Edmundo Ros

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edmundo Ros (1957)

Edmundo William Ros (born December 7, 1910 in Port of Spain ; † October 22, 2011 in Alicante ) was a Trinidadian orchestra leader , drummer , singer and music producer , who was mainly known in Europe and North America . For a while he was referred to as the "King of Latin American Music" because he popularized it outside of his homeland.

Life

His mother was a Venezuelan of African descent and his father, Ross, was from Scotland . From 1927 to 1937 he and his family lived in Caracas . During his military service he played in a band for four years and later received a state scholarship to study music. In June 1937 he moved to London to study classical music at the Royal Academy of Music . He quickly gave up his studies to devote himself to light music. First he played as a drummer in the Nest Night Club. In August 1938 he recorded pieces with Fats Waller . He lived briefly in Paris and played in the group Ciro Rimac's Rumbaland Muchachos . He also played with Afro-Cuban pianist and singer Don Marino in Don Marino Barreto's Cuban Orchestra at London's Embassy Club, and recorded six albums with Decca in 1939 . Barreto's was so successful that Ros was offered to form his own group. He did so immediately and made his debut with his six-member rumba band at the Cosmo Club on Wardour Street in London. In June 1941 he was successful with the Cuban piece Los Hijos de Buda . He now lived in the posh Coconut Grove on Regent Street . He dined in the Bagatelle restaurant , where he made contact with high society.

From 1944 to 1974 he published his music on the Decca Records label .

From 1946 he became a businessman by founding a record company , a dance school , a club and an artist agency. His band now consisted of 16 people. The Wedding Samba album reportedly sold three million copies in 1949. His single Wedding Samba reached number 16 on the US singles charts in early 1950.

Ros celebrated the greatest hit parade in Germany in 1958, when his recording of Melodie d'amour reached number 4 in the singles charts and stayed in the charts for 27 weeks. While he had no hits in Great Britain, he had smaller successes in the USA with the singles Colonel Bogey (# 75) in 1958 and the following year with I Talk To The Trees (# 77). Three LPs made it into the US LP charts between 1959 and 1962: 1959 Hollywood Cha-Cha (# 28), 1961 Bongos From The South (# 41) and 1962 Dance Again (# 31).

In 1951 he acquired the Coconut Grove Club and renamed it Edmundo Ros' Dinner and Supper Club. The club quickly became a magnet for upscale audiences, and the BBC broadcast concerts. The album Rhythms Of The South , released in 1957, was one of the first stereo recordings. In 1965, Ros had to close the Coconut Grove. From 1964 to 1968 he ran the Edmundo Ros Club in Regent Street, London. On January 8, 1994, he last appeared in public. He died in 2011 in Alicante, Spain.

In 2000 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire .

Discography (excerpt)

  • 1960: Fire & Frenzy (with Caterina Valente , London Records )
  • 1963: Swing vs. Latin (with Ted Heath , Decca Records )
  • 1963: Sing and Dance with Edmundo Ros (Decca)
  • Edmundo Ros And His Rumba Band , 1939–1941, LP
  • Tropical Magic , 1942-1944, LP
  • Cuban Love Song , 1945, LP
  • On Broadway , LP
  • Show Boat / Porgy & Bess , LP
  • Ros at the Opera
  • Broadway goes Latin
  • Rhythms of the South
  • Latin Carnival
  • New Rhythms of The South
  • Latin Boss ... Señor Ros
  • Arriba
  • Latin Hits I Missed
  • Strings Latino!
  • Hair goes Latin
  • Heading South of the Border
  • The Latin King
  • This is my world
  • Caribbean Ros
  • Sunshine and Olé!
  • Give My Regards to Broadway
  • Caterina Valente With Edmundo Ros And His Orchestra - Silk 'N' Latin , Label London Records, SP 44125, LP album, 1969
  • Doin 'the Samba , CD
  • Rhythms of the South / New Rhythms of the South , CD
  • Good! Good! Good! , CD
  • Strings Latino / Latin Hits I Missed , CD
  • That Latin sound
  • Wedding Samba (revision of the Yiddish song Nayer Sher )
  • Cancion Cubana
  • Mambo Jambo , Naxos , CD

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "London Records" catalog number 499; Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Records 1940–1955 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1973, p. 42
  2. ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956–1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 175
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 512
  4. ↑ Whitburn, Joel: Top LPs 1945–1972 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 126
  5. ^ Edmundo Ros dies in Spain at age of 100. In: Mirror.co.uk. October 22, 2011, accessed October 22, 2011 .
  6. ↑ AllMusic.com: Edmundo Ros: Biography. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Ros, Edmundo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ros, Edmundo William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian orchestra leader, drummer, singer and music producer
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Port of Spain , Trinidad and Tobago
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 2011
Place of death Alicante , Spain