[Deathwatch] Ruben Gonzalez, Cuban musician, 84

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

...and even MORE thanks to the same helpful reader for sending this in
- Ed.

Ruben Gonzalez
Thu Dec 11

Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, a member of the Buena Vista Social Club,
died Dec. 8 in Havana of unknown causes. He was 84. The musician had
suffered from arthritis and memory loss in the last few years.

After studying piano and medicine, the Santa Clara, Cuba, native became
a full-time musician in 1941. In his six decades as a pianist, Gonzalez
played with some of Cuba's great musicians, including blind bandleader
Arsenio Rodriguez and Enrique Jorrin, who created the cha-cha-cha.

In 1979, he was featured on a series of recording sessions by Las
Estrellas de Areito, an all-star Cuban lineup whose albums recently
were reissued. After Jorrin's death, Gonzalez tried unsuccessfully to
lead the band, but he soon retired.

He came out of retirement in 1996 to play on a project for the
Afro-Cuban All Stars and was recruited for the Buena Vista Social Club
by Ry Cooder. He appeared in Wim Wenders' 1999 Oscar-winning docu about
the distinguished musicians and toured around the world with the band.

He went on to make the first album of his career as bandleader,
"Introducing ... Ruben Gonzalez," in 1996.