All Stars, produced by Cuban bandleader and musician Juan de Marcos González and Nick Gold, and released on April 9, 1997 on World Circuit Records. This album was the first ...

'' with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. This project was immediately followed by the recording of

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

winning ''

'' album, which showcased Ferrer's talent as a bolero singer and made him widely known outside Cuba. In 1999, Ry Cooder recorded Ferrer's first solo album. In 2000, Ferrer, at the age of 72, received a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

. In 2001, he appeared on the track "Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?)" on the self-titled debut album of virtual band

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...

. Following Ferrer's death, Gorillaz played the song live as a tribute to him at concerts in 2005 and 2006, and again in 2018. In 2004, Ferrer won a Grammy, but was denied permission by the U.S. government to enter the U.S. to receive his award" as a result of extremely restrictive visa laws enacted in the wake of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. Ferrer released his second solo recording, ''Buenos Hermanos'', in 2003 and continued touring in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

into 2005. Ferrer's contributed in 2005 to the APE Vision

Artists Project Earth Artists' Project Earth is a UK registered charity which recruits internationally known musicians and artists through albums, concerts, art exhibitions and art related projects to raise awareness of climate change and funds for campaigns and disa ...

album

Rhythms Del Mundo ''Rhythms del Mundo'' is a nonprofit collaborative album, which fuses an all-star cast of Cuban musicians including Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club with tracks from US, UK and Irish artists such as Dido, Arctic Mon ...

: Cuba, a collaboration with artists Coldplay, U2, Sting, Dido, Faithless, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5 and others. Ferrer's last recording was ''Mi sueño'', an album devoted to the bolero. It was released posthumously in 2006. Ferrer was posthumously featured in the Gorillaz documentary films '' Bananaz'' and ''Reject False Icons'' in 2008 and 2019, respectively.

Death

Ibrahim Ferrer died at age 78 of

multiple organ failure Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis. Although Irwin and Rippe cautioned in 2005 that the use of "multiple organ failure" or "multisy ...

on August 6, 2005, at CIMEQ hospital in Havana, Cuba after returning from a European tour. He was buried in the Colón Cemetery, Havana.

Personal life

Ferrer was an adherent of the

Santería Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between the tradit ...

faith, a blending of traditional

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n religions and

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Salsón'' (Siboney, 1982) - Ibrahim Ferrer & Conjunto Los Bocucos * ''

'' (World Circuit, 1997) * ''

'' (World Circuit/Nonesuch Records, 1997) * ''

Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer ''Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer'' is the first studio album by Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer. It was released on June 8, 1999, through World Circuit, and was one of the top ten selling Latin albums in the US in that year. Record ...

'' (World Circuit, 1999) * ''Buenos Hermanos'' (World Circuit/Nonesuch Records, 2003) * ''Mi Sueño'' (World Circuit, 2007) * ''

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall ''Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall'' is a live album by Buena Vista Social Club. The double album documents the band's complete performance at Carnegie Hall, New York City, on July 1, 1998. The album was produced by guitarist Ry Cooder an ...

'' (World Circuit, 2008)

Compilations

* ''Mi Oriente'' (Tumbao Cuban Classics, 1999) - Recorded 1956-1961 * ''Tierra Caliente - Ibrahim Ferrer con Los Bocucos'' (EGREM, 2000) * ''Mis tiempos con Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental'' (EGREM, 2002) * ''La Colección Cubana'' (Nascente, 2002) - Recorded 1960s-1970s * ''¡Qué Bueno Está!'' (Blue Moon, 2004) - Recorded 1960-1961 * ''Ay, Candela'' (Escondida, 2005) - Recorded 1960-1988 * ''

'' (2006) * ''Chepin Y Su Orquesta Oriental - Con: Ibrahim Ferrer'' (Perlas Cubanas, 2014) * ''

Lost and Found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...

'' (World Circuit/Nonesuch Records, 2015)

Singles

* "Silencio" (1999) * "Buenos hermanos" (2003) * "Boliviana" (2003) * "El dandy" (2004) * "Copla guajira" (2006)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrer, Ibrahim 1927 births 2005 deaths Buena Vista Social Club 20th-century Cuban male singers Son cubano singers Cuban people of Catalan descent Cuban Santeríans Deaths from multiple organ failure Grammy Award winners Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist People from Santiago de Cuba Province World Circuit (record label) artists