Music
"Chan Chan", the first song on the album, is a Cuban song composition by Compay Segundo, revolving around two central characters, Juanita and Chan Chan. The song was one of Segundo's last compositions and was written in 1987, already having been recorded by Segundo himself various times.
"El cuarto de Tula" was composed by Gonzales Y Siaba Sergio Eulogio (1916–1989). It is sung by Eliades Ochoa with Ibrahim Ferrer and Manuel "Puntillita" Licea joining Ochoa in an extended descarga (jam) section improvising lyrics. Barbarito Torres plays a frenetic lute solo towards the end of the track. Timbales are played by the 13 year old Julienne Oviedo Sánchez. The song is featured in the film "Training Day" (2001).
"Dos gardenias" is a bolero sung by Ibrahim Ferrer. The song was written by Isolina Carrillo in the 1930s and became a huge success in the 1940s. The song was chosen for the album after Cooder heard Ferrer and Rubén González improvising the melody before a recording session. Ferrer learned the song whilst playing with Cuban bandleader Beny Moré.
"¿Y tú qué has hecho?" was written in the 1920s by Eusebio Delfín and features his friend Compay Segundo on tres and vocals. Segundo was traditionally a "second voice" singer providing a baritone counterpoint harmony. On this recording, he multitracks both voices. The song also features a duet between Segundo on tres and Ry Cooder on guitar.
"Veinte años" is a bolero written by María Teresa Vera and is sung on the Buena Vista album by the only female in the ensemble, Omara Portuondo, with Segundo providing baritone.
"El carretero" is a guajira (country lament) sung by Eliades Ochoa with the full ensemble providing additional instruments and backing vocals.
"Candela" is a popular song written by Faustino Oramas with lyrics rich with sexual innuendo. On the album it is sung by Ibrahim Ferrer who improvises vocal lines throughout the track, and the whole ensemble perform an extended descarga.
The title track, "Buena Vista Social Club", was written by bass player Cachaíto’s father, Orestes López. The song spotlights the piano work of Rubén González. It was recorded after Cooder heard González improvising around the tune's musical theme before a day's recording session. After playing the tune, González explained to Cooder the history of the social club and that the song was the club's "mascot tune". When searching for a name for the overall project, manager Nick Gold chose the song's title. According to Cooder, "It should be the thing that sets it apart. It was a kind of club by then. Everybody was hanging out and we had rum and coffee around two in the afternoon. It felt like a club, so let’s call it that. That’s what gave it a handle."
Read more about this topic: Buena Vista Social Club (album)
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;
Yet slower yet, oh faintly gentle springs:
List to the heavy part the music bears,
“Woe weeps out her division when she sings.”
Droop herbs and flowers;
Fall grief in showers;
“Our beauties are not ours”:
Oh, I could still,
Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
Drop, drop, drop, drop,
Since nature’s pride is, now, a withered daffodil.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“Your remark that clams will lie quiet if music be played to them, was superfluous—entirely superfluous.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,—at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives on the sand, amid the beach-grass and bayberries, their companion a cow, their wealth a jag of driftwood or a few beach plums, and their music the surf and the peep of the beech-bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)