Buena Vista Social Club
When the Rolling Stones first came to America, the first thing they asked was, "Where's Muddy Waters? We want to meet him." This being 1964, all the white journalists covering the event simply scratched their heads and stared blankly at the blues-obsessed Brits. You see, although names like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin Wolf were known to the British Underground as bona fide American stars, the reality was that these artists were largely obscure in their homeland.
In the space of a year, the popularity of the Beatles and the Stones (and their vocal homage to the Mississippi and Chicago bluesmen who inspired them) had driven promoters to find old bluesmen and throw them back onstage again. Mississippi John Hurt was farming in the obscure town of Avalon before folk researchers put a guitar in his hand and a tape recorder in front of him. Son House, Skip James and others were similarly brought back to prominence during the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals.
Filmed by the legendary Wim Wenders, Buena Vista Social Club documents an eerily parallel story, although this time, the culture mining happened in Cuba. In a strange twist of fate, Ry Cooder (who also used to play with the Rolling Stones - coincidence?) was scheduled to play with a few Cuban and East African musicians for a world music date in Cuba in 1998. The East African musicians never showed up (you know how musicians are. They'll sleep through a gig two blocks downtown, never mind across the Atlantic), and so Ry started poking around the streets, looking for backing musicians.
Although the names likely mean nothing to you, it's remarkable what he found. Compay Segundo is a remarkably spry and funny 90-year old guitarist and bandleader from the 50's; pianist Ruben Gonzalez is Cuba's answer to Thelonious Monk; Ibrahim Ferrer was found shining shoes before being persuaded to add his angelic vocals - it's as if Frank Sinatra was found pumping gas in Jersey. All are masters of Cuban son, the traditional island folk music, and all show a palpable joy in playing their gorgeous music for appreciative audiences again. The film gives brief biographies of the men told in their own words, pans across the crushingly poor Havana streets, skips to Carnegie Hall where the Buena Vista Social Club tore the roof off the sucker, and shows great affection touched with reverence throughout for these musicians.
But while the stories are touching (Ibrahim's wide-eyed wonder at visiting New York for the first time at the age of 70 is impossibly sweet), it's all about the group's music, which permeates nearly every frame of the film. This is essentially a concert video interspersed with brief cuts of dialogue, and a damn fine concert it is. If you haven't heard the Buena Vista Social Club album, one of 1998's best, this film will persuade you. Played with passion, extraordinary group intuition and heart, this music is as smooth, complex and warming as a belt of Lagavulin single malt scotch.
- Jared O'Connor
MOVIES
All Content © 1997, 1998, 1999 Jared O'Connor and Michael Baker