Buena Vista Social Club in Tucson!

The group’s only studio album, produced by Ry Cooder in 1997, achieved instant success. Featuring a specially assembled group of veteran Cuban musicians and further propelled by Wim Wenders’ acclaimed film and later by a series of international tours and albums by many of the featured musicians, Buena Vista Social Club became a phenomenon. Now, the 13-piece Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, featuring a number of Buena Vista Social Club alumni, makes its return to the world’s stages.

At the forefront of the group are three musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club film as well as a younger generation of Cuban musicians. The lineup also includes vocalist Omara Portuondo, a member of the original Buena Vista Social Club, whose 2008 recording Gracias won a Latin Grammy and scored a Grammy nomination. Portuondo has been singing and performing since she was a teenager in Cuba in the 1940s but, as The New York Times review of Gracias noted, the years have done nothing to mitigate her vocal prowess: “Her voice is rich, shapely, dynamic and still sultry.”