Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club ® featuring Omara Portuondo & Eliades Ochoa

An unmissable finale event at ‘Music City!’ with the Derry~Londonderry debut of Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.

Over the course of the 1990s, Buena Vista Social Club revived a forgotten repertoire (son, bolero, danzón and guajiro) that is now world famous. The Buena Vista Social Club was the somewhat accidental project of American slide guitarist Ry Cooder. Cooder travelled to Cuba in 1996 to record some Mali musicians, but when these didn’t show up because of Visa issues, he decided to assemble a super group of old Cuban son musicians and record them instead. They called themselves The Buena Vista Social Club after a private club and dance venue from prerevolutionary times, a place where the rich would hang out and hire the Cuban big bands of the 40s and 50s to play for them.

Most of these guys had been retired for years. Lead singer Ibrahim Ferrer was shining shoes for extra money. Many thought pianist Ruben Gonzalez was already dead. The rest of the band was comprised of 95-year-old guitarist Compay Segundo, tres player Eliades Ochoa, singer Omara Portoundo, and many others. The line-up includes new musicians to take up the Buena Vista baton, such as the incredible singers Idania Valdes and Carlos Calunga, trumpeter Guajirito Mirabal and pianist Rolando Luna, in addition to veterans such as the great trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal. Together with Aguaje Ramos they have collaborated on many of the subsequent ‘Buena Vista Social Club Presents’ albums and tours over the past thirteen years.

Book online at:
http://www.millenniumforum.co.uk/content/music-city-orquesta-buena-vista-social-club-venue-2013