Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer

Ibrahim Ferrer's solo debut, produced in Havana by Ry Cooder, features an extraordinary stylistic range of music, from nostalgic 1950's big band, to stunning ballads, to the rich, country-style son that made the first Beuna Vista Social Club album a hit around the world, and won a new audience for traditional Cuban music. The Ferrer sessions reunited him with legendary Buena Vista colleagues Ruben Gonzalez and vocalist Omara Portuondo, as well as the outstanding original rhythm section, plus Ry Cooder as both player and album producer. Joining the cast are the female vocal quartet Gema 4, former Los Zefiros electric guitarist Manuel Galban, and original Coasters saxohponist Gil Bernard. Certified Gold by the RIAA. (8/01)

It should never cease to amaze how spry and dramatically potent a force is the Buena Vista Social Club. The group--really a gaggle of aging Cuban maestros brought together for stunning all-star performances--keeps its footing in Cuban dance music at the same time as it revels in the lax tempo of layered hand percussion and traditional rhythms. Ibrahim Ferrer stepped to the international fore as the vocalist on the eponymous BVSC CD in 1997 and here furthers his already-obvious command of everything from sultry, horn-swaying ballads to gritty son tunes like "Mamí Me Gustá." Ferrer's tattered vocal inflections shape the more rollicking tunes so their texture is palpable, especially when belted in antiphonal give-and-takes with the rest of the huge band he totes along here. A 15-member-strong string section steps forward on the bolero tracks, which send off a smoldering passion that's startling in light of the BVSC's heightened, horn-charged charts. But the rich string passages color songs in wide brush strokes, which is to say that they heighten the passion to no end. Ferrer's debut might come in his twilight years, but it's a majorly luminous event. --Andrew Bartlett