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Buena Vista Social Club

Ry Cooder's 1990s cinematic project celebrated the history of Cuban music, uncovering many thrilling, time-
forgotten musicians in the process.

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Credit: Ebet Roberts STREAM OR BUY:

Follow Artist + Active 1990s - 2010s

Formed 1996 in Havana, Cuba

Biography
Genre Latin, International, Jazz

Discography Styles Afro-Cuban Jazz, Cuban Jazz, Cuban Traditions, Global Jazz, Latin Jazz,
Modern Son, Son, Bolero, Cha-Cha, Mambo, Western European Traditions
Songs
Group Members Benito Suárez Magana, Carlos González, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa,
Ibrahim Ferrer, Joachim Cooder, Juan de Marcos González, Julienne Oviedo
Credits
Sánchez, Julio Fernandez, Lázaro Villa, Luis Barzaga, Manuel "El Guajiro"
Mirabal, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Omara Portuondo, Orlando "Cachaito"
Related Artists Lopez, Rubén González, Ry Cooder, Salvador Repilado Labrada, Barbarito
Torres, Manuel Galbán, Papi Oviedo
Moods & Themes

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Related Artists All Related Artists

Afrocubism Ry Cooder

Omara Afrocubism Ibrahim Ferrer Ry Cooder Los Super Seven Afro-Cuban All Rubén González
Portuondo Stars

Biography

Buena Vista Social Club Biography by Jason Ankeny

The Cuban musical collective known as Buena Vista Social Club became a surprise
international hit in the late 1990s with its eponymous debut album and documentary film.
Conceived by British producer Nick Gold and American guitarist Ry Cooder, the project
effectively relaunched the careers of Cuban legends like Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén
González, introducing them and several other renowned local players to a widespread global
audience. The album's success led to a revival not only of Cuban music, but of Latin music
as a whole which carried into the 21st century. A later touring group called Orquesta Buena
Vista Social Club continued to represent the project's music and spirit over subsequent
decades.

Buena Vista Social Club's origins lie with producer Nick Gold of
Britain's World Circuit label who invited guitarist Ry Cooder to
Havana in 1996 to participate in sessions that were to pair Cuban
musicians with African players from Mali. When the Malians failed
to to obtain the necessary visas, Gold and Cooder quickly
changed tack and sought out a number of legendary local
musicians whose performing careers had largely ended decades
earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim
Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González,
Gold and Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record an album of Cuban son music
that was eventually released as Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected
commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy Award and becoming the best-selling
release of Cooder's long career. In 1998 he returned to Havana with his son, percussionist
Joachim, to record a solo LP with Ferrer; the sessions were captured on film by director Wim
Wenders, who also documented sell-out Buena Vista Social Club live performances in
Amsterdam and New York City. (Wenders' film, also titled Buena Vista Social Club, earned an
Academy Award nomination in 2000.) The public's continued interest in Cuban music
subsequently generated solo efforts from Segundo and González, as well as a series of
international live performances promoted under the Buena Vista Social Club aegis. A concert
CD, At Carnegie Hall, drawn from the same triumphant show that Wenders featured in his
documentary, was released in 2008 -- a few years after the deaths of Segundo, Ferrer, and
González. In the spring of 2015, Nonesuch/World Circuit released Lost and Found, a
collection of unreleased tracks from the 1996 Egrem and 2000 recording sessions, as well as
live tracks. A group containing some of the original members called Orquesta Buena Vista
Social Club continued to perform, and their farewell tour took place that year.

In 2021, a quarter century after the original sessions took place, Ahora Me Da Pena EP
World Circuit issued an expanded 25th anniversary edition of
Buena Vista Social Club featuring previously unreleases material.
The archival celebration continued a year later with the release of
the vinyl-only EP Ahora Me Da Pena.

Discography
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