Compay Segundo Dies
Compay Segundo, whose good-natured charisma made him one of the
most popular members of the Buena Vista Social Club, died of kidney
failure this morning in Havana; he was ninety-five.
Born Francisco Repilado near Santiago in 1907, Segundo took his
first name from a slang term for “pal,” which fit his exuberant
personality. The singer/guitarist, always sporting his trademark
Panama hat, spun a career that spanned parts of nine decades. A
pre-revolution legend in Cuba, Segundo inked numerous compositions
and invented his own instrument, a variation on the guitar and
tres, a native Cuban instrument. Due to U.S./Cuba travel and trade
embargo, Segundo’s name was virtually unknown in the United States,
and for a brief time he took up work as a cigar roller, before he
was rediscovered by Ry Cooder, who compiled the Buena Vista
Social Club album.
With the release of BVSC in 1997, Segundo and several
other Cuban musicians enjoyed worldwide renown; one of his
compositions, the randy “Chan Chan,” was the first and most
recognizable cut on the album.
“There’s tremendous talent in Cuba, like Segundo, like [Ibrahim]
Ferrer, like [Manuel] Galban,” Cooder told Rolling Stone
earlier this year, “and I think there always has been. Whether
we’ll see the likes of anything like this again, I doubt it. The
world is a different place now. This kind of expression, emotional
expression, they just don’t grow people like this anymore.”
Segundo made the most of the rediscovery of his music. Despite
his age, eighty-nine at the time of the album’s release, he toured
regularly and recorded prolifically, releasing several albums in
the six years between BVSC and his death.
Along with his peers, he also helped salvage a legacy of music
that was nearly snuffed out of existence, as practitioners of
pre-revolution Cuban musicians began to die out and more modern
sounds became chic. “The repertoire that we do, the songs by
Compay, Ruben [pianist, Gonzalez], has rescued the purest and most
traditional way of playing Cuban music,” BVSC singer Omara
Portuondo said. “Their songs are songs that the world was waiting
to hear again.”
Segundo will be buried this week in Santiago.