Goodbye Edmundo Ros

by liamssoft | October 26, 2011 at 12:08 am

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The man responsible for popularizing Latin American music in the UK Edmundo Ros, the bandleader, born in Trinidad on December 7, 1910 who made his career working in Britain, died peacefully of old age at his home in Alicante, Spain, on Friday aged 100, two months short of his 101st birthday.

Edmundo the musician was the first to hit on the mix of melody and rhythm which made Latin-American dance music so popular in the dreary austerity days of the 1940s and 1950s.

17-year old Edmundo left Port of Spain for Caracas, Venezuela to study at the Academy of Music under Maestro Vicente Emilio Sojo and started playing in the Venezuelan Military Academy Band as well as being a tympanist in the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and later studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1937 to 1942, where he formed his own rumba band, performing at London clubs and restaurants, and cut his own tracks.

In the 1950s Ros began recording Broadway show tunes arranged to Latin rhythms like the mambo, cha-cha, rumba, samba, meringe and the conga. He continued to make radio broadcasts on the Light Programme and also made a series of television shows for America and Europe, reaching the height of his popularity and commercial success in the 1960s.

This zest for life led to a punishing schedule, often only affording him a few hours sleep a night between his club, the Coconut Grove on Regent Street which he bought in 1951 and renamed it Edmundo Ros's Dinner and Supper Club in 1964 and his recording commitments.

He recorded 30 albums for the Decca record company from 1944 to 1974. His album Rhythms of The South (1958) was one of the first high-quality LP stereo records. Edmundo was a frequent visitor to Decca's famous No 1 and No 3 studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead London NW6, where recording engineers Arthur (Butch) Bannister or Arthur Lilley would record the Decca Phase 4 Stereo masterpieces.

Edmundo also appeared in five films and hosted a regular radio programme called The Golden Slipper Club.

Since retiring in 1975, Ros had lived with his second wife Susan in Alicante, Spain.

He was appointed OBE in 2000.

Edmundo Ros is survived by his wife and two children.

Edmundo Ros, born December 7 1910, died October 21 2011

The Edmundo Ros OBE website

Edmundo's daughters youtube site

telegraph.co.uk