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This Review and 317 Others Like It
Are Available in My Amazon e-Book
GOODY TWO SHOES
2CD Deluxe Editions (Occasional Threesome), Expanded Reissues and Compilations
All Info From The Discs Themselves
No Cut and Paste Crap
Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer 6 Times
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"...Ediciones Musicales... "
There have been only a handful of genuinely mind-blowing world-conquering musical discoveries in my 65-year search for genre enlightenment (mainline those rhythms to my soul baby).
I suppose it started for me (and most everyone else) with Paul Simon's September 1986 African/World Music album "Graceland" that received a 25th Anniversary Edition multiple-format reissue in June 2012 (see review). Then we got the Coen Brothers re-educating us all on old timey papa-biscuits music with their devastatingly funny and beautifully filmed "O, Brother Where Are Thou?" movie parable in September 2000. The CD was a hit, Americana and Traditionals and Country Music had a full-on resurgence and concerts followed in which much of the entire world joined up for the hootenanny rediscovery - all of this heady mix breaking old barriers down towards music considered by many to be the very definition of hick (run a hundred miles boy lest you and your progeny get infected).
The lads at reissue specialist Light In The Attic Records of America gave us the stunning "Cold Fact" and "Coming From Reality" albums from Rodriguez in August 2008 and May 2009 (originally issued in 1970 and 1971 on Sussex Records and thereafter descended into virtual unsold obscurity) that was followed by the movie-story of his life "Searching For The Sugar Man" - another joyous discovery. These new frontiers - along with Peter Gabriel and his Real World Records label - blew everyone away.
But in between all of that came 23 June 1997 in the UK (17 September 1997 in the USA) and the self-titled one-off album sensation that was/is Buena Vista Social Club – a collection recorded across three days at the end of March 1996 in Havana, Cuba by the then virtually unknown World Circuit Records. Helping hand and cool conduit came via Americana guitarist and Warner Brothers recording star Ry Cooder who had invited the cream of Traditional South American Music practitioners to a studio to go for it. The sideways aim/result was to bring music genres like Trova, Son, Tumbao, Danzón, Guajira, Canción and of course all manner of Afro-Cuban Bolero numbers and ballads to a new audience. The resultant album was and still is a joy – a lightning in a bottle moment captured and celebrated ever since (hell, even the artwork has become famous).
That Buena Vista Social Club was always going to receive a celebrationary reissue goes with saying. But man oh man and boys oh boys – the Remastered AUDIO on this sucker by Bernie Grundman is off the charts good. Culled from the original master tapes and featuring 12 new Previously Unreleased session outtakes on CD2 (including new songs, mostly rehearsals) – both the CD and VINYL variants for this 25th Anniversary hit next level audiophile. Even the obvious loose nature of "Chan Chan" that opens CD2 with a Monitor Mix where Cooder announces that prep is over and "...Cats, we're up!" sounds utterly amazing and alive in your living room. A warmth and feel that is at times hair-raising. Enough 5-star praise, to the details...
UK released 17 September 2021 - "Buena Vista Social Club: Edición 25 Anniversario (25th Anniversary Edition)" by BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB on World Circuit/BMG WCD05025S (Barcode 4050538672206) is a 2CD Reissue and Remaster that plays outs as follows:
CD1 (60:10 minutes):
1. Chan Chan
2. De Camino a La Vereda
3. El Cuarto de Tula
4. Pueblo Nuevo
5. Das Gardenias
6. ?Y Tú Qué Has Hecho?
7. Veinta Años
8. El Carretero
9. Candela
10. Amor de Loca Juventud
11. Orgullecida
12. Murmullo
13. Buena Vista Social Club
14. La Bayamesa
Tracks 1 to 14 are the CD
album (double-vinyl) "Buena Vista Social Club"
– released 23 June 1997 in the UK on World Circuit WCD 050 and 16 September
1997 in the USA on World Circuit/Nonesuch 79478-2. Produced by NICK GOLD – it
peaked at No. 44 in the UK and No. 80 on the US charts (hit No. 1 in Germany).
This 25th Anniversary Edition reissue charted and peaked at No. 100
in America and is Remastered by BERNIE GRUNDMAN
There is also a VINYL 2LP Remastered Set of this 25th Anniversary Edition Reissue on World Circuit/BMG WCV05025 (Barcode 4050538629996). It adds five of the outtakes as Bonuses, comes on 180grams Vinyl and has an expanded 20-page booklet. The five bonuses included on the 2LP VINYL Set are Tracks 2, 3, 7, 10 and 12 on CD2)
CD2 (40:15 minutes):
1. Chan Chan (Monitor Mix)
2. Vicenta
3. La Pluma
4. Dos Gardenias (Alternate Take)
5. Mandinga
6. Siboney
7. A Tus Pies
8. El Carretero (Alternate Take)
9. Ensayo
10. La Cleptómana
11. Descarga Rubén
12. Orgullecida (Alternate Trio Take)
Tracks 1 to 12 are all PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
The 65-page Hardback Digibook for "Buena Vista Social Club: Edición 25 Anniversario" is a beautiful thing to look at and behold. The cream pages separate out every song including the new ones and even produce both Native language lyrics and English translations. There is a lead-in note from Cooder about the genesis of the project – a long list of musicians that is complimented by a further track-by-track player-by-player list at the rear (featuring artists include The Afro-Cuban All Stars - Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Omara Portmundo, Manual Mirabal, Alberto Valdés and many more). There is a colour photo of the joyous group towards the rear and a sense that pride has been taken in this celebrationary release. But the big news is a BERNIE GRUNDMAN Remaster that is simply glorious (as already outlined). Time to Bolero my friends...
Playing the album even from the opening number and you instantly realize how utterly locked into each other’s rhythms the band is – swaying and shuffling with big-room perfection while Ry underpins the Acoustics, Trumpets, Bongos and Shakers with a mean-as-a-rattle-snake Electric Slide Guitar. And a musically smart Cooder hovers with his guitar - never gets showy or in the way of Lead Vocalist Eliades Ochoa whose vocals are aged-in-brine gorgeous. When they do go into the initial Piano waltz that is "Pueblo Nuevo" and then up the pace half way through to a sexy dance of piano and guitars – you can imagine Angelina Jolie sashaying around some Taverna in lace making all the sweaty patrons drink deep and fan harder (sunny weather indeed).
Legendary South American vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer sings an emotional blinder with "Das Gardenias" – a lovely Bolero that makes you want to slow dance with your baby. And again truly gobsmacking audio comes roaring in with "?Y Tú Qué Has Hecho?" – Ry Cooder and Compay Segundo doing Acoustic Guitar battle on this 1920s Bolero. The all-male-ensemble is joined by the only woman to grace the album – Omara Portmundo (pictured in the booklet) - who duets in perfect subdued beauty with Compay Segundo on "Veinta Años" (beautiful Bouzouki-type guitars too). That lovely almost calming Bolero moment is followed by a gorgeous groove in "El Carretero" where Eliades Ochoa takes Lead Vocals. Next up the boys have some swaying and aye-aye-aye singing fun with a Son & Tumbao style song called "Candello" which at 5:27 minutes probably outstays its welcome just a tad.
Ry and Joachim Cooder join the muchachos guitarist fray with subtle contributions to the short but deeply lovely "Amor De Loca Juventud" – a cellulite-reducing Americana shuffle with Gospel and Acoustic Blues influences. Old timey pre-war trombone and even Hawaiian steel convergences make "Orgullecida" a giggle and delight. But they pale when the voices and piano of "Murmullo" show up – Ibrahim Ferrer swooning and humming in a Romantic Casablanca kind of style while Rubén González plinks on a grand piano with a beautifully captured tone. A Danzon-style instrumental shuffles like a cheeky sea fog into view for the cha-cha-cha of the title track "Buena Vista Social Club" (wowser for the audio again). And it all comes to a sort of early-hours-cantina-on-the-brink-of-stupor moment – a Criolla-style sung ballad where the men are nearly weeping or too drunk to explain – whichever arrives first.
I suppose the only tiny complaint would be that it easy to hear why large numbers of the outtakes were left on the cutting room floor – they are good – but they are not the great stuff on the album. Having said that the up mood of "Vicenta" is damn cool while the Alternate of an album fave "Das Gardenias" is lovely even if the vocals go awry towards its end. Piano and Bongo chill-out fun comes in the shape of "Mandinga" where Rubén González gets the boys to stop talking and even join in the melody. Another lovely moment of acoustic sweetness comes with the song called Ensayo which is upended when piano rudely interrupts – it’s a segment more than a tune. But again – others have loved "La Cleptómana" – a Trova song about a Kleptomaniac who likes to burn pretty things (nice).
Buena Vista Social Club was and still is a beautiful thing and this 25th Anniversary reminder has done its legend proud. And I got my copy in 2023 for under a tenner shrink-wrapped with its display sticker and looking perky. Time for me to re-join the waist-train as its shimmies across the retirement home – aye aye aye...
