/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-CUBA: Ibrahim Ferrer Challenges Time, Yet Again

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jun 26 2001 (IPS) - The British record label World Circuit has begun recording its second album in the Cuban capital with local singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who at the age of 73 won recognition in the United States as a “new artist.”

The new album will include “songs that Ibrahim has not previously recorded,” and will be quite different from the first, according to Nick Gold, owner of the British company that in 1996 decided to stake its bets on Cuban music when it launched the “Buena Vista Social Club.”

The first phase of the recording schedule concluded last week in the old studios of the state-run Musical Recording and Editing Enterprise of Cuba. Ferrer’s new compact disk will hit the world markets in February or March of 2002, Gold told IPS.

The British label hopes to expand on the success of the album “Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer,” which has sold nearly two million copies since its debut last year.

For that CD, in which the artist bypassed the “música movida” genre to reveal his bolero-singing side, Ferrer won the Latin Grammy award in Sept 2000, granted by the US recording industry, for “best new artist,” despite his age and his long musical history.

It was the first year of the awards voted by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, founded in 1997 by the US-based National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which has organised the annual Grammy Awards for the last 43 years.

The singer said at the time that Buena Vista Social Club, the project promoted since 1996 by US guitarist Ry Cooder, had changed his life, just at a moment when he had decided to leave music behind and dedicate himself to shining shoes.

“I like life. Before, I wasn’t concerned about dying. Now I don’t want to die. I am no longer bored!” Ferrer stated by way of explaining what his musical success meant to him.

The original recording, “Buena Vista Social Club”, has sold more than five million copies and won the Grammy in 1997 as best “Tropical-Latin” album.

That collection of music, which is based on Cuban music’s international boom in the 1930s and 1940s, pulled such figures as Francisco Repilado (better known as Compay Segundo), Eliades Ochoa and Ferrer himself out of oblivion.

With the participation of the Afro-Cuban All Stars, and Cooder as producer, the album is so far the best-selling CD of Cuban musicians who still reside on the Caribbean island.

Cooder reappears on Ferrer’s second album, which has among its notable qualities “the new resonance” provided by the addition of Cuba’s Jesús ‘Chucho’ Valdés on piano, said Gold.

There will even be one or two songs by Chucho on the new CD, the impresario said.

Valdés, considered among the five greatest jazz pianists in the world, won his third Grammy last February, this time in the category of Latin jazz, for his album “Live at the Village Vanguard”.

Gold underscored the contribution of other star musicians on the album, including percussionist Miguel ‘Anga’ Díaz, guitarist Manuel Galbán and bassist Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López.

In addition to producing the recording, Cooder is participating as a musician, as is his son, Joachim, a percussionist. “I enjoy making this music,” said the US artist, adding that he does not foresee the moment when this connection with Cuba will end.

World Circuit has recorded eight albums in Cuba since 1996, when it began its unique ties with musicians from this Caribbean country, who participate in the production without intervention from the socialist-run government.

The recording label has just launched the album “Cachaíto”, of bassist López, has two other projects underway and plans to record other musicians from Buena Vista Social Club who have not yet released solo albums.

The company is also in a race against time, following the death of one of the musicians who performed on the first album and the rumours that have spread in recent weeks that Compay Segundo is ill.

Pedro Depestre, 55, died Apr 9 in the Swiss city of Basil after playing a violin solo during a Buena Vista Social Club concert.

Depestre was one of the younger members of this musical team that stands out because it involves mostly elderly musicians and singers who, at the time Cooder helped resurrect their careers in 1996, were living far from any spotlights.

With the death of the violinist, rumours intensified that Compay, 93, was suffering a potentially grave illness. But the Cuban musician-turned-legend, creator of the “chan-chan” rhythm, put the rumours to rest with a recent public appearance.