Remember the album “Buena Vista Social Club”? Even if not, there is “Buena Vista Social Club”, musicals, a frenzied explosion from the past, old Cuban music for a new audience. The Broadway version stands out for the studio where the corroded grandeur of the city and the album was recorded by a group of Cuban musicians who were almost forgotten in 1996.
Justin Cunningham, Juan de Marcos: “The following is the story of the band. It’s not ours, but we’ll do our best.
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The Real Part: The real person this actor is playing, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, had already found and gathered old musicians before music producers Ry Cooder and Nick Gold appeared in Havana. When their plans to combine albums to make Cuban and West Africa performers fell, they went with Plan B and recorded with the group.
“I was very happy because they were my idols,” Juan said. “You know, I grew up listening to their music, and all of a sudden I was a bandleader.”
I thought, “Did you think that what has become a ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ would be a big deal? “I asked.
“No,” he replied. “They became pop stars. It seemed incredible.”
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The resulting, unexpected and fascinating phenomenon is the subject of the Oscar-nominated 1999 Wim Wenders documentary.
“It was just ubiquitous. You’ll hear this music everywhere,” said Judy Cantle Navas, a contributor to Saccak, author of Cuba-on Records. “Yes, ‘Yes, we’re listening to this old Cuban music that sells millions of albums all of a sudden, and it seemed very unlikely.”
“Why do you think people love music so much?” he asked.
“Cuban music was really appealing to so many different kinds of people,” Cantor Navas said. “They say there is a perfect combination of Afro-Cuban rhythms that assembled in Cuba and Spanish melodies.
It wasn’t just the music they loved. It was who the musicians were – the unlikely final act of their careers. The album has won a Grammy Award and sells over 8 million copies worldwide.
“And they were back on stage and they were so happy,” Juan de Marcos said. “Because if you are a musician and you are an artist, you are always an artist. And even when you retire, you have this little candle in your heart.”
Singer dancer O’Mara Portundo was 67 years old. Singer Ibrahim Feller was 70 years old. The other band members were about 90 years old. They began touring the world and sang to me 25 years ago for the story of “Sunday Morning.” “I still need to pinch myself to make sure I’m asleep and not dreaming,” Feller said. “I didn’t think I would be that successful.”
From the Archive: Buena Vista Social Club on the US Tour (2000)
The play tells the story of the imagined origins of musicians, their careers, and their personal struggles later in life, along with hints of romance decades before their fame.
Marco Ramirez wrote the Broadway show. “I’m Cuban-American. I was born and raised in Miami, but my parents and my family Cuba,” he said. “So, for me, it was music that brought me to this, it was music that was nurtured throughout my life.
He was 14 when the album came out. “This was a moment of intense pride and we all suddenly, as we realized that the world was accustomed to hearing our music and that I was used to hearing on the washing machine in my grandfather’s little yellow Sony boom box, these things all of a sudden, they bothered us.”
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Saheem Ali, the show’s director, grew up in Kenya. His father, an airline pilot, took the album home. He got hooked on it. “I kept listening to it over and over,” he said. “Something about the lyrics spoke to me. I learned the lyrics without knowing what I was talking about.
“I knew nothing about their stories, absolutely nothing. The first time I learned about the story was reading Marco’s script, which is what makes me excited about this musical.
The old songs that were lively on the Broadway stage were performed in the 1940s and 50s at the actual Buena Vista Social Club, a Havana nightclub dedicated to working-class black Cubans. It was closed after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The events of the Cuban Revolution lurk at the edge of the show.
Playing yesterday’s Cuban music on Broadway is some of the best Cuban musicians today, most of whom currently live outside of Cuba.
Juan de Marcos said, “People going to see real Cuba, try to get a part of our country when attending musicals. There’s nothing in our country. We don’t have oil. We have gold, beautiful women, good coffee, the best cigars and the best rum.
Offered on Broadway: Feasts.
To hear the performance of “Chan Chan” in the musical “Buena Vista Social Club”, click on the video player below.
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A story created by Reid Orvedahl. Editor: Carol Ross.
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