Salsa Legend Blades To Give Personal Collection To Harvard

The seven-time Grammy winner, 60, has agreed to hand over his personal archive, including rare recordings of rehearsals, to the prestigious institute's Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library.

Harvard officials will also eventually receive papers from Blades' political career and posters from his failed bid to become president of Panama in 1994 to add to the store.

Blades, who recently declared he was stepping down from his role as Panama's tourism minister to return to his music roots, holds a masters degree in international law from the Ivy League university.

The first pieces of the collection will be made available in the library later this year (09), according to Harvard librarian Virginia Danielson.