The Buena Vista Social Club was originally intended as a collaborative project between African and Cuban guitarists. When the Africans failed to show up at the studio, it was decided to continue the project without their involvement.
Recorded quickly
The recordings in the studio in Havana, Cuba took so little time because the songs were almost all successful 'live' in one or two takes. The musicians shared the same passion for music and felt completely at ease with each other.
Cuban folk songs
The songs were gradually arranged and developed. They are almost all old Cuban folk songs given a new twist. Buena Vista Social Club consists of elderly Cuban musicians. The oldest of the group was the then 89-year-old guitarist and singer Compay Segundo. Another vocalist was the 70-year-old Ibrahim Ferrer, a Cuban star from the fifties.
Social Club
On the first album, 'the Edith Piaf of Cuba' Omara Portuondo sings on a number of tracks. On the next Social Club CD, released in early 2000, Omara sings all the songs. Some of the other musicians are: Ry Cooder (guitar), Elias Ochea (guitar and vocals), Ruben Gonzales (piano), Ry Cooder, Orlando Lopez (bass), Manuel Mirabel (trumpet).
Death
Compay Segundo died on 14 July 2003 at the age of 95, Ruben Gonzales (84) passed away that same year on 9 December, and on 7 August 2005 it was announced that Ibrahim Ferrer had also passed away. He was 78 years old.
North Sea Jazz festival
Ferrer was still performing at the North Sea Jazz festival in The Hague in July 2005, and it was intended that he would return to the Netherlands in the autumn for concerts in Amsterdam and Groningen.
Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba
The album Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba, released in November 2006, is a unique collaboration between members of The Buena Vista Social Club and popular artists such as singer Chris Martin of Coldplay, Sting, Dido, Jack Johnson, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Maroon 5 and Bono. The album is an initiative of Artists Project Earth (APE), which has been campaigning for a better environment for years and informs people about the connection between climate change/global warming and natural disasters.
Faustino Oramas
Faustino Oramas died on 27 March 2007 at the age of 95. He had liver cancer. There is some uncertainty about the exact age of the musician. According to documents, he was born in 1911. However, there are rumours that he reached the age of 103.
'Clocks'
The song 'Clocks', a hit by Coldplay from 2003, was released in April 2007 by The Buena Vista Social Club in collaboration with Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, the Buena Vista Social Club is listed with the following rankings:
Sunday Morning Classic
On 21 August 2022, the original line-up of the Buena Vista Social Club took to the stage as Sunday Morning Classic with their eponymous debut album from 1997.
The legend of the one and only Buena Vista Social Club album is great. It was Nick Gold, record label owner of World Circuit, who thought it a good idea to bring a group of older Cuban musicians back together as a tribute to the island's traditional music. He asked the American guitarist/singer Ry Cooder to help him. The enthusiasm among musicians was so great that three albums were recorded in no time: besides the famous Buena Vista Social Club album, there was the album by the Afro Cuban All Stars, a project set up by Juan de Marcos Gonzales, and Introducing... by pianist Ruben Gonzales.
The greatest success, of course, came with the eponymous album of the Buena Vista Social Club, released in 1997. The wonderful songs, the warm-blooded interpretation, the beautiful artwork adorning the album and the well-told story about the legendary musicians proved a bullseye. And despite the fact that almost no song from the album was heard on the radio, sales soared through word of mouth.
With album opener Chan Chan, an album opens that sounds both authentic, pure and energetic, with emotions bursting out. All the styles that make the Cuban musical tradition so idiosyncratic and interesting are served on the album: son, trova, filin, guajires and boleras. And with songs like Dos Gardenias, En Cuarta de Tula, Veinte Anos, El Guayabero, El Carretoro and La Bayamesa (to name just a few...) it already carries everything within it of a classic.
But of course it is guitarist Eliades Ochoa, bassist Orlando ‘Chacato’ López, pianist Ibrahim Ferrer, singer Rubén Gonzáles, singer Omara Portuando, the vocals of Compay Segundo and trumpeter Manuel Guajiro, together with Ry and son Joachim Cooder, who form the basis of the band, which always makes this sound so wonderfully timeless. Everything is just right in the way they play the songs and how these are recorded without embellishment.
With worldwide sales of nearly 12 million copies, sales that still continue effortlessly, the album can be called an unprecedented success. An album, with that wonderfully beautiful cover featuring Ibrahim Ferrer walking the streets of Havana, which at the time put world music (a somewhat curious genre name once invented by a group of British journalists) more than ever on the map and made the audience intriguingly curious about other world music.
In the legendary band line-up of the album, the Buena Vista Social Club gave only 3 concerts. Two in Carré, Amsterdam and one in Carnegie Hall, New York. Concerts all recorded by filmmaker Wim Wenders and later released as a sensational and very successful film.
A true classic that you must have in your collection!
Source: NPO Photo: XIIIfromTOKYO and album
