Buena Vista Social Club

The Buena Vista Social Club was a black members-only club in eastern Havana that became a hotspot for musicians to meet, play together and experiment, which reached its zenith in the 1940s. The name has become an umbrella term referring to the frenzy of musical output that marked Cuba's "golden age of music" from the 1930s through the 1950s. Its fame owes much to the revival of the 1990s, when Cuban musician Juan de Marcos González teamed with American guitarist Ry Cooder and several musicians from the original club's heyday to produce the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1997.

The album enjoyed both international popularity and critical acclaim for its revival of traditional Cuban rhythms; in 2003, the American magazine Rolling Stone deemed the album no. 260 of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." Soon after the release of the album the group was invited to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where German film director Wim Wenders began to create a documentary film also entitled Buena Vista Social Club. The film, which traced the history of the group and featured extensive interviews with band members, garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2000. The film reportedly grossed over $23 million, a huge sum for a documentary, and was praised not just for the music but for the spotlight it placed on the musicians who played only for enjoyment, without prospects for financial reward.

The success of the BVSC projects, with their focus on the skill and originality of Cuban musicians of a previous era, allowed some of the original members belated recognition of their talents. Vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, pianist Rubén González, and guitarist and vocalist Compay Segundo, who lived to be 95, were able to enjoy the renewal of interest in their passion before passing away.

See alsoCompay Segundo; Music: Popular Music and Dance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buena Vista Social Club (recording, 1997).

Buena Vista Social Club (documentary film, 2000, and other information). Online at http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/.

                                     Sean H. Goforth