Buena Vista Social Club
From You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians by Peter Martin & Adam Maness
April 6, 2026 · 59 min · Season 14 · Episode 13
About this episode
This episode explores the creation and impact of the Buena Vista Social Club album, highlighting its journey and significance in music history.
Buena Vista Social Club: The album so good it's life-affirming. And it almost didn't happen. In 1996, an American musician landed in Cuba to record a music project with Malian musicians. But when they didn't show up, Ry Cooder and his producer, Juan de Marcos González, went looking for replacements. That's when they found Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén González, who had seen their musical prime decades earlier in the 40s and 50s. Compay was nearing his 90s, and some believed he had died, until he showed up on Buena Vista Social Club. Rubén hadn't played in years, and didn't even own a piano. But together with a cast of all-star Cuban musicians, they created what would become the best-selling world music album of all time. How did Buena Vista Social Club become a global phenomenon? In this episode of You'll Hear It, Peter Martin and Adam Maness listen to the record track-by-track to understand what makes this album so magnetic, and how it holds up 30 years later. Plus - a FIRST in You'll Hear It history. ------------------------------- Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs: https://openstudiojazz.com/yhi ------------------------------- About…
People in this episode
Hosts: Peter Martin, Adam Maness
Topics covered
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Cuban music
- music history
- album analysis
- global phenomenon
Keywords
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Ry Cooder
- Cuban musicians
- music album
- world music
Sponsors
Open Studio
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Buena Vista Social Club
Books & works: Buena Vista Social Club
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