Freddy Fender (Born Baldemar Huerta)
June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006
Freddy Fender was arguably America’s most popular Tejano star – at least until Selena came along. Fender is best remembered for his crossover hits of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” as well as his later work with Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. Born into a traveling circus family, Fender took to entertaining at a very young age. At 5, he fashioned his first guitar out of a sardine can and screen door wire, and by 10 he was making his first appearances at local radio stations. In the mid ’50s, after being court martialed and discharged from the Marines, Fender began touring as El Bebop Kid, doing Spanish versions of popular rockabilly and country songs. In 1959, he recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” which quickly became his signature song. Unfortunately, just as his fame was on the rise, he was arrested for marijuana possession and sent to the notorious Angola prison farm in Louisiana. He was released three years later and all but retired from music while working as a mechanic. When Fender made his comeback in 1973, he did so in a big way, with “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” reaching #1 on both the country and pop charts. Over the next decade Fender charted 21 country hits. His career experienced yet another comeback when, in the late ‘8os he joined up with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jiminez and Augie Meyers in the Texas Tornados, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Mexican American Performance. He followed that up with a stint in Los Super Seven, who along with Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo, Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos and Rick Trevino, won the same Grammy nine years later. He won his third Grammy in 2001, this time for his own album, La Musica de Baldemar Huerta. In ailing health in later years, Fender received a kidney transplant from his daughter in 2002, and a liver transplant in 2004. He died of lung cancer on October 14, 2006 at the age of 69.
Luis Aguile (Born Luis Picca)
February 24, 1936 – October 10, 2009
Luis Aguile was an Argentine singer and songwriter who is best remembered for his international hit, “Cuando Seli de Cuba.” With some 400 songs to his credit, Aguile established himself as one of the premier performers in Latin America. In 1990, he wrote and recorded the team anthem for Monterrey’s national soccer team. It is one of the most popular sports anthems in the world. Luis Aguile died of stomach cancer at the age of 73.
Roberto Arciniega, was a a marketing director for Latin label, Fonovisa Records for many years. Throughout his career he worked on projects by such artists as Los Temerarios, Los Tigres del Norte, and Marco Antonio Soli. He passed away in his home at the age of 58. Cause of death is unknown.
Angel Tavira was a beloved Mexican violinist who lost his right hand to an exploding firecracker when he as a child. But he had been playing the saxophone, guitar, bass and violin, learning by ear. Even after the accident, Tavira continued on with the violin. He was also an acclaimed composer of son calentano, a traditional form of music from the state of Guerrero. When Tavira was 81, was cast as a farmer musician in the Felix Salgado Mendocino film, El Violin. A year later, he won the Best Actor award at Cannes even though he had never had any formal training. Angel Tavira died of kidney problems in 2008.
Along with his brothers, Ricardo Abreu formed Los Papines, a popular Cubun band over 45 years ago. The band was somewhat unique in that it was just vocals and percussion. The band has been very influential to countless Afro-Cuban musicians that have come since. They have been named a National Cultural Heritage of Cuba. Abreu died of a stroke at the age of 75.
Mari Trini (Born María Trinidad Pérez de Miravete Mille)
July 12, 1947 – April 6, 2009
Mari Trini was a Spanish singer-songwriter who had a string of hits during the ’70s and ’80s. In all, she recorded twenty five albums during her career, her most popular being Escuchame, which featured “Yo No Soy Esa,” a favorite among her Spanish language fans. Trini passed away in a hospital at the age of 61. Cause of death has not been released.
Selena Quintanilla-Perez
April 16, 1971 – March 21, 1995
SelenaQuintanilla was a Texas-born Tejano star who was quickly becoming a worldwide superstar when her life was tragically cut short. Known simply as Selena, she began building a following within the Spanish speaking community in and around the Houston area in the mid ’80s and by 1987, she was at the top of her field when she won Best Female Vocalist at the Tejano Music Awards which she would continue to rule over the next several years. Signed to EMI Records in the States, Selena was soon being groomed to cross over much the same way Gloria Estefan had before her. By the early ’90s, Selena was approaching superstar status, designing her own clothing line, opening boutiques in Texas and appearing in Spanish novellas and alongside Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway and Marlon Brando in Don Juan DeMarco. In 1994, her Amor Prohibido was nominated for a Grammy, and she began work on an English language album. And by 1995, she was drawing upwards of 65,000 to her concerts in Texas. Around this time, her family discovered that Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club and manager of one of her clothing stores was embezzling from the company. After being fired, Saldivar agreed to meet Selena at her hotel in Corpus Christi to return some financial paperwork. Instead, Saldivar shot Selena in the back as she was exiting the room. She died later that day.
Ralph Mercado, a promoter who took his passion for Latin music and built an empire around it, not only staging concerts but creating a recording and publishing label, a film and video company, and nightclubs and restaurants, died on Tuesday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 67. The cause was cancer, said Blanca Lasalle, a spokeswoman, who gave no other details. Mr. Mercado managed stars like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz, and discovered and helped shape the careers of others like Marc Anthony and La India. He organized concerts of salsa music — that lively hybrid of Cuban rhythms, big bands and American harmonies — in large halls like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. His RMM label recorded more than 130 artists in genres including salsa, Latin jazz, Latin rock and merengue. “Artists are on the map because of his label,” Eddie Palmieri the Latin jazz and salsa pianist, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “He took us to Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall.” Mr. Mercado helped inject new energy into salsa with powerful percussion and brass lines as he took advantage of the surging population and purchasing power of Latinos. He promoted blending the music with other influences, including Brazilian and African. He expanded internationally, and even brought an 11-member native-Japanese salsa band to the United States. Mr. Mercado was routinely called the largest promoter of salsa music. He was compared to Norman Granz or George Wein in jazz, or Berry Gordy in soul and R&B. Billboard in 1991 called him “the entrepreneur who took salsa from New York to the world.” Ralph Mercado Jr. was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 29, 1941. His father was a Dominican dockworker and his mother a Puerto Rican factory worker. Mr. Mercado told The Boston Globe in 1998 that he learned to dance the merengue, which comes from the Dominican Republic, in the hallway of the family’s fifth-floor walkup as soon as he could walk. As a young teenager he went to the Palladium nightclub in Manhattan to hear his first live concert, the Machito Orchestra. He was “completely blown away,” he told The Globe, adding, “I came out of there knowing I had to be involved in this music somehow, personally involved.” But he couldn’t sing or play an instrument. Then he remembered he was good with numbers. He and some friends started a social club and began booking live music in the basements of apartment buildings for what they called “waistline parties,” in which a couple’s admission fee was based on the size of the woman’s waist. (The smaller, the cheaper.) The parties attracted thousands. Mr. Mercado stood at the door with a tape measure. Sometimes going beyond salsa, he was soon putting together concerts with big acts like James Brown. But he began losing money in concert promotion and turned to managing individual performers. By the 1970s Forbes magazine said that Mr. Mercado was the nation’s biggest salsa manager. When the music sagged a bit in the 1980s, he lent money to money-losing club owners. Mr. Mercado started RMM Records in 1987. He sold it to the Universal and Music and Video Distribution Corporation in 2001 after he lost a copyright-infringement suit and fell into financial straits. He then threw himself into the business of producing Latin music events around the world. – Douglas Martin (New York Times)
Freddy Fender was arguably America’s most popular Tejano star – at least until Selena came along. Fender is best remembered for his crossover hits of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” as well as his later work with Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. Born into a traveling circus family, Fender took to entertaining at a very young age. At 5, he fashioned his first guitar out of a sardine can and screen door wire, and by 10 he was making his first appearances at local radio stations. In the mid ’50s, after being court martialed and discharged from the Marines, Fender began touring as El Bebop Kid, doing Spanish versions of popular rockabilly and country songs. In 1959, he recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” which quickly became his signature song. Unfortunately, just as his fame was on the rise, he was arrested for marijuana possession and sent to the notorious Angola prison farm in Louisiana. He was released three years later and all but retired from music while working as a mechanic. When Fender made his comeback in 1973, he did so in a big way, with “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” reaching #1 on both the country and pop charts. Over the next decade Fender charted 21 country hits. His career experienced yet another comeback when, in the late ‘8os he joined up with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jiminez and Augie Meyers in the Texas Tornados, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Mexican American Performance. He followed that up with a stint in Los Super Seven, who along with Cesar Rosas, David Hidalgo, Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos and Rick Trevino, won the same Grammy nine years later. He won his third Grammy in 2001, this time for his own album, La Musica de Baldemar Huerta. In ailing health in later years, Fender received a kidney transplant from his daughter in 2002, and a liver transplant in 2004. He died of lung cancer on October 14, 2006 at the age of 69.
Luis Aguile was an Argentine singer and songwriter who is best remembered for his international hit, “Cuando Seli de Cuba.” With some 400 songs to his credit, Aguile established himself as one of the premier performers in Latin America. In 1990, he wrote and recorded the team anthem for Monterrey’s national soccer team. It is one of the most popular sports anthems in the world. Luis Aguile died of stomach cancer at the age of 73.
