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La Habana, Cuba · 1996–2015

Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club is not just a name: it is a sound that seems to stop time. Recorded at the Egrem studios in Havana, the album that bears its name brings together musicians who had seen decades pass between the cabildos and societies of color in Cuba, those clubs where music was the language of an era. They weren’t seeking fame, but rather to recover something fading away: the son cubano of the Golden Age, between the 1930s and 1950s, when Havana breathed in the rhythm of clave. Ry Cooder, the American guitarist who gathered them, arrived with the idea of capturing that essence before it vanished.

What emerged was not just any album: it was a bridge between generations, a record that sounded of nostalgia but with the living weight of those who played it.The turning point came when the world heard this material. Success led them to perform live, first in Amsterdam in 1998, with the full lineup the studio had assembled. But the defining moment was the concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, captured by Wim Wenders in a documentary that ended up being as important as the music itself. The film, also titled Buena Vista Social Club, not only showed the musicians on stage: it brought them to speak of their lives, of the cabildos where everything began, of neighborhoods like Marianao where the original club — the one that inspired the name — once brought together doctors, engineers, and artists under one roof.

latin Jazz afro-cuban jazz bolero son Folk 1990s
1 Albums
14 Songs
1,1M Listeners/mo
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01

Chan Chan

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

4:19 02

De camino a la vereda

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

5:04 03

El cuarto de Tula

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

7:25 04

Pueblo Nuevo

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

6:07 05

Dos gardenias

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:04 06

¿Y tú qué has hecho?

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:15 07

Veinte años

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:32 08

El carretero

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:30 09

Candela

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

5:29 10

Amor de loca juventud

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:23

1 album|s · 1997

Full discography

Buena Vista Social Club 1997 ★ Essential

Buena Vista Social Club

14 song|s · latin

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More about Buena Vista Social Club

Biography

The documentary earned an Oscar nomination and won Best Documentary at the European Film Awards, but the most curious outcome was how the group’s name became a brand: not just for the album, but for a wave of collaborations and reissues that revived global interest in traditional Cuban music.Behind that sound are stories worth remembering. Compay Segundo, the deep-voiced guitarist with a pure style, recorded his first solo album at 90 years old. Rubén González, the pianist whose energy defied his age, became a symbol of that vitality. Ibrahim Ferrer, with his hat and warm voice, embodied classic Cuban elegance.

But time moved fast: in less than a decade, most of them were gone. Puntillita Licea, Compay Segundo, and Rubén González died in 2003; Ibrahim Ferrer in 2005; Pío Leyva in 2006. Others remained, like Omara Portuondo — the female voice that closed the circle — Eliades Ochoa with his guitar and unmistakable guajiro style, or Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, the trumpeter whose playing sounded as if he carried the son in his blood. Today, when someone plays a son montuno or a bolero, it’s easy for that name — Buena Vista Social Club — to appear as a reference, a reminder that music, when it is pure, needs nothing more than a well-placed chord and a story to tell.

Details

Born
1 Jan 1996
Country
🇨🇺 Cuba
Genre
latin

Members

· actual
Barbarito Torres
· actual
Benito Suárez
· actual
Compay Segundo
· actual
Eliades Ochoa
· actual
Ibrahim Ferrer
· actual
Joachim Cooder
· actual
Luis Barzaga
· actual
Luis Frank
· actual
Lázaro Villa
· actual
Omara Portuondo
· actual
Orlando “Cachaíto” López
· actual
Rubén González
· actual
Ry Cooder
· actual
Salvador Repilado

Record labels

World Circuit (record label) World Circuit *Nonesuch Records Nonesuch

Links

Spotify Official site Wikipedia

The full catalog on DoReSol

All songs

11

Orgullecida

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:19 12

Murmullo

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

3:51 13

Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

4:53 14

La Bayamesa

Buena Vista Social Club · 1997

2:54