Medoro Madera

2018 release. On Medoro Madera, Rubén Blades inhabits his 'alter-ego' Medoro Madera - a Cuban octogenarian who has made brief appearances on his albums since 1997. Here the entire album is devoted to Madera singing mostly songs from the '20s and '30s, backed by Roberto Delgado with a quasi-conjunto version of his orchestra. Blades explains how he creates the Medoro Madera voice saying "I can produce such an effect by channeling the spirit of the old Cuban soneros, my true inspiration for this work, and by doing what in Spanish is known as impostacion. This voice technique helped me create a different color, potency and timbre to my natural voice."