MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ruben Rada, who took Uruguayan candombe to international audiences, dies at 83

Rada built a career spanning more than six decades centred on candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan percussive tradition inscribed by UNESCO in 2009 on its list of intangible cultural heritage

Uruguayan singer, composer and percussionist Ruben Rada died on Wednesday at the age of 83 in Montevideo. His family announced the death on the artist's social media accounts, specifying that it occurred at 3.30pm, “after fighting for a month against pneumonia and its complications.”

Born in Montevideo on July 16, 1943, Rada built a career spanning more than six decades centred on candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan percussive tradition inscribed by UNESCO in 2009 on its list of intangible cultural heritage. His contribution lay in fusing it with rock, jazz, funk and murga, and in projecting it beyond the River Plate.

He was part of three formations that shaped Uruguayan music. With El Kinto, alongside Eduardo Mateo, he took part in developing what became known as candombe beat, which brought electric instruments, congas and drum kit to a repertoire sung in Spanish. In the early 1970s he joined Tótem, a short-lived band of lasting influence, with which he recorded two albums and wrote compositions including “Dedos”, “Biafra” and “Negro”. He later joined Opa, the group formed by Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso and Ringo Thielmann, which moved candombe towards jazz-rock. In Buenos Aires he also formed S.O.S., Sonido Original del Sur, with saxophonist Héctor “Finito” Bingert.

His solo career began in 1969 with an album that came to be known as Las Manzanas, after the success of that song. Others followed, among them “Mi país”, “Cha-cha muchacha”, “Blumana” and “Muriendo de plena”. From the late 1990s he also developed a children's repertoire through the character Rubenrá. In 2021 he released As noites do Rio / Aerolíneas Candombe, a tribute to his Brazilian-born mother.

In 2011 he received the Latin Grammy award for musical excellence for his career, and in 2014 Uruguay's Ministry of Education and Culture awarded him the Delmira Agustini Medal.

Rada fell ill while fully active. He was working on an album with the Argentine band Los Auténticos Decadentes, had announced two concerts with Brazil's Chico César in Buenos Aires, and was preparing a tribute to Tótem, with two performances scheduled for October at the Sodre National Auditorium, where he was to be reunited with bassist Daniel “Lobito” Lagarde. On his birthday he had premiered ¿Quién va a cantar?, a series of encounters with other artists whose first episode he recorded with the band La Vela Puerca.

“I want to leave a lot of music behind, and for it to always be there, around, for whoever wants to listen,” he had said in an interview.