The weekend's other death.

Ibrahim Ferrer died on Saturday. He was 78.

A singer in Cuba a long long time ago, he became famous in the US from the 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album, on which most notably he sang Dos Gardenias. There were also two recent solo albums.

I saw him perform twice, both times in Boston, in January and December 2001. Good shows.

The Times obit referred to him as "tall, distinguished and lively, an excellent bolero singer who used space and silence in his relaxed elegant delivery to increase the drama, a man who had been rolled over by history and was now simply trying to enjoy an absurdly lucky situation".

Well, actually, he's anything but tall. But the rest is true.