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This photo essay was created spring quarter, 2001, for Howard Besser's course, Information Studies 208, Developing Cultural Information Sources Using Digital Multimedia, in the Department of Information Studies, UCLA. This is part two of two parts. Click here to read part one. |
| Buena Vista Social Club is a CD and a film. Ry Cooder produced the CD during a trip to Havana in which he originally planned to work with some African musicians. They were delayed in France so Cooder's Havana contacts gathered together a talented group of Cuban singers and musicians, many of whom had been in obscure retirement. | 
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| German film director Wim Wenders made a documentary about the production of the CD and the musicians' subsequent concerts in Amsterdam and New York City. |  |
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| Buena Vista Social Club, the album, has sold 1.1 million copies and won a Grammy in 1998. Buena Vista Social Club, the film, garnered an Oscar nomination. |  |
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Omara Portuondo is the only woman featured on the album. |
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| In one segment of the film, she strolls through a Havana neighborhood much like those recorded by Besser, the UCLA professor, on his recent trip. A small crowd gathers around as Portuondo begins to sing and a woman spontaneously joins in. Portuondo approaches her warmly and the two sing a brief duet. (Click on images to see larger versions of Besser's photos.) |
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| A September 2000 Los Angeles Times article reported on a then upcoming performance by Portuondo at UCLA's Royce Hall. (1.) The Buena Vista Social Club phenomena has made Portuondo a singer in high demand -- but in Cuba she had been a star for most of her 70 years, unlike some of the other singers and muscians featured on the album and in the film. |  |
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| Ibrahim Ferrer, for example, had been hanging out on the streets of Havana when one of Cooder's contacts urgently requested that he come with him to the recording studio. Ferrer had not been singing for years but he finally agreed to go along. He won a Best New Artist Latin Grammy award for his subsequent solo album, Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer, in 2000 at age 72. Ferrer will appear at the Hollywood Bowl in July, 2001. (Click on the street scenes to view larger images of Besser's photos.) |
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| One of the most interesting moments of Wender's film comes at the end when two of the Cuban musicians stop in front of a store window while in New York for their concert at Carnegie Hall. |  |
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A set of head-bobbing figurines like
these catches their attention. |
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| They easily identify Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. But they can only agree that the Marilyn Monroe figurine represents a woman who was famous and that the JFK doll represents one of America's great leaders. |
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Footnote.
1. Miller, Tom. "Voice of Experience." Los Angeles Times. Home ed. 28 Sep 2000, 6.
Photos
Cuba photos by Howard Besser. Other images are linked from file locations
as noted below. These locations are valid links as of 6/9/01.
Buena Vista Social Club album cover: http://www.slipcue.com/music/cuba/aa_imagescuba/img_buenavista/buenavista97.gif
Ry Cooder: http://www.telecaster.demon.co.uk/images/coo.jpg
Wim Wenders: http://www.wim-wenders.com/bio/images/wim/laughing_1984_small.jpg
Grammy: http://www.grammy.com/images/photos/gramaphone.gif
Omara Portuondo: http://www.senatorfilm.de/bvcc/Bilder/Omara.gif
Musical notes: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1600/notefun.gif
Royce Hall: http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/97/06.23/images/ae.royce.picC.jpg
Ibrahim Ferrer album cover: http://rycooder.members.easyspace.com/RyCovers/BVSCpresents.jpg
Carnegie Hall: http://www.newyorkmall.com/carnegiephoto.gif
Phantom doll: http://www.nas.com/baker/phantom.jpg
Big Boy doll: http://www.nas.com/baker/boy.jpg
Donny Osmond doll: http://www.nas.com/baker/donny.jpg
TV doctors dolls: http://www.nas.com/baker/kill.jpg
Charlie Chaplin: http://www.silentsmajority.com/PhotoGallery2/cc12.jpg
Laurel and Hardy: http://www.laurelnhardy.co.uk/bonnie2.jpg
Marilyn Monroe: http://www.spydersempire.com/monroe/glam/b-4.jpg
John F. Kennedy: http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/images/jfkbw.jpg
