What could be a more triumphant testament to the boundlessness of music than the story of a group of retired Cuban musicians becoming super famous as Buena Vista Social Club?
Fortunately for Qatar, before bowing out of the scene, the band will perform at 7pm on March 25 at Sheraton Grand Doha, as part of its farewell world tour. Phoenix Entertainment, a new and upcoming Qatari live entertainment company, is bringing down the 13-member Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club for the first, and what is also set to be the last, time to Qatar.
The story, success and fame of Buena Vista Social Club is as delightful to recount as their soulful music. It used to be a members’ club in Havana, Cuba, that closed in the 1940s, and was later a 1990s band, a 1997 album, a 1999 film, and an unofficial brand name representing the musical spirit of the original Havana club. The original club held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s.
As Rolling Stone puts it, “Buena Vista Social Club wasn’t actually a proper band “but a confluence of veteran Cuban musicians brought together for a recording session by American guitarist Ry Cooder after a 1996 trip to Havana.”
Rolling Stone’s biography points out, “The project became the surprise hit of 1997 when its resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, wound up selling over five million copies, largely by word of mouth, and won a Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Performance. The Buena Vista Social Club did more internationally for Cuban music than decades of cultural exchanges ever could and simultaneously helped popularise the world music genre in the late-1990s.”
Having recorded their 14-track debut album in just six days, the ensemble became a global phenomenon and led to live performances in Amsterdam and New York. “In its wake came further recordings, world tours, solo albums and, for a while, this cluster of Cubans seemed inescapable – the distinctive strains of Chan Chan, Dos Gardenias and Candela winding their way around restaurant tables, bar stools and dinner parties the world over,” writes Laura Barton in The Guardian.
“But in the last two decades much has changed. Six of the original members – Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ Lopez, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea – have passed away,” Barton elaborates, “Although singer Omara Portuondo and guitarist and vocalist Eliades Ochoa remain, for the past few years the group has toured as the Orquesta, with a shifting lineup. The repertoire remains much the same, though.”
While the epic album’s opening tune, Chan Chan, was a composition of 89-year-old Compay Segundo, who was a bandleader in the ’50s, the cover of the early-’50s tune De Camino a la Verada was sung by the 72-year-old composer Ibrahim Ferrer. All the songs were recorded live, some even in the musicians’ small apartments, which lent a deep, rich atmosphere to the sound.
One of the songs, Buena Vista Social Club, was written by Cachaíto’s father about an old Havana gathering place. Rolling Stone points out, “Cooder decided to name the group and album after the club. When Cooder returned to Havana two years later with his percussionist son, Joaquim, to record Ferrer for a solo album, director Wim Wenders followed them.
“His film, Buena Vista Social Club, is mix of footages from that trip and Buena Vista’s live performances in New York City and Amsterdam. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.”
These days, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club is touring the world as the original heritage formation. Last year, they have embarked on their very last tour named ADIOS which brings them to Doha on March 25.