Edmundo Ros:The World of Edmundo Ros CD Review
Anthology Collection From Latin-American Music's First Superstar
Jan 19, 2009
Born of Scottish and Venezuelan parents, Ros (www.edmundoros.com) took to music at an early age, learning the euphonium at school. He left Venezuela with a scholarship to study Classical Music at London's Royal Academy in 1937 and had formed his 'Rumba Band' in 1939. Within ten years he would be performing to European high society at London's exclusive Coconut Grove Club and go on sell 3 million copies of his Wedding Samba album.
The Global Potential of Latin-American Music
More milestones followed, with Ros's Big Band becoming the first South American outfit to achieve mass acceptance. Extensive tours took them from the British provinces to Japan. In 1957, his Rhythms of The South album was issued as one of the first high quality Stereo records and his tours were still selling out when he officially retired in 1975.
Ros's career with the Decca label lasted from 1944 – 1974 and The World of Edmundo Ros (www.amazon.co.uk) brings his key tunes to a whole new audience. There again, even a casual browser may be surprised to realise how familiar they are with Ros's Greatest Hits already. Songs like Mambo Jambo, the brass-infused Wedding Samba and Mambo No.5 still rip up party dance floors on a weekly basis.
Elsewhere, there are smooth and easy delights like Desafinado, which have long since passed into public domain. Ros was quick off the mark with the Calypso boom too, blending his hot Samba sounds with the Jamaican lilt of tunes like Somebody Bad Stole De Wedding Bell and Jamaica Farewell.
Soccer Anthems and Scottish Folk Music Fused With Latin-American Sounds
The uninitiated, though, will be amazed to discover Ros's back catalogue also finds room for Anton Karas' famous Harry Lime Theme re-invented as a Cha-Cha-Cha. Or that he had the foresight to cross-fertilise Traditional Scottish Folk with the Latino sound on a bagpipe-driven version of Scotland The Brave. Not to mention penning arguably the first Soccer anthem courtesy of the great Football Football, even if it does namecheck Stanley Matthews rather than David Beckham.
All of these ideas may sound unlikely, but prove extremely successful with Ros's inherent ability to make anything swing kicking in time and again. Times and fashions have moved on, of course, but decades before concepts like the Buena Vista Social Club albums were a glint in their creators' eyes, Edmundo Ros was the living, breathing embodiment of a Global Latin-American musical celebrity. Respect is certainly overdue.
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