| His day job was rolling H
Compay was playing at Havana hotel when a Spanish tourist heard him and invited him to perform in Spain in 1994
The Cuban music magazine "Salsa Cubana" reported that some music experts in the 1980s did not even know he was still alive 18, 1907, in the eastern town of Siboney, he was 9 when he moved with his family to nearby Santiago, the heart of Cuban musical culture
A few years later, he was packing concert halls in Europe and his fame grew far wider when he was featured on the hit record "Buena Vista Social Club By age 14, he was playing the clarinet in his hometown's municipal band " At an appearance last week, he told reporters he would like to father another child
Compay set audiences dancing from Havana to Paris with hits such as "Chan Chan," which brought modern appeal to a musical genre that had largely been forgotten even at home in Cuba
He got his nickname when he was about 40 and performing as the second voice in the duo "Los Compadres" â€â€? a word Cubans shorten to "compay " The record, which won a 1997 Grammy, was named after a former club in Havana and features traditional Cuban son "
A longtime musician in Compay's group, guitarist Benito Suarez, said Compay was "always happy, joking
The Hotel Nacional held a three-day celebration in Compay's honor on his 95th birthday last year
Compay was noted for his sporty, Borsalino-type hats and a seemingly ever-present cigar
After the 1959 triumph of the Cuban revolution led by Castro, Compay continued to perform intermittently as a solo artist and occasionally made appearances on local radio stations
"I would say that he is part of the Cuban flag
On July 8, he had played briefly at a tribute concert hosted by his sons at Havana's Hotel Nacional, where a concert room is dedicated to him Suarez said he told friends that he had smoked his first cigar at age 5, and he continued smoking nearly to the time of his death Grammy-Winner Compay Segundo Dies at 95
Jul 14, 3:10 PM EST
Compay Segundo, the wiry, cigar-smoking musician who was nearing 90 when he soared from obscurity to worldwide fame with the "Buena Vista Social Club," has died in Havana He was honored with a Grammy as part of the "Buena Vista Social Club" in his 90th year and helped draw attention to other aging but talented Cuban musicians
Upmann coronas in a local cigar factory
A widely praised film of the same name, based on the sessions, was directed by Wim Wenders
Compay emerged as a well-known musician in Cuba, playing with Nico Saquito, the Cuarteto Hatuey and his own duo, Los Compadres, until 1953
Compay, who performed in public less than a week before his death, died of kidney failure Sunday night, said his granddaughter, Frances Valeria Repilado "It was the era of romanticism," he said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, setting down a glass of rum to saw at an imaginary violin
The record, and Compay's popularity, also helped bring renewed fame to musicians such as Pio Leyva, Ruben Gonzalez and Portuondo He was a hit, and went on to make several records there
"Symbolically, he represented our culture to the entire world," said Omara Portuondo, who sang on the "Buena Vista" record and who stood alongside Compay's casket during a viewing at a Havana funeral home Monday
Each concert, he recalled, had to begin with a waltz and several stately danzon dance pieces
He developed a unique seven-string guitar that he called the "armonica" that had a doubled middle string to add harmonics for Cuban son rhythms
His hat lay amid flowers atop his wooden casket Monday He moved a bit slowly and was slightly hard of hearing, but remained notably lucid
Born Nov Nearby stood a huge bouquet of flowers sent by Cuban President Fidel Castro
"I feel content, successful you shouldn't succumb to boredom," he told reporters He was 95 Following the viewing in Havana, his body was being taken for burial Tuesday to his boyhood home in Santiago
Cuban "son" â€â€? mixing harder African rhythms with Spanish lyricism â€â€? was coming into its own, breaking down discrimination against "black" music and laying the groundwork for modern Cuban music such as salsa
Born Maximo Francisco Repilado Munoz, Compay carried traditional Cuban music to the world "
In the late 1950s, he formed a group called "Compay Segundo y sus Muchachos" (Compay Segundo and his Boys) for a tour of the Dominican Republic |