Buena Vista Social Club
Long absent from the stage, Cuba's veteran musicians sing the son and the bolero once more, and their songs carry from the backstreets of Havana through Amsterdam to Carnegie Hall.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The makers ⏳🌊
- ProducerRy Cooder
He wrote none of the songs, but by producing the album and playing guitar he led the music of the film.
- ComposerCompay Segundo
The ninety-year-old guitarist who wrote and sang “Chan Chan,” he sets out in the film's opening scene in search of an old club.
- DirectorWim Wenders
He had worked with Cooder since “Paris, Texas,” and he captured his first visit to Cuba with a digital camera.
- StarringIbrahim Ferrer
A singer who had long given up singing and then began again, he stands at the heart of the film.
- StarringOmara Portuondo
A singer since the 1950s, she records “Silencio” with Ibrahim and sings “Veinte años.”
- StarringRubén González
A pianist remembered for the scene in which he plays piano in a gymnasium.
I. An album that began in Havana
(How it began) In March 1996, Nick Gold of the British label World Circuit set out to bring two Malian musicians and a group of Cuban musicians together in a Havana studio. When the Malians' visas failed to arrive in time, the recording sessions already booked turned into a chance to gather Cuba's old son musicians once more. The American guitarist Ry Cooder took charge of production, and Juan de Marcos González assembled the players. Recorded over six days at the EGREM studio, where 1950s equipment survived almost untouched, the album came out the following year as Buena Vista Social Club. (Cooder) Cooder is a slide guitarist who started out in the blues and American roots music and has gone on to play with musicians from many countries. On this project he wrote none of the songs. His work was to bring people together, to record them, and above all to step back. (The connection) Wim Wenders and Cooder had worked together since Paris, Texas. While scoring The End of Violence, Cooder could not stop talking about Cuba, and Wenders, after hearing a rough mix, asked to be told the next time he went. The chance came in 1998, with the recording of Ibrahim Ferrer's first solo album. Wenders went to Cuba for the first time carrying a few small digital cameras, a Digital Betacam and a Steadicam. If this series' Ray brought a musician back to life through an actor's body, in this film the players themselves stand before the camera.
II. In search of a vanished club
(The alleys) The film opens with Compay Segundo wandering a Havana neighborhood, asking where an old club once stood. The locals each point the ninety-year-old guitarist, cigar between his lips, in a different direction, and only when an elderly woman steps forward does a lead emerge. Compay recognizes her as someone who used to dance at that very club. The building is gone, or nearly so. This first scene makes clear that what the film is looking for is not a place but the sound that once rang there. (Background) The real Buena Vista Social Club was a members-only social club that opened in 1932. After the revolution, as nightclubs and social clubs closed, its music lost its stage, and the players retired or made their living some other way. (The first song) The film's first song is Compay's own “Chan Chan.” Built on the same four chords circling without end, it sets the film's pace like an unhurried stride. Cooder rides a sidecar motorcycle through the worn streets with his son Joachim, while the camera, mounted on a Steadicam, glides along behind the people it follows. The audience grows used to the city's air and rhythm before it settles into any story.
The song that opens the film as Compay Segundo goes looking for the site of the old club, setting the pace for everything that follows.
- The same four chords circle in the same order from beginning to end. Because it loops a short ring of chords, the song sounds like the rhythm of walking or of work.
- Stringing together the names of villages in rural eastern Cuba, Compay sings, with a country song's plainness, the story of lovers hauling sand.
- Between the sung lines the trumpet slips in short replies, and Cooder's guitar slides from note to note. It sounds like the place where Cuban son meets American blues.
- The song went on to become the signature of the Buena Vista Social Club, often played as the first or last number of a concert.
III. Voices that sing again
(Ibrahim) At the heart of the film is the singer Ibrahim Ferrer. He sang with a number of bands in his youth but had long been away from the stage, and he began singing again when he was called in for the 1996 sessions. The camera follows the recording of his solo album while quietly capturing him at home, beside his altar, talking about his childhood. (Rubén) The pianist Rubén González plays in a gymnasium where children are practicing gymnastics. His fingers have slowed, yet ornaments still pour from his playing, and the children half listen as they go through their exercises. It is one of the film's most talked-about scenes. (Omara) Omara Portuondo, who made her name in the 1950s with the vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida, records the bolero “Silencio” with Ibrahim. The recording scene, in which the two voices seem to lean on each other, is the film's most intimate moment. (The streets) At one point Cooder asked Wenders to clear the studio so he could concentrate on recording. So the camera turned to the streets and into people's homes. Thanks to that, the film grew beyond a making-of documentary into a portrait of people.
A bolero sung by Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo during the recording of his first solo album, and the most intimate scene in the film.
- A bolero (a slow, tender Latin love song) by the Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández. In a low voice, someone who has lost a love confesses a longing for the world to fall silent.
- The two singers trade lines before their voices fold together. Omara's high tone and Ibrahim's soft one seem to lean on each other.
- Midway through the recording, the moment the two are overcome with emotion was caught on camera just as it happened, and it became one of the most talked-about scenes in the film.
- The song appears not on the first Buena Vista album but on Ibrahim's solo album, released the following year. It shows that the film follows the time after that first record.
The bolero that best shows the voice of Ibrahim Ferrer singing once more, and from this time on his signature song.
- A bolero written in the 1940s by the Cuban composer Isolina Carrillo. It tells of sending one's heart to a lover with two flowers, addressing the flowers themselves.
- Ibrahim does not raise his voice, singing in a breathy near-whisper. The grain of a voice long at rest only deepens the song's loneliness.
- Rubén González's piano scatters short grace notes (ornaments added before or after a main note) into the gaps between the lyrics. Song and piano sound as if they are in conversation.
- The slow tempo holds to the very end. This refusal to hurry resembles the mood of the whole film.
Omara Portuondo, a singer since the 1950s, takes up an old song of Cuban trova and reveals her own place within the group.
- A song left by María Teresa Vera, a Cuban woman trovador (a troubadour who sings her own songs to the guitar) of the early 20th century. In this film it links a lineage of Cuban women singers across two generations.
- A song looking back on a love that ended twenty years ago, sung in a calm manner closer to resignation than to reproach.
- The accompaniment is spare, just a few guitars. So the tremor and breath of Omara's voice come through clearly.
- It is the only song on the album with Omara on lead vocals. That is why it is remembered apart from the rest of the record.
IV. First stage in Amsterdam
(Carré) In April 1998 the band played two nights at the Royal Carré Theatre in Amsterdam. Most of them had only ever played together in the studio. The film threads this concert between its Havana scenes, so that the stories of the alleys and the sound of the big stage answer each other. (Color) In the edit, the Amsterdam footage was drained of saturation into a tone somewhere between sepia and black and white. Set between the deep primary colors of Havana and the crisp images of New York, these faded frames look like scenes from memory. The stage is the present, yet the screen looks like the past. (Ensemble) Onstage, the songs grow longer than in the studio. In numbers like “El cuarto de Tula,” where several singers take turns improvising the lead lines, the trumpet and the laúd (a small string instrument of the lute family) cut in between the verses, and the piano fills the gaps. One finishes and another takes over: this give-and-take is the basic grammar of the music. By lingering on this scene, the film shows an ensemble these players still remember in their bodies after so many years.
A song in which several singers take turns improvising the lead, it shows better than any other how this music's ensemble stretches out on stage.
- A song by Sergio González Siaba. In a playful, rowdy manner, it tells how Tula's room caught fire after she fell asleep with a candle still burning.
- In the second half a short choral phrase repeats again and again, and between its returns the singers take turns improvising the lead. This repeating second half is called the montuno.
- On the record, Eliades Ochoa, Ibrahim Ferrer and Puntillita step in one after another, each changing the voice of the song. It is worth listening for the differences among their three timbres.
- Trumpet and laúd (a small Cuban string instrument of the lute family) slip in between the sung lines. It is a song that grows far longer on stage than in the studio.
V. The road to New York
(First steps) At the time, travel between the United States and Cuba was cut off. For most of the musicians, New York was a city they had never seen. The film lingers, with as much care as it gives the concert, on the musicians walking the streets of Manhattan and stopping before shop windows to peer in with wonder. Here a film about Cuba becomes a film about people seeing New York for the first time. (Symbol) The Carnegie Hall concert, never part of the original plan, made its way into the film because it was a fitting symbol with which to tie the story together. The concert took place on July 1, 1998. It is the scene in which players who had spent decades making a living in other ways stand on America's foremost classical stage. (The stage) Here the music takes the place of explanation. As the songs first heard in a Havana studio fill the great hall, the alleys, homes and gymnasium we have seen so far gather all at once upon the stage. The camera stays close on the players' faces and hands and turns only briefly to the audience. What happens on stage is best seen for yourself. Yet the power of the scene comes not from dazzling staging but from the stories of the people the film has built up along the way.
An instrumental that bears the name of a vanished club, with Rubén González's piano calling up the dancing nights of an old social club.
- An instrumental in the style of the danzón, Cuba's emblematic dance. Its rhythm, like an elegant, unhurried stroll, carries through to the very end.
- The solo piano leads the piece. While the right hand ornaments the melody, the left hand steadily keeps the dance's beat.
- The album took its title from this piece. It came about because the musicians introduced it as the tune that stood for the club.
- The album and the film credit the piece to Orestes López, but a correction has since established that it was actually written by his younger brother, Cachao.
VI. Where the songs remain
(The last face) The film ends holding close on the face of Ibrahim Ferrer as he sings the final song. That face is said to hold joy and loneliness together. It is less a scene celebrating success than one gazing at a time that came late. (Afterward) The 1997 album won a Grammy the following year and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling world music album on record. The film, which premiered in Berlin in 1999, was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature, won the European Film Award for documentary, and in 2020 was added to the National Film Registry. Ibrahim, Compay, Rubén and Eliades Ochoa went on to release solo albums one after another and tour the world. (Farewell) Puntillita died in 2000, Compay and Rubén in 2003, and Ibrahim in 2005. And so the film became a record that holds fast the few years in which they sang again. The story was later made into a stage show that won four Tony Awards on Broadway in 2025 — like this series' Moulin Rouge!, a case of a film carried onto the Broadway stage.
The film's final song: the film ends with the camera holding close on Ibrahim's face as he sings it.
- A song by Faustino Oramas, singer-songwriter from eastern Cuba. Its title, candela, means 'flame,' and it is a playful song that toys with the word's double meaning.
- While the chorus answers with the refrain, Ibrahim improvises the lead. The basic form of Cuban son — one voice leading, many answering — lies plainly exposed.
- The rhythm bounces throughout, yet the face in the final scene is not simply elated. The contrast between the buoyant rhythm and the wistful face is what gives the film its lingering resonance.
Lesser-known stories
The album was originally conceived as a collaboration between Malian and Cuban musicians. The Malian musicians Nick Gold invited were the guitarist Djelimady Tounkara and Bassekou Kouyaté, a player of the ngoni (a West African string instrument). Accounts differ as to why the two could not come. Some say their visas arrived late by mail; others say there were other circumstances. The original plan was realized 14 years later, in 2010, as AfroCubism. Gold has said that Buena Vista's enormous success actually delayed that project. The title track, "Buena Vista Social Club," is credited to Orestes López in the album's liner notes and the film's credits. Yet a correction has established that the real composer was his younger brother, the bassist Cachao. Because the two brothers wrote many danzones together in the same orchestra, the confusion simply hardened into fact. The film was shot entirely on digital video and then transferred to film. The editor, Brian Johnson, has said that about a fifth of it was shot by Wenders and his wife, Donata, themselves on small Mini DV cameras. Part of Compay's interview was also shot on Mini DV because the Digital Betacam had not yet arrived. In the scene of Cooder riding a motorcycle, the shots of Cooder from Joachim's point of view were filmed by Joachim himself. The original club was a Black members' club from an era when social clubs were divided by race. In 1962, when the government dissolved Black social organizations, the club closed its doors as well. The search for the club in the film's opening scene says nothing of this history.
Glossary 📚🔎
Son
(Meaning) The Spanish word son means 'sound.' A word for plain sound became the name of the musical genre that stands for Cuba. (In film · musical theater) A song and dance form born in the countryside of eastern Cuba that spread to Havana in the early 20th century. It blends the guitar that came over from Spain with percussive rhythms carried on from Africa. The first part presents the song; the second part repeats a short phrase and turns to improvisation. Most of the songs sung in this film are sones. It is like a school sports-day cheer that begins with set words and later rolls on joyfully, repeating the same chant.
Bolero
(In film · musical theater) A slow, tender love song born in Cuba that spread throughout Latin America. Usually a guitar or piano accompanies gently while the singer delivers the feeling almost in a whisper. In this film, "Dos gardenias" and "Silencio" are boleros. It is like the night after a quarrel with a friend, when you slowly write out your heart alone in your diary. (Elsewhere) Ravel's orchestral Boléro derives from a Spanish dance with 3 beats to the bar and is a different music from the Cuban bolero.
Tres
(Meaning) The Spanish word tres means the number 3. The name comes from its three courses of paired strings. (In film · musical theater) A small guitar-shaped string instrument indispensable to Cuban son. Each pair of strings, tuned to the same note, is plucked together, producing a sharp, glittering sound. It drives the rhythm by slipping short repeated figures between the sung lines. It is like the one classmate who taps a triangle to keep the beat clear while the rest of the class sings in chorus.
Montuno
(In film · musical theater) The section in the latter part of a Cuban son where a short choral phrase or accompaniment figure repeats over and over. Above it, singers and players improvise. Once this section begins, the heat of the song rises sharply, and on stage it can stretch on for several minutes. The second half of "El cuarto de Tula" is a good example. It is like jumping rope with friends: the rhythm of the turning rope stays the same, but each person who jumps in shows a different move.
Call and response
(Meaning) Megida is a native Korean word meaning for one person to sing a song first, and batda means for many to respond to that song. The English call and response likewise means to call and to answer. (In film · musical theater) A way of singing in which one person sings a phrase and many answer with a set phrase. Carried on from African music, it runs through Cuban son as well as American gospel and blues. In this film's "El cuarto de Tula" and "Candela," when a singer improvises the lead, the chorus answers with the same refrain. It has the same structure as a gym class where the teacher shouts "one, two" and the whole class answers "three, four."
Danzón
(In film · musical theater) An elegant partner dance born in Cuba in the late 19th century, and the music that goes with it. For a long time it was regarded as Cuba's emblematic dance. Over a rhythm like an unhurried stroll, piano, flute or violin ornament the melody. This film's instrumental "Buena Vista Social Club" is in danzón style. Picture pairing up with a friend at a school recital to dance slowly in a circle, and you have something close.
Documentary
(Meaning) The English word documentary comes from document, meaning a record or written paper. The name itself carries the sense of a film that records reality rather than invented stories. (In film · musical theater) A film made by shooting real people and events instead of actors and a script. A music documentary strings together performances, interviews and glimpses of everyday life to show where the music came from. Everyone who sings in this film is someone who has made and played that music firsthand. Filming your friends on your phone during a school trip and later weaving the clips into a single video could also be called a small documentary.