Wednesday, April 11, 2012

"Buena Vista Social Club" (1999) - "Chan Chan"




A clip from Wim Wenders' award-winning documentary about 1940-50s-era Cuban musicians reunited to great international success.

From Wikipedia: "The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of international interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with international stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

"Several surviving members of the Buena Vista Social Club, such as trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, laúd player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos currently tour worldwide, to popular acclaim, with new members such as the singer Carlos Calunga, virtuoso pianist Rolando Luna[1][2] and occasionally the solo singer Omara Portuondo, as part of a 13 member band called Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club."

16 comments:

  1. Music to be blockaded by always sounds sweet to me Doug and this is no exception.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's not to like Doug?

    Have you seen the translation of the lyrics? HOT HOT!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sweet indeed, AA. As fewer and fewer Cuban-Americans in Miami themselves support the blockade--it's about half and half according to what I've read recently, then its more likely the blockade will be a thing of the past soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, Jim, but now you've got me headed off to find a translation! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes Doug I hear it's moving to Venezuela, more oily than Cuba of course :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL. Could be AA.

    I remember that very funny British film "Carry on Continental Blockade!" with Hattie Jacques as Napoleon.

    On the other hand, I think the need for oil can make friends out of the unlikeliest governments.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOL......I take it you are referring to the unlikely British government that nobody actually elected here Doug....yes I see your point entirely!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We had an unelected government in the White House running things between 2001-2005. Bush-Cheney-Haliburton. That didn't go so well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes I remember it was a bit patchy Doug

    ReplyDelete
  10. Was that the one where Charles Hawtrey played Florence Nightingale Doug?

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL.

    Could you be thinking of "Carry On Light Brigade" with Hattie Jacques as Lord Raglan? Came out the following year.

    Hawtrey did a better job as Nightengale than Jaclyn "Charlie's Angels" Smith did in a later biopic. Acting-wise I mean.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Its all coming back to me now Doug, James Robertson Justice as the Russian Empire, was it that one with Babs Windsor as Alfred, Lord Tennyson?

    ReplyDelete
  13. The visual segment in mid-video was interesting.
    It was almost like viewing a blast back to the 1950's past.
    Amazing.... just amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes, that was actually my favorite part of the bit from the documentary. The old Havana seen in clips like that always makes me think of an abandoned city that people are just returning to after decades.

    I gather from what I've read that Cuba's capital was an island of relative prosperity on the island. Tourism from America was a major industry of course, for better and worse, and much of the middle class in that country was centered in Cuba. These were the familes that made up the exodus to Miami and other parts of the US between 1959 and 1964. Some put the figure of refugees at one million but it's hard to trust these estimates because of the Cold War.

    More US-style cars were sold in Havana in the 1950's per capita than any city in Latin America and only Venezelua was ahead in per capita car ownership in the Caribbean region.

    The government since the 1959 Revolution has focused on the smaller cities and rural locales--the excact opposite of the old state capitalist regime.

    ReplyDelete