News & Reviews
- Friday, June 17, 2011
The Guardian's List of 50 Key Events in the History of World, Folk Music Includes Several Ties to Nonesuch
The Guardian and Observer have published their list of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music, which includes four events that also have a direct link to the history of Nonesuch Records, events involving Ry Cooder and the Buena Vista Social Club, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Youssou N'Dour, and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, and one that would later impact Kronos Quartet.
- Thursday, June 24, 2010
Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo US Tour Opener Canceled; Remaining Shows Go On As Scheduled
Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, featuring Omara Portuondo, was due to kick off a three-city US tour in Brooklyn's Prospect Park tonight. Unfortunately, the performance has been canceled due to visa delays. Instead, a special outdoor screening of Wim Wenders’ classic documentary Buena Vista Social Club will take place. The remainder of the tour, at Ravinia and the Hollywood Bowl, will take place as planned this weekend.
About this Album
Buena Vista Social Club, the Grammy Award–winning 1997 World Circuit / Nonesuch Records album produced by Ry Cooder, is the biggest-selling world music album ever, with more than eight million records sold to date. The Cuban musicians from the album played a sold-out, one-night-only concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall on July 1, 1998. That show became the climax of the acclaimed 1999 Wim Wenders documentary about the musicians, also called Buena Vista Social Club.
Ten years later, that evening’s performance will be released by World Circuit / Nonesuch Records this fall as Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall—meticulously mixed edited and mastered by Cooder and World Circuit label head Nick Gold (who executive produced the 1997 album). It will feature performances by the original Buena Vista Social Club musicians including Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Ruben González, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Cachaíto López, and Guajiro Mirabal. Though all of these musicians subsequently went on to resurrect great solo careers, the intervening years have brought the loss of Ferrer, Segundo, and González. Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall is only the second release for the original members.
A popular song from the original Buena Vista Social Club album, “Chan Chan,” opened the Carnegie Hall show; that track is now available in the Nonesuch Store—10 years after the famous concert. As the Los Angeles Times reported in its 1998 Carnegie Hall review, “When the musicians finally walked on stage, the crowd stood and cheered, then erupted at the opening strains of ‘Chan Chan,’ much as a rock audience does on hearing a band’s biggest hit.”
FORMAT AVAILABILITY
This album is available from Nonesuch in the United States and Canada only.
