Cheap Cds - Buena Vista Social Club

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: If you only buy one album this summer ... it has to be this!
Comment: Buena Vista Social Club and Juan De Marcos'Afro-Cuban All Stars played Hyde Park on 29 July 2000.
Considering the ages of the stars of the show it was an unlikely sell-out gig!

This album, which
reintroduced the world to the stars of pre-revolution Cuba, is the most glorious combination of
Cuban music and evokes a sense of imagination and vivacity that is sadly lacking in today's
mass-produced, copycat pop culture. The Buena Vista Social Club know how to enjoy themselves and
it shows!

This should be on everyone's all-time greatest albums list

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beautifully romantic
Comment: This is the record that started all the recent Cuban craze. A simplified version of the story: Son,
danzon and bolero were played in thriving clubs in Havana before WWII and in years following it.
Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and the rest were masters of the
art. Then in 1959 Castro liberated - or invaded, as you like it - Cuba and virtually isolated it
from the rest of the world. And while outside the music became MTV-ized and globalized to the point
where the music produced in Sweden is indistinguishable from that made in California, the guys in
Cuba continued to do what they did best: they played son, danzon and bolero - all until Ry Cooder
discovered them in 1997 and turned them into a success that vastly overshadowed his own musical
efforts.

Actually, getting them together required some detective work, as some of them have
already given up their musical careers. Hardly surprising: Ruben Gonzales is 80, and Compay Segundo
is 92. Buena Vista Social Club - named after an actual club in Havana, demolished already for
decades - provides an anthological overview of styles played 50 years ago, and the sound you might
recognize on your father's (or grandfather's) LP's. Well, almost - Ry Cooder felt the urge to put
some personal touch on the whole thing, in form of slide guitar (cf. "Orgullecida"). I wish he
could resist the temptation. Still, it's a very beautiful and romantic record, one that makes you
ask your sweetheart for a dance.

CD comes with a 48-page booklet, which includes bilingual
(Spanish/English) lyrics and some accompanying text. If you like this record, you might also want
to check the solo albums that followed. There is also a pseudo-documentary movie by the same name,
directed by Wim Wenders. And, go and check whether Afro-Cuban All Stars are touring somewhere near
you.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The music equivalent of a Sky Digital remote!
Comment: If you look carefully, there is an advert on television for a furniture polish. It features, in full
view, a Sky Digital remote. It has become a design classic - known wherever you go in Britain. Buena
Vista Social Club is becoming one of these classic items of today's 'cool' homes. You'll hear it
playing at any dinner party in Notting Hill (the place, not the film) and if you have a South
American themed living room, you'll no doubt have this CD box open all the time. The fact is,
forget its status, BVSC is a great album. It's full of sleepy tunes, Latin foot stompers and
tabacco-stained voices; and if you play it loud and shut your eyes, it's as if they're all there
with you thanks to Ry Cooder's incredible production work. I'm fortunate to own all the other Buena
Vista off-shoot albums as well, all of which (especially Ruben's) are simply magic. Buy this 'cool'
album to put with your 'cool' Digital remote and buy it from 'cool' Amazon because it's on the
'cool' internet.

Customer Rating:

Summary: BVSC - Why waste space on words - just listen!
Comment: For some reason, albums come along that you know you are going to like before you have even bought
them. Such was the case with the Buena Vista Social Club. I can't even remember where I'd heard
about it, but such is the effect it's had on me on and my wife (who is not a great music lover)
that we are now even talking about going to Cuba on the strength of one album. Believe me when I
say that is quite a shift on both mine and my wife's part. I've not said anything about the music
yet and I find it difficult to know where I start. I've started singing along to the words being
sung, yet I don't know what they mean - they just seem right. However my favourite track is number
4 'Pueblo Nuevo'. For me there is a mixture of everything, classical, 'cuban' (whatever that is,
but I feel I know), jazz and some other styles. It probably is unfair to single out one track, but
that, in the case of most reviews, is what people fail to do. I didn't want to fall into that
trap. However (as if to go back on what I've just said) the whole album is an experience. Please
try it. I'm not saying it will be life changing, but I believe it will make you feel good. I wish
I'd found out about the music sooner, though I suspect that had I done that, this album would
still ahve been special as it suggests the musicians themselves were finding things out about
themselves as well.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Best Cuban Intro
Comment: Simply superb, a must buy. Excellent production, excellent music, inspired me to go to Cuba! I have
bought many Cuban albums since, but this is the best first album to buy. If you don't think you like
Cuban music, buy it anyway, you won't be disappointed. - Paul

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