Since its original release, Buena Vista Social Club has sold seven million copies globally, making it the most successful world music album of all time, and opening the floodgates for a torrent of global talents hitherto unknown to most English-speaking audiences. What part did it play in the rise of world music?
The oldest performer in the line-up was 89-year-old guitarist Compay Segundo, who also fronted his own band Los Muchachos until his death (at 95), also in 2003. Pianist Ruben Gonzalez was piano-less and suffering from arthritis when Cooder asked him to play on the Buena Vista LP he released two subsequent solo albums before his death in 2003. Ferrer was shining shoes for extra cash on the streets of Havana when he was asked to join the group Cooder later described him as 'The Cuban Nat King Cole.' He died in 2005, aged 78.
Cooder's group consisted of 20 musicians including Lopez and Ferrer, the latter a highly successful singer the 1940s before seeing his soft singing style fall out of fashion.
