| 03/03/2021 – 14:40 (GMT-4)
Popular Cuban singer Dagoberto Planos Despaigne, one of the main vocalists of the Karachi orchestra, died at the age of 64 this Wednesday morning, in the city of Santiago de Cuba where he lived, due to complications due to liver cirrhosis.
Planos died at the provincial hospital Saturnino Lora, where he was hospitalized for 11 days for his liver disease, but failed to overcome the seriousness of his health, according to the official Sierra Maestra newspaper, Fernando Álvarez Caula, director of “Karachi”.
“Your timbre of voice and charisma in songs like Saina and Bobiné, are legends in carnivals and any holiday,” El Septeto Santiaguero posted on Facebook. “Although sadness floods us in these moments … we will remember you with the joy you always emanated, Dago,” he concluded.
The artist, characterized by the usual wearing of black glasses, will turn 65 next June and since 1982 he has been part of the Karachi folk orchestra. Almost all the most famous songs of the group Santiago have their voice.
The Sierra Maestra newspaper points out that his death is a severe blow to the group in particular and to national culture in general. “It’s a blow to the group, because we lost a lead vocalist; it also loses the culture of Santiago de Cuba and the country, ”said Álvarez Caula, according to journalist Cuscó Tarradell from Santiago.
The Karachi Orchestra was founded in 1976 in Santiago de Cuba, highlighting among its members the famous saxophonist Pablo Moya. He shared the stage with several of the most important salsa singers in the world: Oscar de León, Rey Ruiz, El Grupo Niche, La Orquesta Guayacán, Celia Cruz, among others.
I had the privilege of directing the video “Santiago Cuna y Pan”, performed by Dagoberto Planos together with the company “Orfeón Santiago” and in that film I saw one of the most jovial artists I have ever known. Please extend your heartfelt condolences to your family and friends. Your charisma and voice raised to the sky will be missed at the carnivals in Santiago and eastern Cuba, “Tarradell said.
In the 1990s, one of the songs of the Karachi Orchestra “Señores bailen Butterfly”, by its then director Porfirio Mariol Sagarra, managed to rank among the first places of national popularity.
The group’s sound is heterogeneous as it includes genres such as boleros, guarachas, cha cha cha, sones of all kinds, danzone, Latin jazz or ballads. Planos Despaigne was one of the three vocalists who formed the group.
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