Latin

The Buena Vista Social Club: “Chan Chan”

March 11, 2018

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In 1999, Ry Cooder coaxed several Cuban musicians out of retirement to record an album. The project was filmed by Cooder’s friend Wim Wenders (the director of Wings of Desire). The players ended up performing as The Buena Vista Social Club in Amsterdam and at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Compay Segunda’s Chan Chan was perhaps the biggest success. Ruben Gonzalez’s Mandinga also is great.

Here is more pretty music from Cuba: La Familia Velera Miranda plays Puro Son en Concierto, Igor Arias Baro, Julian Chang and Yuniel Jiménez perform Besitos in New York City and a Changui Guantanamo group presents a tune that doesn’t appear to be named.

One Cuban who came to the states and became famous is Arturo Sandoval, who played trumpet with Dizzy Gillespie for years. Here the two performs Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia in Havana in 1985. The best known Cuban-born American entertainer is Desi Arnaz, who of course was married to Lucille Ball and starred in I Love Lucy. Here he performs Babalu.

Tagsarturo sandoval buena vista social club Compay Segunda desi arnaz dizzy gill ruben gonzalez ry cooder wim wenders

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Funeral for Jenni Rivera Held in Los Angeles

TDMB has focused on music and musicians. We will continue to do that, of course. We're also expanding our coverage to include vinyl and analog equipment.

More specifically, we'll look at this huge and interesting world from the perspective of music lovers who want a better experience, not committed non-audiophiles.

Check out is some of what we've written so far:

-- Assessing the Value of Vinyl Records: An Overview

-- 7 Quick Tips on Optimizing Your Turntable Cartridge

-- Why Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive

-- Finding the Best Amplifier

-- Finding the Best Phono Preamp

-- What Speakers Do I Need for My Turntable?

Check out more articles on analog equipment and vinyl.

The site also is home to The Internet Music Mapping Project, an effort to list and describe as many music-related sites as possible.

The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

Here are some books to check out.

Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.