hispanicmagazine.com
2000

Razor Blades
By Mark Holston

He may no longer be the glamour boy of salsa whose fresh persona and intellectual approach to the style made him one of contemporary tropical music's first crossover stars.

But Rubén Blades is still scoring impressive critical and career triumphs. His latest album, Tiempos (Sony Discos), consciously runs against the grain of current trends in salsa romántica, old style Cuban music, and Latin pop.
<http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/SiteImages/onlineservices.gif>
<http://www.hispanicmagazine.com/2000/jan_feb/Images/blades.gif> However, the project's eclectic mix of classical, jazz, and Latin elements with lesser known rhythms from throughout the Americas has caught the ears of major media critics who continue to laud the Panamanian composer/singer's knack for originality and fans who've grown weary of sound-alike salsa sessions.

Hollywood is still keenly interested in Blades, whose successful acting career began twenty years ago with a low-budget release titled The Last Pipe, and includes the autobiographical 1985 effort Crossover Dreams.

It has continued unabated through a string of popular theatrical and made-for-TV movies that includes The Milagro Beanfield War, The Two Jakes, and Mo' Better Blues.

In the recently released The Cradle Will Rock, a Touchstone Pictures film directed by Tim Robbins and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, and Susan Sarandon, Blades portrays Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

Although his bid in 1994 to be elected president of Panama failed, the artist/social activist continues to be deeply concerned about the issues of his native land.

When not on tour or making films, he lives in the historic Panama City district of San Felipe, where he was raised. And, he's quick to affirm, there's not one ounce of Ricky Martin envy in his bones.

"I'm not interested in repeating myself, or trying to top myself, or compete with the Buena Vista Social Club, Ricky Martin, or anyone," Blades says, reflecting on the new artistic course he's charting with Tiempos and its predecessor, La Rosa de Los Vientos.

"These albums point not only to where I'm going, but to where we [the Latin music community] could go in the future. They represent a point of reference that didn't exist before."

After compiling a sixteen-album discography that includes several Grammy awards and celebrated collaborations with the likes of salsa renegade Willie Colón and rock innovators Lou Reed and Elvis Costello, Blades is not one to let the fleeting fads that dictate the price of mass popularity color his artistic choices.

"To each his own," he comments with the self assurance that comes from having produced an album, Siembra (Fania, 1978), that sold more than a million copies worldwide although its lyrics were laced with politically charged calls for social change in Latin America. "I'm very happy for Ricky. I like him very much. He's a good guy, and he's worked hard and deserves his success."

But Blades misses the days before the world went crazy over tropical-lite fare like Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca and the watered-down, formulaic salsa erotica of recent years. "In the seventies," he recalls, "the lyrics were everything and the strong conviction of that level of writing, coupled with the singing, made the success of albums like Siembra and Metiendo Mano (Fania, 1977) possible.

We still play Pablo Pueblo, which I wrote in 1968, and 32 years later, it's as if I had written it yesterday." Indeed, Blades' most thought-provoking recordings have always elicited strong emotions from both fans and detractors. I can still recall the raw outburst of a cab driver in Mexico City who jammed his fist into the dashboard and shouted "comunista" when one of the singer's politically provocative songs popped up on the radio.

His recording of "Tiburón" (Canciones del Solar de Los Aburridos, Fania 1982), a Tite Curet Alonso tune critical of U.S. policies toward Cuba, resulted in death threats.

As the U.S. relinquished administrative control of the Panama Canal at the end of 1999, Blades joined Panamanians of all political persuasions in greeting the momentous change with high hopes. "The most important aspect of the U.S. withdrawal," he asserts, "is that for the first time in the history of our country, Panama has uninterrupted jurisdiction over all of its own country. From an emotional standpoint, that's what we Panamanians have always said; we wanted our country under one flag."

And it's not a question, in his thinking, of the existence of any kind of an anti-American culture in Panama. "But," he adds, "lets face it; the Indeed, Blades' most thought-provoking recordings have always elicited strong emotions from both fans and detractors.

A cab driver in Mexico City once jammed his fist into the dashboard in a raw outburst and shouted "comunista" when one of the singer's politically provocative songs popped up on the radio.

His recording of Tiburón (Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos, 1982), a Tite Curet Alonso tune critical of U.S. policies toward Cuba, resulted in death threats.

As the United States relinquished control of the Panama Canal at the end of 1999, Blades joined Panamanians of all political persuasions in greeting the momentous change with high hopes. "The most important aspect of the U.S. withdrawal," he asserts, "is that for the first time in the history of our country, Panama has uninterrupted jurisdiction over all of its own country. From an emotional standpoint, that's what we Panamanians have always said: We wanted our country under one flag."

And it's not a question, in his thinking, of the existence of any kind of an anti-American culture in Panama. "But," he adds, "let's face it; the 1964 student riots that took place in Balboa [the Canal Zone town closest to Panama City] were not an example of one of the best moments of U.S. foreign relations."

The incident claimed 27 lives and became a symbol of Panama's resentment of the presence of U.S. troops and American culture in the geographical heart of their nation.

"And as far as the invasion in 1989 that resulted in the capture of [General Manuel] Noriega, it probably could have been avoided if some different steps had been taken. So, of course, mistakes have been made. But there is also a history of positive involvements, so we Panamanians will judge the future of the relationship by actions taken, good or bad."

"Panamanians, like citizens of other Latin
American countries, have grown accustomed
to each succeeding government running
the country for the good of its closest
supporters, with little concern for
the average citizen."

What Blades sees when he looks at his country today is a land of considerable promise, particularly given its relatively high standard of living and economic benefits associated with its role as a crossroads of international commerce.

But, he notes, the country has been chronically mismanaged by successive administrations of self-serving politicians and military dictatorships.

"A third of the country lives in poverty, and changing that will take a long time. But it has to begin with a government that is committed to that kind of change.The government must become one that administers the country for the sake of the whole of the nation, and it will have to be a generational thing.I really believe it's on the way, but it's going to take a change of the body politic to make it happen."

The former presidential candidate is reserving his opinion of Panama's recently inaugurated head of state, Mireya Moscoso.

The wife of the late former four-time president Arnulfo Arias, she has been criticized both for her lack of political expertise and ridiculed for her meager educational credentials, a two-year degree in interior design from Miami-Dade Community College.

"Panamanians, like citizens of other Latin American countries, have grown accustomed to each succeeding government running the country for the good of its closest supporters, with little concern for the average citizen," Blades contends.

"The new president may have all the desire to do the best things possible, but if she doesn't get any cooperation from the National Assembly and other institutions, then it all becomes very, very difficult for anyone to govern successfully.

The key question is: How is the body politic going to help her?" Looking beyond Panama's borders, Blades sees an interesting political experiment under way in Venezuela, where former army officer and coup plotter Hugo Chávez is raising concerns that his rule as an elected president may become more authoritarian as he consolidates more power in the oil-rich nation.

"Really, he just represents the collapse of the corrupt political institutions of that country. The people in Venezuela right now who are crying and screaming are those who are out of the loop."

In terms of his career, Blades has never been far from the loop, despite the fact that the Harvard-educated attorney, composer, and actor has somehow managed to juggle the demands of music, motion pictures, and politics, and keep all three aspects of his life on track.

It's precisely that diversity of interests that, according to City University of New York music professor and author Peter Manuel, has kept Blades' artistic senses sharp. "His ongoing involvement with nonmusical endeavors," Manuel writes in his book Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae, "may have much to do with his greatness, since it is precisely his broader vision that has distinguished him from the ranks of mainstream salseros who, however talented, cannot seem to transcend the provincial club scene."

His new album Tiempos underscores Blades' ongoing fascination with styles of music that he believes have yet to be fully explored by his contemporaries.

In the company of a trio of Costa Rican musicians known as Editus, he takes a further step in investigating rhythms heretofore employed by regional musicians far removed from such influential centers of modern tropical Latin music as Havana and New York.

"The album has a rhythm, the chacarera, that's indigenous to southern Chile and Argentina, but is also the same rhythm used in Panama on the tambor [drum] in some of our folk styles," he says.

"Tiempos is all about those kinds of connections; that's what I'm going for. There's been such an emphasis on Cuban music lately, I'm trying to highlight some of the other rhythms and instrumentations that exist in the Americas which also have connections to styles from European, African, and indigenous peoples."

Although his albums come with less regularity these days, Blades wants his fans to know he'll continue to find time for the art form that started him on the path to international acclaim more than three decades ago while still a university student in Panama. "I do take myself seriously as a singer, and I'm already looking forward to my next project. I consider the horizons to be unlimited."