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Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the homonymous members' club in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, some of whom had been retired for many years. The group's eponymous album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called ''Buena Vista Social Club''—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical a ...
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Buena Vista Social Club (album)
''Buena Vista Social Club'' is the debut album by the Buena Vista Social Club, an ensemble of Cuban musicians directed by Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder. It was recorded at Havana's EGREM studios in March 1996 and released on September 16, 1997, on World Circuit. It is the only standard studio album exclusively credited to the Buena Vista Social Club. ''Buena Vista Social Club'' was recorded in parallel with ''A toda Cuba le gusta'' by the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a similar project also promoted by World Circuit executive Nick Gold and featuring largely the same lineup. In contrast to ''A toda Cuba le gusta'', which was conceived as a revival of the son ''conjunto'', ''Buena Vista Social Club'' was meant to bring back the traditional trova and filin, a mellower take on the Cuban son and bolero, as well as the danzón. A critical and commercial success, the album's release was followed by a short concert tour in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall in ...
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Barbarito Torres
Bárbaro Alberto Torres Delgado (born 1956), better known as Barbarito Torres, is a Cuban musician best known for his work with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and the Buena Vista Social Club since 1996.Buena Vista Social Club : Musicians
Publisher: PBS
Torres plays the laúd, a traditional Cuban instrument of the lute family that is most associated with the punto guajiro genre. He continues to tour with Buena Vista Social Club as one of the last surviving original members and has recorded several solo albums, the last of which, ''Vámonos pa'l monte'', was released in 2016.


Biography

Torres was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1956. He played in a series of military bands during the 1970s, before settling in Havana and becoming a permanent member of Orquesta Cub ...
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Roberto Fonseca
Roberto Fonseca (born 29 March 1975) is a Cuban jazz pianist. From an early age, Fonseca was surrounded by music: his father was drum player Roberto Fonseca, Sr, his mother, Mercedes Cortes Alfaro, a professional singer (she sings on her son's solo album, ''Zamazu''), and his two older half-brothers from his mother's previous marriage to the pianist and musician Jesús "Chucho" Valdés are Emilio Valdés (drums) and Jesús "Chuchito" Valdés Jr. (piano). Biography After an early interest in drums, Fonseca switched to piano at the age of 8, and by 14 was experimenting with fusing American jazz and traditional Cuban rhythms; he appeared at Havana's Jazz Plaza Festival in 1991 when he was 15. Fonseca studied at Cuba's Instituto Superior de Arte, where he obtained a master's degree in composition, even though he often says that he was a really bad student. After earning his degree, he left Cuba to find his sound. His first album, ''En El Comienzo'', which he recorded with Ja ...
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Son Cubano
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section ( bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin. Around 1909 the son reached Havana, where the first recordings were made in 1917. This marked the start of its expansion throughout the island, becoming Cuba's most popular and influential genre. While early groups had between three and five members, during the 1920s the ''sexteto'' (sextet) became the genre's primary format. By the 1930s, many bands had incorporated a trumpet, becoming ''septetos'', and in the 1940s a larger type of ensemble featuring congas and piano became th ...
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Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba
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The city has a population of 2.3million inhabitants, and it spans a total of – making it the largest city by area, the most populous city, and the
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Buenavista, Havana
Playa is a Cuban municipality, located in the Havana province. It covers an area of 36.8 square kilometers, which makes up 8.95% of the provincial extension. Geography Playa is the most northwestern of the ''municipios''. It stretches from the Almendares River in the east, to Santa Fe in the west. It includes the upmarket district of Miramar and the former fishing village of Jaimanitas. Other districts include Flores, Náutico, Siboney, Kohly and Buenavista. Many societies and venues have been located in the area, including the Buena Vista Social Club. Points of interest Education Post-secondary institutions include: * ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine) in Santa Fe Primary and secondary schools include: * International School of Havana in Miramar * Centro Educativo Español de La Habana in Miramar * École Française de la Havane (French international school) in Siboney
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Social Club
A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal headquarters (e.g., the Cage Documentary featuring the work of ex-New Jersey State Trooper Mike Russell, whose undercover work for the New Jersey State Police led to the arrests of 41 members of the Genovese crime family, and of corrupt prison officials, and a state senator or the Ravenite Social Club), final club, fishing club, gaming club, gentlemen's clubs (known as private clubs in the US), hunting clubs, military officers' clubs, political clubs, science clubs, university clubs, Christian fellowships and other religious clubs. This article covers only three distinct types of social clubs: the historic gentlemen's clubs, the modern activities clubs, and an introduction to fraternities and sororities. This article does not cover ...
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Amadito Valdés
Amadito Valdés (born February 14, 1946) is a Cuban timbalero, best known for his work with Cuarteto Las d'Aida and Buena Vista Social Club. Career Valdés was born in Havana in 1946. Early on, he studied music with his father, Amadito Valdés Sr., who was a well-known Cuban jazz saxophonist, and in 1961 he took up drumming under the supervision of Walfredo de los Reyes. When Reyes left Cuba, Valdés joined Havana's "Alejandro García Caturla" Conservatory and it was there that he began to develop his improvisational style on the timbales, mixing Afro rhythms in 6/8 time with the Cuban son syncopated rhythms in 2/4 time. In the 1960s, Valdés became the timbalero for the popular Cuban vocal quartet Las d'Aida.Amadito Valdés
''EcuRed''.
In 1996, Valdés joined American guitarist

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Compay Segundo
Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles (18 November 1907 – 13 July 2003), known professionally as "Compay Segundo", was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer. Biography Compay (meaning ''compadre'') Segundo, so called because he was always second voice in his musical partnerships, was born in Siboney, Cuba, and moved to Santiago de Cuba at the age of nine. His first engagement was in the Municipal Band of Santiago de Cuba, directed by his teacher, Enrique Bueno. In 1934, after a spell in a quintet, he moved to Havana, where he also played the clarinet in the Municipal Band. He also learned to play the guitar and the tres, which became his usual instruments. Compay Segundo also invented the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, to fill the harmonic jump between the Spanish guitar and the tres."Compay Segundo"
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Papi Oviedo
Gilberto Oviedo la Portilla (9 February 1938 – 31 October 2017),''Papi Oviedo''
Article at EcuRed website. Retrieved on 26 November 2015.
better known as Papi Oviedo, was a Cuban player. Papi, the son of musician ,''Isaac Oviedo''
Article at EcuRed website. Retrieved on 26 November 2015.
started playing the tres when he was about 15. A veteran of many bands, Papi was the tres player in Elio Revé's band for 13 years. He l ...
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Orlando "Cachaíto" López
Candelario Orlando López Vergara (February 2, 1933 – February 9, 2009), better known as Cachaíto, was a Cuban bassist and composer, who gained international fame after his involvement in the Buena Vista Social Club recordings. He was nicknamed Cachaíto ("little Cachao") after his uncle, the famous bassist and innovator of mambo music Israel "Cachao" López. His father and Cachao's older brother was Orestes López, also a famous bassist/multi-instrumentalist and composer. Life and career Born in Havana on February 2, 1933, Orlando "Cachaíto" López first got actively involved in music when he was only nine years old. His early desire was to play the violin, but his grandfather Pedro insisted he take up the double bass, as there had been a long tradition of bassists in the López family, a trend that they did not want stopped. He started learning the double bass on a cello, quickly moving onto a double bass when he was large enough. His musical career is said to have starte ...
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Manuel "Puntillita" Licea
Puntillita (Manuel Licea Lamouth; January 4, 1921 in Yareyal, Holguín – December 4, 2000 in Havana) was a Cuban popular singer. Puntillita was active in the 1940s and 1950s, and later gained notice when he joined other elderly Cuban musicians to form the Afro-Cuban All Stars and the associated group of singers who recorded the ''Buena Vista Social Club'' with American guitarist Ry Cooder. Career Puntillita was a member of the ''Hermanos Licea'' in the 1940s in Camagüey. He began singing with the ''Orquesta Escorcia'', and played percussion in the ''Orquesta Tentación''. In 1945 he went to Havana to sing in trumpeter Julio Cueva's band. He got his nickname from ''Son de la puntillita'', which he sang with this band. He went on to achieve huge popularity in the 1950s as a soloist on ''Radio Cadena Habana''. In Mexico City he performed at ''El Patio'', singing with Celia Cruz and Beny Moré. With the conjunto ''Gloria Matancera'' he played at the ''Cabaret Antillano''. In the 1 ...
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