Based mostly on real-life occasions and folks, Buena Vista Social Membership options many characters and plenty of nice Cuban music. It takes such talent to replicate music of a bygone period, much more to sound contemporary and vibrant evening after evening for months at a time. Scaled down for the Tiny Desk, the present is not any much less magical.
Earlier than it was a Broadway musical racking up Tony Award nominations, the Buena Vista Social Membership was a second probability. After the Cuban Revolution, lots of the nation’s beloved musicians had been misplaced to time, however in 1996, an ensemble was fashioned to reclaim their highlight. To inform their story, the musical goes backwards and forwards between the Forties and the recording periods that produced a masterpiece.
After the band warms up the Tiny Desk crowd with “El Cuarto de Tula,” we meet younger variations of the central characters: Compay Segundo (Da’Von Moody), Ibrahim Ferrer (Wesley Wray) and Omara Portuondo (Isa Antonetti) — their harmonies shine collectively on “La Negra Tomasa.” Antonetti takes on the bolero-son normal “Lágrimas Negras.” We additionally meet the older model of Ferrer, performed by Mel Semé, for “Candela.” Marco Ramirez, who wrote the e-book for Buena Vista Social Membership, is our emcee for this efficiency, guiding us via the story.
The key sauce is, in fact, the music. These are the foundational constructing blocks of what has made Cuban music so standard earlier than and after the revolution in 1959. A number of the greatest musicians in NYC who’ve expertise with traditional Cuban music are on this manufacturing. Buena Vista Social Membership is a residing, respiratory and deeply grooving homage to the period, the music and the island.
SET LIST
- “El Cuarto de Tula”
- “La Negra Tomasa”
- “Lágrimas Negras”
- “Candela”
MUSICIANS
- Wesley Wray: vocals
- Da’Von Moody: vocals
- Isa Antonetti: vocals
- Mel Semé: vocals
- Marco Paguia: music director, piano, güiro
- Renesito Avich: tres, vocals
- David Oquendo: guitar, vocals
- Leonardo Reyna: piano
- Maxilmilien Darché: trumpet, flugelhorn
- Hery Paz: flute, clarinet, background vocals
- Eddie “Arnoldito” Venegas: trombone, background vocals
- Gustavo “Chacho” Schartz: bass, background vocals
- Román Diaz: bongos, cowbell
- Javier Díaz: congas
- Marco Ramirez: emcee
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Felix Contreras
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josephine Nyounai
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Body, Sofia Seidel
- Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
- Tiny Desk Workforce: Josh Newell, Lars Gotrich
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
