Buena Vista Social Club

Musical Group

Forfans of traditional cuban music, world-music listeners, jazz/blues aficionados, and anyone curious about musical revivals.
1 Reviews 3 Definitions 2 Charts

The Profile

Buena Vista Social Club is a Cuban music ensemble/project formed in the 1990s that brought together veteran Cuban musicians to record traditional son, bolero and related genres; a 1997 album produced by Ry Cooder and a documentary film helped popularize the project internationally.

The project was produced by Ry Cooder (album) and documented in a film directed by Wim Wenders; notable performers include Rubén González, Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer. The recordings emphasize traditional Cuban son, bolero and Afro-Cuban influences and contributed to a late-1990s revival of interest in Cuba's musical heritage.

The supplied review celebrates the Buena Vista Social Club album and documentary as a revival of traditional Cuban music, praising the performances of veteran musicians and Ry Cooder's production. It highlights the album's evocative, seaside atmosphere and its mixture of African, American, European influences. The reviewer recommends the record as great Cuban/world music.

Notable Quotes

❝ Buena Vista Social Club is a film-documentary about the extraordinary Cuban musical tradition, unfortunately lost over the years, abandoned and impoverished until it ended up in the commercial cauldron becoming the "salsa" product (...not tomato and olives, mind you, I’m talking about music) and brought back in recent times to the beauty, class, and originality of a bygone era.