Day 0847 - Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club “Buena Vista Social Club” (1997)

I had heard of this album, and its accompanying film; and had heard BVSC member Ibrahim Ferrer on the track that he collaborated on with Gorillaz (“Latin Simone” from their self-titled album in 2001), but I had never previously listened to this album *self-wrist-slap*.

The album was put together by Ry Cooder, who it seems has worked with nearly everyone, in a music career spanning 6 odd decades (previously featured on this list entry 0774 collaborating with Ali Farka Touré).   Cooder had helmed number of projects working with traditional music styles in different countries.   His plan for this album was to put some African and Cuban musicians together to collaborate, but this plan fell through when the African musicians couldn’t get visas to come to Cuba.

Cooder switched gears and combined some of his Cuban collaborators with an existing project ‘Afro-Cuban Allstars’ to produce this album which revitalised the careers of several ageing Cuban stars and brought some older styles of Cuban music (such as the bolero and Son Cubano) into the international public consciousness, if only for a time.

The music is an organic delight – that is to say that it’s all live musicians, no hint of a drum machine, synthesiser or even (for the most part) anything as fancy as a guitar effects pedal in the mix.  The music is mostly lively and danceable with brilliant vocals, such as on "De Camino a la Vereda".  Occasional more stripped down tracks such as the latin-jazz piano workout of "Pueblo Nuevo" help to break up the dense, lively album a bit.