Merceditas ValdéS
Biography
Mercedes Valdés Granit (September 24, 1922 – June 13, 1996), better known as Merceditas Valdés, was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her debut album was released at the start of the 1960s, when the Cuban government nationalized the record industry. She then went on hiatus before making a comeback in the 1980s with a series of albums entitled Aché, in collaboration with artists such as Frank Emilio Flynn and rumba ensemble Yoruba Andabo. She also appeared in Jane Bunnett's Spirits of Havana and continued performing until her death in 1996.
Bio from Wikipedia
Discography
Records they worked on — most-collected first.
Credited work
72 releases · 16 albums · active 1957–2016
- Performance · 64
- Other credits · 14
Studios: Estudios EGREM · Estudios ICAIC · Misère Records · Planète Sun Studios
Frequent collaborators
- Jane Bunnett
- Mongo Santamaria
- Andrés Alén
- Tito Puente
- P18
- Tata Güines - Anga
- Various
- Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Cuban Drum Beaters