José Antonio “Maceo” Rodríguez

The longtime lead singer for the group Sierra Maestra, José Antonio Rodríguez was a traveling force in expanding the worldwide popularity of the original music of his native Cuba. Referred to as “un Pequeño Gran Sonero” (the tiny Big Sonero), his little stature masked a tone of voice of amazing power. Born Apr 17, 1953, in Cuba’s Holguin province, Rodríguez spent nearly all his adolescence in Havana. While learning telecommunications at Havana University or college, in 1976 he and classmates Juan de Marcos Gonzáles and Jesús Alemañcon created Sierra Maestra, regarded as the first modern group rooted in the original Afro-Latin music from the 1920s, dubbed “child.” With Rodríguez’s powerful tenor as its center point, the nine-piece music group quickly emerged like a staple from the Cuban festival circuit, and after some television looks cut its debut LP, 1981’s Sierra Maestra Llegó con el Guanajo Relleno. Using the 1982 follow-up, Y Child Asi, Sierra Maestra received the annual Girasol reward, granted to Cuba’s most well-known group. In addition they toured Spain, France, and Scandinavia, the 1st in what would become an annual Western trek. Using the exits of Gonzáles and Alemañcon, Rodríguez — nicknamed “Maceo” honoring the Cuban patriot Antonio Maceo — was Sierra Maestra’s unrivaled innovator, achieving fresh global acknowledgement in the wake of 1994’s Dundunbaza, released internationally around the fledgling Globe Circuit label. He also sang on LPs headlined by Buena Vista Sociable Golf club veterans Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén González, aswell as the 1st Afro-Cuban All Celebrities album. Moments after a live Sierra Maestra day in Copenhagen on November 6, 2005, Rodríguez collapsed backstage and passed away. He was simply 52 years of age.