Salsa dancer Rey Ruiz, “daring musician”

Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz confirms that with his new album “Insuperable”, recorded with the help of a “big band”, he has become a “daring musician” by changing the format and sound of well-known world songs.

“The intention was not only to find songs, but to change the style,” says Ruiz in an interview with Miami, the city where it was founded more than two decades ago.

Own production Ruiz with the arranger and Colombian trumpeter José Aguirre, director of the famous group niche“Insuperable” brings together international musical hits such as “Corazón, Corazón”, “El amor es libre”, “Quién” and “Smile”, by world-famous composers such as José Alfredo Jiménez, Charles Aznavour and Nat King Cole.

new versions

“First of all I like big bands because I listen to (Frank) Sinatra and Michael Bublé, but actually the idea came from José Aguirre’s invitation to me to participate in a project with international artists. I was one of them,” explains the Cuban about his work with Cali Big Band 2021.

He recorded “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” because he didn’t know if he could record a whole album and when he heard it he said “I’d love to make an album like that,” Ruiz recalls.

“Unsurpassed”, available at digital platformsit includes eight songs and begins with “Si me comprendieras”, a song by the Cuban José Antonio Méndez, which was not known in Colombia.

“In Colombia they know all the Cuban music, but that song has never been promoted there. José (Aguirre) did the arrangement and I was impressed by how well it was done,” explains the version of the song originally from the “filinga” movement. Cuban.

“I love that version and it makes me look bold music, music“, he says of this well-known theme that Méndez originally sang on guitar.

“The intention was not just to find songs but to change the style, which is why it was important to find a methodology for the repertoire,” says Ruiz.

This album, number 17 in his career, features very different versions of “Noche de Ronda” (Agustín Lara), “El amor es libre” (Ricardo Ceratto), “Corazón Corazón” (José Alfredo Jiménez) and “Smile”, by Nat “King” Cole, a song that the salsa singer sings in a duet with his daughter, Laura Ruiz.

“‘Corazón Corazón’, which is a ranchera, I turned it into a chachachá, without violins and flute in the charanga format. ‘Uno’, which is a tango, we turned it into a danzón, and ‘El amor es libre’, a ballad sung by Luis Gardey, I turned her into a guajira,” she recounts.

Everyone knows ‘Smile’, I wanted to dare to change the format and sound’ of all these already known songs, he admits.

In “Insuperable” there are six songs with volume a big band and two, including “Luna negra,” supported by the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, conducted by Juan José Aguirre, son of José Aguirre.

“We went song by song with a strategy of looking for famous countries and songs”, qualifies this project, which now wants to “materialize” on stage.

“It won’t be a symphony with a lot of people, but it can be a chamber orchestra with strings,” about 24 musicians, including 12 brass players, predicted their upcoming live performances.

The first, he announced, will be in Panama in June, followed by another on August 11 at the National Auditorium in Mexico.

“You don’t notice accents while singing”

Known as “El bonbon de salsa,” “a compliment that became a nickname,” Ruiz is aware that many people believe he is originally from Puerto Rico.

“Singing you don’t notice the accents. The romantic sauce is in between New York, Puerto Rico and Colombia. Venezuela is first with Óscar de León. But Puerto Rico specialized in that,” says the performer of “Mi media mitad,” a Gustavo Márquez song that is among the most famous in his repertoire.

“The one who hired me was Sony. People were very afraid of putting Cuban songs and artists on the radio because they didn’t work. In 1992, my first album came out and the record company transferred me to Puerto Rico, where I lived for seven years,” he recalls. salsa singer.

In Cuba, he is sorry, he has not acted since he left the island.

“It seems that they are afraid that the one with microphone I can say something they don’t like, but if they call me one day, I’ll say yes. I really want to sing to the Cuban public,” he admitted.