The impact of Buena Vista Social Club was unexpected and unprecedented. The project was originally birthed out of Ry Cooder’s trip to Havana, Cuba when he was sent to make a collaboration record of African and Cuban musicians. Unfortunately the African musician’s visas had not arrived, and so the plans changed to create a Cuban Son album. After getting together a large group of musicians (20 musicians are featured on the album in total), the whole album was recorded in only 6 days and the rest is history. The album’s success grew steadily by word of mouth, won a Grammy and was even turned into a documentary by German film directer, Wim Wenders. The album had an international impact and a re-introduced the significance of Cuban music.
That being said, it is truly an honor to have Portuondo y Ochoa, two of Buena Vista Social Club’s original members, back in Austin. The two will be performing at the Moody Theater for ACL Live tonight, August 19th. This is one of those rare shows that should not be missed. Fortunately, Portuondo y Ochoa stopped by Studio 1A to perform a few songs with us. You can listen to their performance in the links below.
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