Cynaera wrote: 

Miss you so much, Cynaera...

love this song...
 

I went to the kitchen for a coffee, then decided to go mow the lawn, after which I went down the shops for a loaf of bread.

When I got back, the song was still playing.

I like it though, seems to be the general impression - invokes a lazy drunken sunday afternoon feeling, on a crowded balcony in, art deco style, overlooking the streets below, chain smoking strong french cigarettes and waiting for the lady with the red rose to arrive...

Any film buffs here might note the "Mandingo" fight scene that took place in QT's latest.  Great film.  Mandingo fighting is a fiction, of course.  Never happened.

 WonderLizard wrote: 
Quite right, Wonder. O fthe three albums originally produced by World Circuit (Afro-Cuban All Stars, Buena Vista Social Club and Introducing Ruben) this is my favourite by a country mile. The production is tight, the sound is neat and the result is a lovely and crafty mix of Cuban styles.

Greetings from London. 

 Tippster wrote: 
Que sean tres.

Never been to Cuba, but when I hear those guys playing, it feels like I would share the same room with them. Unexplainable. It's like they'd always lived just around the corner.

                                         

My, how this puts me in the mood...Cafe Havana, hot Cuban salsa all night, fab mojitos, soaking up Cartagena's catchy magic for a week, jugo de lulo, coctel mariscos, y mas...in just 4 days!  Can't wait!  

very pleasant to listen to on a dreary afternoon while i suffer at work with a cold  :)

The shame of it is that for way too long he was a state-ordered piano teacher in a state-sponsored school. What the world missed. The whole album is transcendent.

---

casey1024 wrote: 
Given some of the crap he put out, Joe's a fine one to talk. 

 

joseseng wrote: 
Lol, me too. It's good but long!!! 6.

I met the geezer when I was a teeny, weeny knee-high grasshopper. He came around my house a few times to have some arrangements made by my dad. Then he disappeared until the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon happened. You couldn't find a humbler human being. It makes me proud to have met him and to have choreographed one of his songs, too, from this album. If I had to choose a record of the three that first came out of the BVC collective, this would be the one. Ahhh... and I also heard him play once on our old upright piano at home. I never told my dad that Ruben had upstaged him! :-) Then again, years later and before I relocated to the UK, someone on Cuban telly said that the best pianist he'd ever come across was... my dad! :-D

A Cuban In London

Greetings from London.

Great song! Really caught my attention.

Oh, I LIKE this.

 bokey wrote: 
Dos Mojitos, por favor.

Nice.I want a rum drink.

INCREDIBLE!

 Andy_B wrote: 
Yep, sort of a tropical Errol Garner.

One of the few 10's I've given, but then I'm partial to hot, sultry Cuban music.  He was an absolute master of it.

BRAVO!  LOVE THIS!  ADDING TO MY COLLECTION.  AND I THOUGHT THELONIUS MONK WAS MY FAV...HMMM

If you like this tune, you might want to check out the following artists:

- Chucho Valdez
- Bebo Valdez (Chucho's dad)
- Gonzalo Rubalcaba

They are all Cuban pianists.

The first two played together in Fernando Trueba's "Calle 54".
You can see an interesting review of this film here.
Many great "latin jazz" artists are featured in this film.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba's rich and complex interpretation of
jazz is worth checking out, as well as experiencing
via live concerts.

While you are at it, you might also want to
check out other Fernando Trueba's films

Buena Vista Social Club by ~angelmecanico
Carlos Manuel Valdez Coronel ©2010 ~angelmecanico

Termine

Buena Vista Social Club fue un club social de La Habana, Cuba, donde sus miembros practicaban actividades relativas al baile y a la música, volviéndose un sitio muy popular donde se encontraban y jugaban los que de él formaban parte. En los años 1990, casi 50 años después de haber sido cerrado el club, inspiró una grabación hecha por el músico cubano Juan de Marcos González y el guitarrista norteamericano Ry Cooder con los tradicionales músicos cubanos, muchos de ellos antiguos miembros del club en el que se presentaron cuando su popularidad estaba en el tope. La grabación, nombrada Buena Vista Social Club, después de esa institución de La Habana, se volvió éxito internacional y el grupo se vio encorajado a presentarse con su formación completa en Amsterdam en 1998. El director de cine alemán Wim Wenders grabó la presentación, seguida de un segundo concierto en el Carnegie Hall, de Nueva York

En Orden de Izquierda a Derecha grandes musicos

Ry Cooder, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Ruben Gonzalez, Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ibrahim Ferrer, Pio Leyva, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Amadito Valdez.

Solo me queda decir amo el son cubano
.

(Useless trivia alert!)  If I'm not mistaken, isn't the cover of the album a still shot from the BVSC documentary?  Haven't watched it in a while but the image looked familiar.  Just curious.  And, yeah, the man can play!

 fredriley wrote: 
Yessir, it is!

Thank you, as always, Calypsus_1, for the wonderful picture.  The guy was a master. Perhaps his music wasn't to everyone's liking, but he was definitely a talented pianist (I think of Victor Borge, who played the comedian, but he was a virtuoso on piano. He could even play classical pieces backwards.)

And this song makes me want to do a samba or a mambo-waltz-hustle on a table.  With a rose in my teeth. How many metaphors did I mix in that sentence? (Sorry - I'm running a fever, so stuff just comes out...If I remember what I wrote, I'll go back and edit it later.)

Saaaabbbbooooorrrrrr......!!!!!

Ruben Gonzalez  By German Murillo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23817399@N08/

The Great Ruben Gonzalez. No other like him. His style on the piano is unforgettable.

All rights reserved

RIP Ruben 1919 -2003

To be so familiar with a keyboard that you can go off the rails and still create incredible music is a gift.  This man has it.  It's obvious from what emerges from his piano - he's talented, but he's also having a riotous good time.  I rather love this.