Buena Vista Social Club is a studio album byBuena Vista Social Club, an ensemble ofCuban musicians directed byJuan de Marcos González and American guitaristRy Cooder. Produced by Cooder, it was recorded at Havana'sEGREM studios in March 1996 and released on June 23, 1997,[1] throughWorld Circuit internationally andNonesuch Records in the United States. It is the only standard studio album exclusively credited to the Buena Vista Social Club.
Buena Vista Social Club was recorded in parallel withA toda Cuba le gusta by theAfro-Cuban All Stars, a similar project also promoted by World Circuit executiveNick Gold and featuring largely the same lineup. In contrast toA toda Cuba le gusta, which was conceived as a revival of thesonconjunto,Buena Vista Social Club was meant to bring back the traditionaltrova andfilin, a mellower take on the Cuban son andbolero, as well as thedanzón.
The album was a critical and commercial success. Its release was followed by a short concert tour inAmsterdam andNew York'sCarnegie Hall in 1998. Footage from these dates, as well as from the recording sessions in Havana, was shown in the 1999 documentaryBuena Vista Social Club directed byWim Wenders. In 2022, the album was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Recording Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally historically or aesthetically significant". In the same year it was recognized by theGuinness World Records as the best-sellingworld music album.[3]
Cooder, Gold and de Marcos organized a large group of performers (twenty are credited) and arranged recording sessions at Havana'sEGREM Studios, formerly owned byRCA records, where the equipment and atmosphere had remained unchanged since the 1950s.[6] Communication between the Spanish and English speakers at the studio was conducted via an interpreter, although Cooder reflected that "musicians understand each other through means other than speaking".[4]
The album contained fourteen tracks and was recorded in six days. It opened with "Chan Chan" written by Compay Segundo, a four-chordson (Dm, F, Gm, A7) that was to become what Cooder described as "the Buena Vista's calling card";[7] and ending with a rendition of "La bayamesa", a traditional Cuban patriotic song (not to be confused with the Cuban national anthem of the same name).[8] The sessions also produced material for the subsequent releaseIntroducing...Rubén González which showcased the work of theCuban pianist.[5] Among the songs left off the album were the classic bolero-son "Lágrimas negras", which was deemed too popular for inclusion, and Compay Segundo's "Macusa". Both songs were later released on the compilationLost and Found.[9]
The majority of the album comprisedstandards of the trova and filin repertoire, namely sones, guajiras and boleros typically played by small guitar-led ensembles. A foremost example of the son tradition on the album was "Chan Chan", the group's signature tune and the album opener. Written in the 1980s, it was one of Compay Segundo's most famous songs and one he had recorded several times, most notably withEliades Ochoa and his Cuarteto Patria. The same formula was followed in this recording, with Ochoa singing lead and Segundo on second voice (as his artist name indicated). The song's lyrics depicted a rural scene with two characters, Juanita and Chan Chan.[10] "Chan Chan" was followed by "De camino a la vereda", another son, written and sung byIbrahim Ferrer.
Another example of theson cubano was Sergio González Siaba's "El cuarto de Tula", sung by Eliades Ochoa, with Ferrer andManuel "Puntillita" Licea joining Ochoa in an extendeddescarga (jam) section improvising lyrics.Barbarito Torres played a freneticlaúd solo towards the end of the track. Timbales were played by 13-year-old Yulién Oviedo Sánchez. The song was featured in the 2001 filmTraining Day.[11] "Candela" was another classic son, composed byFaustino Oramas "El Guayabero". Its lyrics, rich with sexualinnuendo, were sung by Ibrahim Ferrer, who improvised vocal lines throughout the track, and the whole ensemble performed an extendeddescarga.[12]
Of the many boleros featured in the album,Isolina Carrillo's "Dos gardenias" was perhaps the most famous, sung here by Ibrahim Ferrer. Carrillo wrote the song in 1945 and it became a huge success in Cuba and abroad. The song was chosen for the album after Cooder heard Ferrer andRubén González improvising the melody before a recording session. Ferrer had learned the song while playing with Cuban bandleaderBeny Moré.[13] Another bolero, "¿Y tú qué has hecho?" was written byEusebio Delfín in the 1920s and featured Compay Segundo on tres and vocals. Segundo was traditionally a "second voice" singer providing a baritone counterpoint harmony. On this recording he multitracked both voices. The song also featured a duet between Segundo on tres andRy Cooder on guitar.[14] "Veinte años", also a bolero, was sung by the only female vocalist in the ensemble,Omara Portuondo, with Segundo on second vocals.[15] It was recorded in one take after Omara had finished her own recording sessions at EGREM studios and was preparing to fly to Vietnam.[16] Other boleros included were Rafael Ortiz's "Amor de loca juventud", Eliseo Silveira's "Orgullecida" (both sung by Compay Segundo) and Electo Rosell's "Murmullo" (sung by Ibrahim Ferrer, who used to be the lead vocalist in Rosell's ensemble Orquesta Chepín-Chovén).
"El carretero", aguajira (country lament), was sung by Eliades Ochoa with the full ensemble providing additional instruments and backing vocals. "La bayamesa", a famouscriolla bySindo Garay, was the album closer with Puntillita, Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer on vocals.
Two tracks were included from the Cubandanzón repertoire, "Pueblo Nuevo" and "Buena Vista Social Club", both dedicated to locations in Havana. They were originally recorded byArcaño y sus Maravillas and were composed by bass playerCachao (although "Buena Vista Social Club" has been wrongly attributed to his brotherOrestes López in the liner notes and by Cooder).[4][17] The title track, highlighting the piano work of Rubén González, was recorded after Cooder heard González improvising around the tune's musical theme before a day's recording session. After playing the tune, González explained to Cooder the history of the social club and that the song was the club's "mascot tune".[4] When searching for a name for the overall project, manager Nick Gold chose the song's title. According to Cooder,
It should be the thing that sets it apart. It was a kind of club by then. Everybody was hanging out and we had rum and coffee around two in the afternoon. It felt like a club, so let's call it that. That's what gave it a handle.[4]
In 2024, it was ranked in eleventh position on the “Los 600 de Latinoamérica” list compiled by a collective of music journalists from several countries of the Americas, curating the top 600 Latin American albums from 1920-2022.[31]
As of 2020, the album had sold over eight million copies.[32] and is considered one of the most best-selling Latin albums of all time worldwide.[33]
Buena Vista Social Club achieved considerable sales in Europe, reaching the Top 10 in several countries, including Germany where it topped the charts, as well as the US, where it reached number 80 on theBillboard 200. In 2009, it was awarded a double platinum certification from theIndependent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 1,000,000 copies throughout Europe.[34] As of October 2017[update], it is the second bestselling Latin album in the United States afterDreaming of You (1995) bySelena.[35]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^Las BayamesasArchived February 6, 2012, at theWayback Machine. La Jiribilla magazine.Juventud Rebelde. Retrieved March 18, 2007."Desde finales de la segunda década del siglo pasado hasta nuestros días, no hay dudas de que en Bayamo se han escrito otras hermosas e importantes obras musicales, que podrían también llamarse bayamesas. Nadie puede negar sin embargo que las tres primeras bayamesas, compuestas ente 1851 y 1918, precisamente en un período rotundo de afirmación de nuestra identidad nacional, son parte entrañable del patrimonio de la nación cubana." Translation: "From the end of the 1910s to the present day, there is no doubt that inBayamo, beautiful and important music has been written that could also be called Bayamesas. Nobody can deny, nevertheless, that the first three Bayamesas, composed between 1851 and 1918 in a period of strong affirmation of our national identity, are an integral part of Cuban patriotism."
^Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal (Fall 2013)."Afro-Cuban All Stars / Buena Vista Social Club"(PDF).Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music 1925-1960. Florida International University Libraries.Archived(PDF) from the original on September 25, 2018. RetrievedMarch 28, 2015.
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