This past Sunday, while providing musical entertainment at a birthday party in Cresskill, NJ, something unusual happened. First, I don't typically ask what clients do for a living. Of course I'm curious, as many of our northern NJ clients in particular seem to be very well off!
Late in the afternoon, I decided to play a Latin set. I led with Celia Cruz's "La Vida Es Un Carnaval," one of my favorite salsa tracks. The father sprung to life and was clearly happy to hear the song. Later, he stopped by the DJ table and shared the information that he was Celia Cruz's personal physician during her final years. He then translated some of the Spanish lyrics into English.... "Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival, It's more beautiful to live singing. Oh, Ay, there's no need to cry, For life is a carnival, And your pains go away by singing."
Thanks Dr. Manny for sharing that wonderful story, and this song is dedicated to you!
To learn more about continuing Celia Cruz's mission, visit the Celia Cruz Foundation at http://www.celiacruzfoundation.org
For a list of Celia's hottest salsa tracks, visit http://salsacircuit.blogspot.com/2011/04/top-songs-by-celia-cruz.html
Hello. Thank you for your post dedicated to this wonderful singer!
ReplyDeleteI recently, in one of my college pages, wrote about the outstanding singers of the 20th century, and S. Cruz was among them.
Celia Cruz is a singer who has won 23 gold albums during her career. US President Bill Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1994. She was internationally known as "The Queen of Salsa", "La Guarracera de Cuba", as well as "The Queen of Latin Music".
Laila Kobo from Billboard Magazine once said: "Cruz is unquestionably the most famous and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban and Latin American music."
After her death in 2003 from brain cancer, people did not forget her. In honor of the great singer the music school in the Bronx is named, the National Museum of American History has an exhibition devoted to her life and work, there is also a musical film and a documentary drama about Celia Cruz, and in 2013 Google awarded her Google Doodle.