''Buena Vista Social Club'' is the debut album by the

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 gr ...

, an ensemble of Cuban musicians directed by

Juan de Marcos González Juan de Marcos González (born Juan de Marcos González-Cárdenas; January 29, 1954) is a Cuban bandleader, musician and actor, best known for his work with the Buena Vista Social Club and in the 2021 Sony Pictures Animation film '' Vivo'' as the ...

and American guitarist

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

. It was recorded at Havana's

EGREM EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales, Spanish for ''Enterprise of Recordings and Musical Editions'') is the national record label of Cuba. It is headquartered in Centro Habana, where its main record studios (''Estudios Areito'' 101 & ...

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 ''A Toda Cuba le Gusta'' is the first studio album by the Afro-Cuban All Stars, produced by Cuban bandleader and musician Juan de Marcos González and Nick Gold, and released on April 9, 1997 on World Circuit Records. This album was the first ...

'' 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 A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

conjunto The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño' ...

'', ''Buena Vista Social Club'' was meant to bring back the traditional

trova ''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by s ...

and filin, a mellower take on the Cuban son and

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

, as well as the

danzón Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Written in time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring se ...

. A critical and commercial success, the album's release was followed by a short concert tour in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

in 1998. Footage from these dates, as well as from the recording sessions in Havana, is shown in the 1999 documentary ''

'' directed by

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docum ...

. In 2022, the album was selected for preservation in the United States

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

as being "culturally historically or aesthetically significant".

Background

In 1996, American guitarist Ry Cooder had been invited to Havana by British world music producer Nick Gold of World Circuit Records to record a session where two African

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (British colony), history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions ...

musicians from

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

were to collaborate with Cuban musicians."Interview with Ry Cooder" in Los Angeles, by Betty Arcos, host, "The Global Village", Pacifica Radio, June 27, 2000
. ''Buena Vista Social Club'' site. PBS.org. Retrieved March 18, 2007. On Cooder's arrival (via

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

to avoid the ongoing U.S. trade and travel embargo against Cuba),"Hurricane Cooder hits Cuba"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. Retrieved March 20, 2007 it transpired that the musicians from Africa had not received their visas and were unable to travel to Havana. Cooder and Gold changed their plans and decided to record an album of Cuban ''

'' music with local musicians. Already involved in the African collaboration project were Cuban musicians including bassist

Orlando "Cachaito" López Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures relea ...

, guitarist

Eliades Ochoa Eliades Ochoa Bustamante (born 22 June 1946) is a Cuban guitarist and singer from Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago de Cuba. He began playing the guitar when he was six and in 1978 he was invited to joi ...

and musical director

, who had himself been organizing a similar project for the Afro-Cuban All Stars. A search for additional musicians led the team to singer

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 ...

, pianist Rubén González and octogenarian singer

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 w ...

, who all agreed to record for the project. Within three days of the project's birth, Cooder, Gold and de Marcos had organized a large group of performers and arranged for recording sessions to commence at Havana's

Studios, formerly owned by

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

records, where the equipment and atmosphere had remained unchanged since the 1950s. Communication between the Spanish and English speakers at the studio was conducted via an interpreter, although Cooder reflected that "musicians understand each other through means other than speaking".

Recording

The album was recorded in just six days and contained fourteen tracks; opening with "Chan Chan" written by Compay Segundo, a four-chord ''son'' (Dm, F, Gm, A7) that was to become what Cooder described as "the Buena Vista's calling card";"Life began at ninety"
Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved March 18, 2007. and ending with a rendition of "La bayamesa", a traditional Cuban patriotic song (not to be confused with the Cuban national anthem of the same name). The sessions also produced material for the subsequent release, '' Introducing...Rubén González'', which showcased the work of the Cuban pianist. Among the songs left off the album was the classic bolero-son " Lágrimas negras", which was deemed too popular for inclusion, and Compay Segundo's "Macusa". Both songs were later released on the compilation ''

Lost and Found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...

''.

Songs

The majority of the album comprises

standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

of the trova and filin repertoire, namely sones, guajiras and boleros typically played by small guitar-led ensembles. A foremost example of the son tradition on the album is "

Chan Chan Chan Chan was the largest city of the pre-Columbian era in South America. It is now an archaeology, archaeological site in La Libertad Region west of Trujillo, Peru. Chan Chan is located in the mouth of the Moche Valley and was the capital of ...

", the group's signature tune and the album opener. Written in the 1980s, it is one of Compay Segundo's most famous songs, and one he had recorded several times, most notably with

and his Cuarteto Patria. The same formula is followed in this recording, with Ochoa singing lead and Segundo on second voice as his artistic name indicates. The song's lyrics depict a rural scene with two characters: Juanita and Chan Chan. "Chan Chan" is followed by "De camino a la vereda", another son, written and sung by

Ibrahim Ferrer Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a Cuban singer who played with Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in ...

. Another example of the ''son cubano'' is Sergio González Siaba's "El cuarto de Tula", sung by Eliades Ochoa, with Ibrahim Ferrer and

joining Ochoa in an extended

descarga A descarga (literally ''discharge'' in Spanish) is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was ...

(jam) section improvising lyrics.

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.

plays a frenetic

laúd Laúd ( es, "lute") is a plectrum-plucked chordophone from Spain, played also in diaspora countries such as Cuba and the Philippines. The laúd belongs to the cittern family of instruments. The Spanish and Cuban instruments have six double c ...

solo towards the end of the track. Timbales are played by the 13-year-old Yulién Oviedo Sánchez. The song is featured in the 2001 film ''

Training Day ''Training Day'' is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang- ...

''. "Candela" is another classic son, composed by

Faustino Oramas Faustino Oramas Osorio (4 June 1911 – 27 March 2007), better known as El Guayabero, was a Cuban trova singer, tres guitarist and composer. Most of his repertoire consisted of sones and guaracha-sones, many with double entendres in the lyrics. His ...

"El Guayabero". Its lyrics, rich with sexual

innuendo An innuendo is a hint, insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion ...

, are sung by Ibrahim Ferrer who improvises vocal lines throughout the track, while the whole ensemble performs an extended

. Of the many boleros featured in the album,

Isolina Carrillo Isolina Carrillo (December 9, 1907 – February 21, 1996) was a Cuban composer, singer and pianist. She was a member of the vocal group Conjunto Siboney. At the age of eleven she made her musical debut replacing a pianist that called in sick in he ...

's "

Dos gardenias "Dos gardenias" is a bolero written in 1945 by Cuban composer and pianist Isolina Carrillo.De León (2003) p. 38. Widely considered a standard of the Latin music repertoire, the song became a hit for Daniel Santos in 1948, due to his recording with ...

" is perhaps the most famous, being sung here by Ibrahim Ferrer. Carrillo wrote the song in 1945 and it quickly became a huge success in Cuba and abroad. The song was chosen for the album after Cooder heard Ferrer and Rubén González improvising the melody before a recording session. Ferrer learned the song while playing with Cuban bandleader

Beny Moré Beny or Bény may refer to: Given name * Beny Alagem (born 1953), Israeli-American businessman * Beny Parnes (born 1959), Brazilian economist * Beny Primm (1928–2015), American physician and HIV/AIDS researcher * Beny Steinmetz (born 1956), Is ...

. Another bolero, "¿Y tú qué has hecho?" was written by Eusebio Delfín in the 1920s and features Compay Segundo on tres and vocals. Segundo was traditionally a "second voice" singer providing a baritone counterpoint harmony. On this recording, he multitracks both voices. The song also features a duet between Segundo on tres and

on guitar. "Veinte años", also a bolero, is sung by the only female vocalist in the ensemble,

Omara Portuondo Omara Portuondo Peláez (born 29 October 1930) is a Cuban singer and dancer. A founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida, Portuondo has collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio Gu ...

, with Segundo on second vocals. It was recorded in one take after Omara had finished her own recording sessions at EGREM studios and was getting ready for a flight to Vietnam. Other boleros included are Rafael Ortiz's "Amor de loca juventud", Eliseo Silveira's "Orgullecida" (both sung by Compay Segundo) and Electo Rosell's "Murmullo" (sung by Ibrahim Ferrer, who used to be the lead vocalist in Rosell's ensemble Orquesta Chepín-Chovén). "El carretero" is a guajira (country lament) sung by Eliades Ochoa with the full ensemble providing additional instruments and backing vocals, while "La bayamesa", a famous

criolla Criolla is a genre of Cuban music which is closely related to the music of the Cuban Coros de Clave and a genre of Cuban popular music called Clave. The Clave became a very popular genre in the Cuban vernacular theater and was created by compose ...

Sindo Garay Sindo Garay (born Antonio Gumersindo Garay García; Santiago de Cuba, 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968) was a Cuban trova musician. He was taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the ''four greats of the trova''. He was of Spanish a ...

, is used as the album closer, with Puntillita, Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer on vocals. Two tracks are included from the Cuban

repertoire: "Pueblo Nuevo" and "Buena Vista Social Club", both dedicated to locations in Havana, originally recorded by

Arcaño y sus Maravillas Arcaño y sus Maravillas was a Cuban charanga founded in 1937 by flautist Antonio Arcaño. Until its dissolution in 1958, it was one of the most popular and prolific danzón orchestras in Cuba, particularly due to the development of the danzón-m ...

, and composed by bass player

Cachao Israel López Valdés (September 14, 1918 – March 22, 2008), better known as Cachao ( ), was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised jam sessions). T ...

(although the latter has been wrongly attributed to his brother

Orestes López Orestes López Valdés (August 28, 1908 – January 26, 1991), nicknamed Macho, was a Cuban multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. As a double bassist he was a founding member of the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, and later a member of th ...

in the liner notes and by Cooder). The title track spotlights the piano work of Rubén González. It was recorded after Cooder heard González improvising around the tune's musical theme before a day's recording session. After playing the tune, González explained to Cooder the history of the social club and that the song was the club's "mascot tune". When searching for a name for the overall project, manager Nick Gold chose the song's title. According to Cooder,

It should be the thing that sets it apart. It was a kind of club by then. Everybody was hanging out and we had rum and coffee around two in the afternoon. It felt like a club, so let's call it that. That's what gave it a handle.

Reception

''Buena Vista Social Club'' earned considerable critical praise and has received numerous accolades from music writers and publications.AcclaimedMusic: Buena Vista Social Club
. AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved on February 9, 2009. In 2003, the album was ranked number 260 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine's list of

the 500 greatest albums of all time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...

,RS500: Buena Vista Social Club
Rolling Stone. Retrieved on February 9, 2009. one of only two albums on the list to be produced in a non-English speaking country. The album was also included in the book ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

''. As of 2020, the album has sold over 8 million copies. The album was awarded the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album and Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year by a Group at the 1998

Billboard Latin Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards grew out of the ''Billboard'' Music Awards program from ''Billboard'' magazine, an industry publication charting the sales and radio airplay success of musical recordings. The ''Billboard'' awards are the La ...

. In 2022, the album was selected by the

for preservation in the

Track listing

Chart performance

''Buena Vista Social Club'' achieved considerable sales in Europe, reaching the Top 10 in several countries, including Germany where it topped the charts, as well as the US, where it reached number 80 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In 2009, it was awarded a double platinum certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

which indicated sales of at least 1,000,000 copies throughout Europe. , it is the second bestselling Latin album in the United States after '' Dreaming of You'' (1995) by

Selena Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

References

External links

Official Buena Vista Social Club website

{{Authority control 1997 debut albums Buena Vista Social Club albums Nonesuch Records albums World Circuit (record label) albums Spanish-language albums Albums produced by Ry Cooder Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album Descarga albums United States National Recording Registry recordings United States National Recording Registry albums