Cuba is roughly 1,300 miles away, but in a rehearsal space in downtown Manhattan, it doesn’t feel all that far. Cradling their percussion instruments, horns, and guitars, a ten-piece band of musicians, some from Latin America, preparing to play a sinuous piece of son Cubano, as a theater crew — director, writer, actors and choreographers — hover around.
“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” says music supervisor Dean Sharenow. “It’s important that this is the real thing, not a Broadway musical production.”
Welcome to the next iteration of the enduring...
“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” says music supervisor Dean Sharenow. “It’s important that this is the real thing, not a Broadway musical production.”
Welcome to the next iteration of the enduring...
- 11/20/2023
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Buena Vista Social Club have unearthed a previously unreleased track, “Vicenta,” which will appear on the upcoming 25th-anniversary reissue of the Cuban outfit’s acclaimed self-titled album, out September 17th via World Circuit Records.
Penned by Compay Segundo, “Vicenta” recounts the story of a 1909 fire that destroyed nearly all of the village of La Maya, located outside of Santiago. Buena Vista Social Club’s version of the song is presented as a duet between Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, who was born and raised in La Maya.
“Vicenta” is one of...
Penned by Compay Segundo, “Vicenta” recounts the story of a 1909 fire that destroyed nearly all of the village of La Maya, located outside of Santiago. Buena Vista Social Club’s version of the song is presented as a duet between Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, who was born and raised in La Maya.
“Vicenta” is one of...
- 6/9/2021
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Lucy Walker’s documentary usefully fills in gaps left by the wildly successful 1999 Wim Wenders film about the band and its few ageing survivors
This thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary takes a last look at the hugely influential Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, a project that started out as an album recording tracks by ageing Cuban musicians brought together by British impresario Nick Gold and produced by American musician Ry Cooder. Director Wim Wenders made a wildly successful documentary in 1999 that helped increase sales the album, while the artists it featured (most of whom had never worked with each other before) became near household names in metropolitan, world-music-curious households across the world.
Here, director Lucy Walker interweaves interviews with many of the surviving band members and archive footage to provide biographical, political and historical background. That usefully fills in gaps the first documentary left unsaid, but then part of the...
This thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary takes a last look at the hugely influential Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, a project that started out as an album recording tracks by ageing Cuban musicians brought together by British impresario Nick Gold and produced by American musician Ry Cooder. Director Wim Wenders made a wildly successful documentary in 1999 that helped increase sales the album, while the artists it featured (most of whom had never worked with each other before) became near household names in metropolitan, world-music-curious households across the world.
Here, director Lucy Walker interweaves interviews with many of the surviving band members and archive footage to provide biographical, political and historical background. That usefully fills in gaps the first documentary left unsaid, but then part of the...
- 10/20/2017
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Cuba has just been opened up to Americans, but twenty years ago musician Ry Cooder saw to it that a vanishing music tradition was preserved for posterity. Wim Wenders followed up with this rough & ready documentary that became almost as popular as the best selling album of mambos, boleros and cha-chas.
Buena Vista Social Club
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 866
1999 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, Amadito Valdés, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Juan de Marcos González.
Cinematography: Jörg Widmer
Film Editor: Brian Johnson
Written by Wim Wenders, concept Nick Gold
Produced by Deepak Nayar
Directed by Wim Wenders
Looking for something new and invigorating, in the late 1980s Paul Simon collaborated with South African vocalists for a refreshing pop hybrid album...
Buena Vista Social Club
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 866
1999 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, Amadito Valdés, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Juan de Marcos González.
Cinematography: Jörg Widmer
Film Editor: Brian Johnson
Written by Wim Wenders, concept Nick Gold
Produced by Deepak Nayar
Directed by Wim Wenders
Looking for something new and invigorating, in the late 1980s Paul Simon collaborated with South African vocalists for a refreshing pop hybrid album...
- 4/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Buena Vista Social Club, the Oscar-nominated 1999 documentary exploring American guitarist Ry Cooder's efforts to re-assemble a group of renowned Cuban musicians, is getting a sequel. Buena Vista Social Club – Adios, directed by Lucy Walker (Waste Land), will begin filming in July, focusing on the band's five original members on tour. The film will explore their personal and professional lives over the past 16 years, building to a run of homecoming concerts in Havana, Variety reports.
The original, Wim Wenders-directed Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for Best Documentary Feature...
The original, Wim Wenders-directed Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for Best Documentary Feature...
- 5/4/2015
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
Buena Vista Social Club, the Oscar-nominated 1999 documentary exploring American guitarist Ry Cooder's efforts to re-assemble a group of renowned Cuban musicians, is getting a sequel. Buena Vista Social Club - Adios, directed by Lucy Walker (Waste Land), will begin filming in July, focusing on the band's five original members on tour. The film will explore their personal and professional lives over the past 16 years, building to a run of homecoming concerts in Havana, Variety reports.
The original, Wim Wenders-directed Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for Best Documentary...
The original, Wim Wenders-directed Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for Best Documentary...
- 5/4/2015
- Rollingstone.com
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