Folk Column: At The Club
Buena Vista Social Club put Cuban music on the map in the late 90s. Now they’re returning to Ireland to play a rare show.
Greg McAteer, 10 Oct 2007
When Ry Cooder put together a number of the best Son players in Cuba for the 1997 album The Buena Vista Social Club he was name-checking an institution that had existed 40 years previously, when the Havana dance club had become a favourite place for local musicians to meet and play.
At that stage it wasn’t a band as such but following on from the album and Wim Wenders’ documentary about the making of the album, the name stuck as an umbrella term for the musicians involved: they have toured under that flag of convenience ever since.
Now, given that some of those taking the stage at Sligo Live on Sunday October 28 have been playing since the days of the original club in the 1940s and ‘50s, this may well be the last opportunity Irish audiences have to see what remains of the original group of players. In the 10 years since the album was made such high profile members of the ensemble as Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Ruben Gonzales have died and their places have been taken by younger musicians who carry on the same tradition and style of playing. The evening will be started off by At First Light, who must be regarded here as the young guns warming up the crowd for the old guard.
The Buena Vista Social Club also take part in ‘Some Days Never End’, a seven day festival running in the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham where POD Concerts have put together a great week of gigs to celebrate the link between art and music. The Buena Vista Social Club play on the evening of Tuesday October 30 when they will follow Kila onto the stage in one of the heated tented structures that are being built specially for the series of shows. Whether they’ll be kitted out with floating silver pillows in homage to Andy Warhol remains to be seen.
October is going to be an uncharacteristically light month for the workaholics at Kila Towers but there are a couple of chances to indulge in some O Snodaigh spotting as Ronan O Snodaigh plays a solo show in Macs Bar in Roscommon on Saturday October 6 and brother Colm with Na Scribnori Oga will be singing some songs and reading from his book Pat The Pat as part of the IMRAM festival in Club Na Chonarta on Wednesday October 10. Meanwhile piper Eoin Dillon and his band, fresh from wowing the Electric Picnic, will perform in The Madison in Rathmines on Thursday October 11.
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Greg McAteer
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