Blades Over Broadway
Salsa superstar set for Great White Way debut

NY Daily News, October 14, 1997

Ruben Blades was talking the other day about going from a record company mailroom clerk to star of a Broadway musical . .. . . with a few stops in between to become the biggest salsa star of all time, a crossover Hollywood film star who was nominated for two Emmys, a Harvard Law School graduate and a candidate for the presidency of Panama.

This December, Blades will appear in the title role of Salvador Agron in the much-anticipated Paul Simon Broadway musical "The Capeman," based on the life of a 16-year-old Puerto Rican gang member who in 1959 was sentenced to death for the murder of two teenage boys.

"Man, it's so good to be back in New York," Blades says, after several years in Los Angeles.

When he first came to the United States in 1974, at age 25, Blades stayed for a year with his parents in Miami. "My father had been a cop in Panama City, but he was exiled after Noriega took over," he says. "The next year I came to New York, where I never felt like an immigrant. I always considered it to be my town. No other place like it in the world. I was already fluent in English from school, music and movies."

He rented a tiny apartment on E. 61st St. for $175 a month, within walking distance of Fania Records — where he got the mailroom job. Blades started going to clubs and listening to the music on the local Latin scene.

In 1976, he started playing with Willie Colon, and together they made Latin music history. "Willie was bored with the Afro-Cuban structure," Blades says. "He wanted to branch out. Willie saw that the songs I was writing suited his pan-American notion. At the time, I was the first Latin American who became a part of the New York salsa scenario as a writer."

Blades says most of the salsa music then was dominated by old memories of Cuba or local observations of urban barrio realities.

"But I began writing about what was happening in Latin America," he says. "And the reason why Willie and I became so successful was because Latin music for a long time had been escapist; people listened to it to forget, to be entertained or to dance. As so there was a big emphasis on rhythm."

Blades and Colon realized they could use the same rhythm — and also present a social point of view.

"People accepted these songs as relevant," he says. "They were not overtly political or ideological. But all of sudden people in Latin America started to see themselves in these stories about urban realities that were coming from New York. Soon there was a huge explosion of interest, and the reason we sold so many copies of the album 'Siemba' was because everybody bought it, including people who didn't dance or particularly like salsa."

To this day, Blades says, "Siemba" [SIC] is the best-selling salsa record of all time.

"Willie and I just recently re-teamed to play some live gigs, and after 15 years we still packed houses with 40,000 people, the average age being about 22," he says. "Which means those songs sustained themselves. The kids are learning them instead of rejecting the music of their parents."

In 1983, Blades released an album called "Buscondo America." "It's my most overtly political album," he says. "In an attempt to reach a wider audience, I printed English-language lyrics with the album."

Blades says he needed some time to take stock of himself, so in 1984 he entered Harvard Graduate School. "I needed something to humble myself, and believe me, that school, which was no picnic, did it," he says. "But I got my M.A. in law."

Also that year, Jerry Masucci, owner of Fania Records, wanted to make a movie and cast Blades in it. "It was directed by and starred Fred Williamson," Blades says. "It was called 'The Last Fight,' and I played a boxer who also sang, so we could sell a few records."

He laughs at the recollection. But Hollywood wasn't laughing, and soon Blades was acting in "Crossover Dreams," "The Milagro Beanfield War" and his favorite screen role, "Dead Man Out," a cable movie with Danny Glover in which he played a Death Row inmate, winning the Ace Award for best actor. He was nominated for Emmys for two cable movies, "The Josephine Baker Story" and "Crazy From the Heart."

In 1994, Blades put his musical and acting careers on hold to create a new political party in Panama, and ran for president. "After creating all the songs and calling for social change, my life changed — but not the subjects of my songs," he says. "It was a contradiction of sorts. The people supported my work, I was living under very beneficial economic conditions and they were not. So, in order to sustain the validity of my position and the integrity of the work, I felt I had to go out there on the streets and try to make political change possible through the political process, not just singing. We proved it could work. We came in third out of 24 parties, with 18% of the vote. I'm a better, less selfish person for it."

Blades came back, toured with Colon, won a Grammy for a new album called "La Rosa de los Vientos," played Harrison Ford's police partner in "The Devil's Own" and did a soon-to-be-released movie called "The Chinese Box."

Then Paul Simon offered him the lead in "The Capeman" on Broadway.

"I'd never done Broadway and I've always loved Paul Simon," he says. "He takes risks and I respect and admire that about him. The music in this show is great. Everyone, including the Latin American community, will love it."

Blades says he remembers reading about Salvador Agron, the Capeman, when he was was a kid in Panama.

"It was the violence amongst the young that disconcerted people," he says. "It was unheard of in Panama. So some people are justifiably worried that this show will be some kind of glorification of a murderer. It's not. It's a story about redemption. About a human being who went to jail and was punished for a brutal, awful crime he committed when he was a kid. And it asks if it is possible for someone like him to change. And if it's possible for we as a society to ever forgive him. There is no glorification, just an exploration of this guy's life, through live music. Which, although this is my Broadway debut, makes me feel comfortable."