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Nokia Lumina 920: Most Innovative Smartphone In The World?

September 6, 2012 | More

Let us list the great innovators of our most recent century: In fiction, James Joyce; in popular music, John Lennon; in film, Stanley Kubrick; in pornography, Ron Jeremy; in frozen food, Hot Pockets; in screen savers, the 3D maze with the brick walls that you travel through; in reality television shows, “The Mole” with Anderson [...]
French Alps Shooting: 4 Found Shot Dead In Car Near Chevaline

September 6, 2012 | More

PARIS — Four people were found shot to death on a forest road in the French Alps on Wednesday, their bodies left in and near a car with British license plates, authorities said. A girl discovered at the site with bullet wounds was hospitalized. Police combed the wooded hills around the village of Chevaline into [...]
Costa Rica Earthquake 2012: 7.6 Magnitude Quake Hits Costa Rica

September 6, 2012 | More

CANGREJAL, Costa Rica — A powerful magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and neighboring countries Wednesday, sending panicked people into the streets and briefly triggering a tsunami alert, but causing little damage. Authorities reported one confirmed death. “When we felt the earthquake, we held onto each other because we kept falling,” said Rosa Pichardo, 45, who [...]
Michael Clarke Duncan Funeral: Public Memorial Service At Forest Lawn Memorial Parks And Mortuaries

September 6, 2012 | More

LOS ANGELES — Michael Clarke Duncan’s life will be celebrated with a public casket viewing and a private service next week. Duncan spokeswoman Joy Fehily said Wednesday that the Oscar-nominated actor’s casket will be on view from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries [...]

Manuel Galbán, Buena Vista Social Club Guitarist, Dead

Teni Sow | July 10, 2011 | 0 Comments

HAVANA (AP) — Manuel Galban, a Grammy-winning Cubanguitarist who rose to international fame as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club, has died of a heart attack in Havana. He was 80.

An article in Communist Party newspaper Granma on Friday noted Galban’s passing the previous day and called him a “master of the guitar.”

“It is a very sad day for Cuban music and fans of Cuban Music,” said Daniel Florestano, longtime manager of both Galban and the Buena Vista Social Club, in a statement issued by Galban’s publicist. “Galban’s enormous impact worldwide with his unique guitar sound and warm smile will be missed by many.”

Born in 1931 in Gibara, in the eastern province of Holguin, Galban made his professional debut in 1944, according to the statement. In 1963 he joined Los Zafiros, Spanish for “Sapphires,” which fused styles as varied as bolero, calypso and rock with Cuban “filin” music, which comes from the word “feeling.”

The group became one of the island’s most popular until it disbanded in 1972.

Galban spent the next three years as head of Cuba’s national music ensemble.

He then formed a group known as Batey, which performed throughout the world “representing Cuba in numerous acts of solidarity,” Granma said.

In the 1990s he became part of the Buena Vista Social Club project, a group of elderly, sometimes retired, musicians who were living quietly in Cuba before U.S. guitarist and producer Ry Cooder brought them together.

The album was an international smash hit and later the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Wim Wenders.

In 2003 Galban teamed up with Cooder to record Mambo Sinuendo. It won a Grammy the following year for best pop instrumental album.

Galban follows others from the Buena Vista Social Club who have already died, including Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Cachaito Lopez and vocalist Pio Leyva.