Buena Vista Social Club

Group Members: Ry Cooder Omara Portuondo Joachim Cooder Julio Fernandez Ruben Gonzalez Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez Eliades Ochoa Carlos González Manuel "El Guajiro" Mirabal Benito Suárez Magana Julienne Oviedo Sánchez Compay Segundo Ibrahim Ferrer Juan de Marcos González Salvador Repilado Labrada Manuel "Puntillita" Licea Luis Barzaga Lázaro Villa

Less a band than an assemblage of some of Cuba's most renowned musical forces, Buena Vista Social Club's origins lie with noted American guitarist Ry Cooder, who in 1996 traveled to Havana to seek out a number of legendary local musicians whose performing careers largely ended decades earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González, Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record the album Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy and becoming the best-selling release of Cooder's long career. In 1998 he returned to Havana with percussionist son Joaquim to record a solo LP with Ferrar; the sessions were captured on film by director Wim Wenders, who also documented sell-out Buena Vista Social Club live performances in Amsterdam and New York City. (Wenders' film, also titled simply Buena Vista Social Club, earned an Academy Award nomination in 2000.) The public's continued interest in Cuban music subsequently generated solo efforts from Segundo and González as well as a series of international live performances promoted under the Buena Vista Social Club aegis.

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