HAVANA — They were forgotten masters of a long-ago sound, their faces deeply lined and their hands spotted with age.
Then, suddenly, at an age when many performers would be retired, the members of this old-school band found themselves playing in some of the most hallowed venues around the world, sharing stages with the likes of Sting and Shakira.
After rocketing into the spotlight in the late 1990s, the Buena Vista Social Club became nothing less than Cuba’s soundtrack to the world. Nearly two decades later, the remaining members of the group are preparing to disband after one last farewell tour.
The Buena Vista Social Club was born when U.S. musician and producer Ry Cooder traveled to the island and brought the musicians together to lay down the haunting 14-track album. The record won a Grammy, and a documentary of the same name was nominated for an Oscar.
Together with a boom in other genres in the 1990s, the Buena Vista Social Club was a key part of a “great golden age of music in Cuba,” said Raul Fernandez, a social scientist at the University of California, Irvine, who studies the island’s music.
Today, many of the core original members have died, including Ruben Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer and Compay Segundo, with crooner Omara Portuondo and guitarist Eliades Ochoa among the better-known still living.
The tour is scheduled to kick off Wednesday with a performance in Poland, run through 2015 and wrap up with a concert in Havana.
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