Ruben Rodriguez y su Conjunto,
one of Argentina’s premier
performers of “chamame’ music
will be performing in concert at
Independence Community College
on Tuesday, October 5, in
celebration of Hispanic Month.
The Ruben Rodriguez concert is
part of the group’s fall North
American concert tour. The
concert will be held in the
William Inge Theatre at 6:30
p.m. The event is being
sponsored by ICC’s Multicultural
Student Organization (MSO).
“Chamame” music is from
Northeast Argentina, with the
province of Corrientes as its
epicenter. It is a cultural
fusion of music and traditions
of the area’s native people,
Spanish Creoles, and European
immigrants. Chamame has
hundreds of years of history.
The traditional instrument is
the guitar, the harp was also
used, but it gradually came to
be replaced by the accordion as
new immigrants arrived from
Europe in the 19th
century.
Ruben Rodriguez was born in 1955
on the “La Estraella” ranch in
Curuzu Cuatia, Corrientes,
Argentina. At 17 years of age
he bought a three-row accordion
and began to study with two
monumental figures of Chamame
music: button accordionist
Gualberto Sabino Panozzo, and
poet Edgar Emilio Estigarribia,
with how Ruben learned the skill
of improvising verses and to
later write his own verses. He
played many parties and dances
and began to perform and record
with the group of Juan
Chazarretta, recording five
albums, and the famous chamame
group Conuunto Ivoti, recording
two albums.
In
1994, he started his solo
career, to this day recording
seven albums. Currently his
group consists of himself as
first accordion; Mario Ramirez,
guitar and voice; Jose Machado,
guitar and voice; Julio Ramirez,
second accordion; and Griselda
Romero, bass and voice. Their
latest recordings are Acordeon
Campesino (2002) and Bien Kirei
(2003).
Together they have performed at
important festivals all over
Argentina including Baradero and
Ramallo Pora at Buenos Aires,
The National Chamame Festival in
Corrientes, The Mburucuya
Festival, and the National
Chamame Festival in Federal
Entre Rios, and in 2003 with
great success in 2003, in
Argentine festivals in Toronto,
Canada.
For more information about the
concert, call Cedric Ganne, MSO
Sponsor, at 620-331-4100, ext.
4220.
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