Buena Vista Social Club (1999) - doc
Directed by Wim Wenders, this is perhaps the most famous Cuban music documentary ever made. It follows Ry Cooder's reunion of forgotten Cuban musical masters — son, bolero, and danzón veterans in their 70s and 80s — through recording sessions in Havana and performances in Amsterdam and New York.
What It Covers
In 1996, American guitarist Ry Cooder traveled to Havana and brought together a group of veteran Cuban musicians who had been largely forgotten since the Revolution closed Cuba off from the world. Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Omara Portuondo, and others recorded an album that became a global phenomenon. Wenders' film documents the sessions and the subsequent concert tour, capturing the musicians' personalities as much as their playing.
Why Dancers Should Watch It
The music these musicians play — son, danzón, bolero, guajira — is the deep foundation beneath everything in Cuban popular dance. Watching Rubén González play piano or Compay Segundo sing, you're hearing the rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary that casino and timba"> timba are built on. The film is also simply one of the most beautiful documents of musical mastery ever put on film — a reminder of what decades of living inside a tradition produces.
Trailer
El danzón fue el primer baile nacional de Cuba — la forma que unificó la identidad de la música popular cubana a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, y el antepasado del mambo"> mambo, el cha-cha-chá y, en última instancia, la timba"> timba.
Lees meer >Timba is the music this site is dedicated to exploring. It emerged as a distinct genre in the late 1980s and crystallized in the early 1990s — born in a moment of social crisis, built on the full accumulated history of Cuban music, and still evolving today.
Lees meer >La Rumba es la más arraigada en lo africano de todas las formas de música y danza cubanas — nacida en las calles, los patios y los muelles de La Habana y matanzas"> Matanzas a finales del siglo XIX, sin instrumentos europeos, sin ambiente de salón y sin pretensión alguna de decoro europeo.
Lees meer >El bolero cubano es una de las grandes tradiciones de canción romántica del mundo — lento, íntimo y profundamente emotivo. Es completamente distinto del bolero español (un baile rápido en compás de 3/4) y surgió en Cuba como vehículo para la expresión lírica más sentida de la isla.
Lees meer >El Casino es el baile de pareja cubano nacido en los clubes sociales (casinos deportivos) de La Habana en la década de 1950. Es lo que los cubanos llaman su propio baile social — distinto de, y anterior a, lo que el resto del mundo llama "salsa".
Lees meer >Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.
Lees meer >The Casa de la Trova in santiago de cuba"> Santiago de Cuba is the spiritual home of Cuban traditional music — Son, Bolero, Changüí, and Trova. Founded in 1968 on Calle Heredia in the heart of Santiago's historic center, it has been the gathering place for the city's musicians for over half a century.
Lees meer >EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales) is Cuba's state recording company, founded in 1964 after the Revolution nationalized all private recording labels. Its main facility, Estudios Areíto in Havana, is where virtually every important Cuban recording from the Revolution era was made.
Lees meer >El piano es el corazón armónico y rítmico de la música popular cubana. En la timba"> timba, es uno de los instrumentos más exigentes y expresivos del conjunto.
Lees meer >Un género de música popular bailable cubana que surgió en los años 1980–90
- Surgió en los años 1980–90
- Influenciado por el songo, la rumba, el funk, el blues, el jazz, el pop, el rock y los ritmos afrocubanos.
- Conocido por sus complejos cambios de ritmo, líneas de bajo agresivas y alta energía que impulsan a los bailadores a improvisar.
Lees meer >