David Dalle
Thursday September 2nd, 2021 with David Dalle
Celebrating 25 years of the Buena Vista Social Club part I: Live at Carnegie Hall.

2021 marks 25 years since one of the most wonderful and unexpected developments in recorded music. In 1996, World Circuit producer Nick Gold invited Ry Cooder and a few Malian musicians to come to Cuba and record a Cuban-Malian album. Ry Cooder, as an American, was forced to take a circuitous route to Cuba and upon arrival discovered that the Malian musicians were not able to get visas to travel to Cuba. They had been working with Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos Gonzalez and had Eliades Ochoa and bass-player Orlando Cachaito Lopez lined up. With the Malian musicians out, it was decided to go ahead and make a Cuban album, with the idea of making a tribute album to a golden era of Cuban music (the 1930's to 1950's). Juan de Marcos Gonzalez had contacts with an older generation of musicians and they found many musicians in their 70's, 80's, and 90's, many of whom had retired. The "Buena Vista Social Club" would give these musicians far greater fame in the twilight of their careers: 90 year old Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Manuel Guajiro, and perhaps the heart of the Buena Vista Social Club, pianist Ruben Gonzalez. The recording sessions of the album "Buena Vista Social Club" also resulted in albums "A Toda Cuba Le Gusta" by the Afro-Cuban All Stars and "Introducing Ruben Gonzalez". The "Buena Vista Social Club" went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide. Many other Cuban releases followed. World Circuit recorded many more albums featuring and focusing on different members of the Buena Vista Social Club (I have 14 World Circuit albums). As well, many other music labels, large and small, entered into this Cuban bonanza with many reissues and compilations of older recordings, as well as a few other new recordings. Cuban musicians and music absolutely deserved all this love! I have a couple of thoughts reflecting back on this. If the Malian musicians had made it to Cuba, and the original planned Malian-Cuban collaboration was recorded, I think we would have had a superb album, another solid release in World Circuit's wonderful library (wait for part II!), but it would not have generated anywhere near the same attention the Buena Vista Social Club did. Apart from the superb music (and my listeners know superb music alone rarely equals popular success), it was the almost Hollywood-ready story of old retired, nearly forgotten musicians achieving their biggest success at the end of their career (Ruben Gonzalez was living in a small apartment without any access to a piano, Ibrahim Ferrer was making a living shining shoes). It is not surprising that Wim Wenders 1999 documentary on the Buena Vista Social Club was so helpful in generating enormous interest--it was a real life fairytale. Also, for Americans, Cuba had become something of a lost continent. A forbidden land which was tantalizingly close. I also think that today's world of streaming music would not be conducive to the Buena Vista Social Club phenomena. It came at the right time, the high water mark of recorded albums in the 90's. Today, we will not hear the original "Buena Vista Social Club" album (which is receiving a deluxe 25th anniversary reissue by World Circuit on CD and LP this month: https://worldcircuit.co.uk/). We will hear their Carnegie Hall concert, which took place on July 1st 1998. The Buena Vista Social Club had performed two concerts in Amsterdam earlier that year, intending to be the only concerts given by the full ensemble. Producers from Nonesuch and World Circuit were in attendance and they made the impromptu decision to bring the group to Carnegie Hall in New York City. Amazingly, against all odds, they succeeded. This was the first visit ever for most of the musicians to the United States, although a few had been before the Cuban Revolution. The concert was sold out, with a large overflow crowd. Many in the audience were Cuban exiles including many Cuban-American musicians. It was a very emotional concert and many of the Buena Vista Social Club musicians stated that this concert was the high point of their lives. Carnegie Hall and the two Amsterdam concerts remain the only live appearances by the full Buena Vista Social Club. Part of the concert was in the Wim Wenders documentary, and the full concert was released on World Circuit a decade later in 2008. The concert featured 16 songs, 10 of which were on the original Buena Vista Social Club release, four from Ruben Gonzalez's first release, one from Ibrahim Ferrer's first release (a stunning version of "Silencio" to close the concert, sung as a duet by Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo). Most of the older Buena Vista Social Club musicians have since died, though some are still around. I saw Omara Portuondo at the Ottawa Jazzfest in 2019 when she was 88 years old, and her voice sounded decades younger! Compay Segundo 1907-2003 Ruben Gonzalez 1919-2003 Ibrahim Ferrer 1927-2005 Orlando Cachaito Lopez 1933-2009