We all knew vocalist Rubén Blades knew his way around the clave, the rhythmic pattern that propels the Afro-Cuban dance music he's known for. But I bet you didn't know he could swing a big band jazz ...

On his new Columbia album, "Mundo," Ruben Blades envisions a cosmos in which "world music" is not so much a United Nations-style assemblage of disparate sounds as a tight-knit sonic mosaic -- with ...

A nine-time Grammy-winner and all-star vocalist of the illustrious salsa label, Fania Records, Rubén Blades is a living legend. Following a 2017 collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as Salsa ...

Salsa-music legend Rubén Blades is having a moment — several moments, actually — a full four years after the conclusion of his “Caminando, adiós y gracias” (“Walking, good-bye and thanks”) farewell ...

As I’ve featured in a previous blog post, the multi-talented Panamanian musician and actor Rubén Blades wrote a famous song about Romero’s assassination. So given the recent canonization news, I ...

Rubén Blades was born in a rooming house in a small Latin American country, but he refused to see limitations or barriers; his work has crossed geopolitical borders, cultures, and genres, and has made ...

The November night was brisk, and the expectant crowd gradually swelled. Sausage vendors were selling onion-and pepper-laden sandwiches right alongside the scalpers. The queues were long—for checking ...

As documentaries and true-event based movies deliver many of the highlights and some news at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (August 19-26), Abner Benaim’s much-lauded music documentary “Ruben Blades ...

Directed by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's Carlos Henriquez, the album features Blades and Marsalis performing compositions like "Pedro Navaja," "Patria," and "El Cantante," along with swing ...

What's more difficult, running a presidential campaign or creating a world-beat jam with bagpipes and a Cuban drum? Perhaps the only man qualified to tackle that question is RubénBlades. "The music is ...

Best known for anthemic salsa songs like “Pedro Navaja” and “Plastico,” the prolific Panamanian singer, songwriter and bandleader Rubén Blades tries on a new hat as a protest rocker in “No Te Calles,” ...

Ruben Blades has always made music that is a record of his time. In representing the soul of a marginal Latin American culture that has since moved into the mainstream, his great albums of the ...