Afro-Uruguayan innovator Ruben Rada Receives 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Latin Recording Academy

Afro-Uruguayan percussionist, composer and singer Ruben Rada is one of the recipients of the The Latin Recording Academy’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ruben Rada, also known as “El Negro Rada,” is an Afro-Uruguayan percussionist, composer and singer who has recorded more than 30 albums, which today are considered Uruguayan classics.

Throughout his more than 40-year career, Rada was the first musician to combine Western rock with Latin music and integrate elements of jazz, funk, soul, tango, and pop, evolving and modernizing the candombe style of music. Rada was a member of legendary Uruguayan fusion group Opa which included some of the best musicians in the Uruguayan music scene.

Rada has worked with such talented musicians as Mijares, Eugenia León and Tania Libertad and has shared the stage with GRAMMY-winning superstar Sting and UK reggae band UB40. Currently, he has a very busy schedule performing throughout the South American region.