Less a band than an assemblage of some of Cuba's most renowned musical forces, Buena Vista Social Club's origins lie with noted American guitarist Ry Cooder, who in 1996 traveled to Havana to seek out a number of legendary local musicians whose performing careers largely ended decades earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González, Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record the album Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy and becoming the best-selling release of Cooder's long career. In 1998 he returned to Havana with percussionist son Joaquim to record a solo LP with Ferrar; the sessions were captured on film by director Wim Wenders, who also documented sell-out Buena Vista Social Club live performances in Amsterdam and New York City. (Wenders' film, also titled simply Buena Vista Social Club, earned an Academy Award nomination in 2000.) The public's continued interest in Cuban music subsequently generated solo efforts from Segundo and González as well as a series of international live performances promoted under the Buena Vista Social Club aegis.

Ibrahim Ferrer-The son and bolero master vocalist had a fabled entrance into this world: he was born in Santiago in 1927 at a social club dance. He began his career in the early 1940s with local musical outfits in Santiago. Like most musicians, he had a succession of “day gigs” to make ends meet, jamming by night. In the 50s, he was the lead vocalist for bandleader Pacho Alonso, and also sang for the legendary Beny Moré. At the time of the Buena Vista sessions, Ferrer was living in a decaying apartment in Old Havana; like many of the Buena Vista elders, Ferrer was in semi-retirement, occasionally shining shoes for money. Juan de Marcos González found him taking his daily stroll on the streets of Havana—and the rest is, as they say, history.

Compay Segundo-The elder statesman of Afro-Cuban music, Compay Segundo (born Francisco Repilado) lived most of the 20th century and is charging into the 21st at 90 years young. His nickname comes from the Cuban slang for “compadre” and his sweet “second voice,” or bass harmony vocals. Segundo was born in Siboney and raised in Santiago, Cuba’s eastern provincial capital and the birthplace of Cuban son. In his formative years, he made a living by working in the tobacco fields and by cutting hair; at night, he’d hang at the local hotspots. At the age of fifteen he composed his first song, “Yo bengo aquí” and was already an accomplished guitar and tres player. He was also an excellent clarinetist, and invented his own instrument, the armónico, a seven-string hybrid between a guitar and a tres.. In the 20s and 30s, he played with some of the best bands of the era, including Nico Saquitos Quintero’s Cuban Stars, the Municipal Band of Havana, Justa García’s Cuarteto Hatuey and Conjunto Matamoros. In the 40s, Segundo gained fame as one half of the Los Compadres duo with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo. In the 50s, he formed Compay Segundo and his Muchachos, a group that plays to this very day. Compay Segundo is the very embodiment of the combination of innovation and tradition that is at the heart of modern Cuban music.

Rubén González-Over his more than five decades in music, Rubén González has played with many of the great ones (including stints with Mongo Santamaría and Arsenio Rodríguez) and is himself a legend, universally regarded as one of the pioneers of Afro-Cuban piano style. In his youth, he attended medical school, thinking that he’d be a doctor by day and a musician at night, but he left school for his first love, the piano. In the forties and fifties, he was one of a trio of virtuoso pianists (with Luis ‘Lili’ Martínez and Percuchín) who helped lay the foundation for the mambo by marrying African rhythms with the freedom of American jazz improvisation. In the 1960s, González joined Enrique Jorrín (the creator of the cha-cha-cha), performing with the legendary bandleader until Jorrín’s death in the mid-80s, and ‘retired’ shortly thereafter. He led a quiet life in Havana until Buena Vista producer Juan de Marcos González dragged him down to EGREM Studios for the now-legendary recording sessions.

Eliades Ochoa-Like many musical greats, guitarist and vocalist Eliades Ochoa began playing at a tender age—six years old. He was raised in a musical family in Santiago. By his early teens, he was playing the Cuban equivalent of the “underground” circuit, local bars and brothels. In 1978 he took over the helm of Cuarteto Patria, a group that has kept the Cuban folk tradition alive since 1940; under Ochoa’s direction, the band toured internationally. Like Compay Segundo, Ochoa created his own brand of guitar to match his playing style. Ochoa’s trademark cowboy hat is a tribute to his provincial roots.