In 1996, Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González, British record producer Nick Gold, and American producer and guitarist Ry Cooder, assembled a band of accomplished Cuban musicians for what would be a groundbreaking recording session.
In just six days, they recorded a variety of tracks at the storied EGREM Studios in Havana, Cuba. One of the resulting releases, 1997’s Buena Vista Social Club, won a Grammy. It also launched a band by the same name that toured globally for more than two decades, and a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.
The second record from the session, the Grammy-nominated A Toda Cuba le Gusta, was recorded by Afro-Cuban All Stars, a foundational band to Buena Vista Social Club featuring many of the same musicians and also led by González.
On Oct. 16-18 Gonzalez and Afro-Cuban All Stars will perform at Port Angeles’ Field Arts and Events Hall. The ensemble’s three upcoming performances on the Olympic Peninsula mark their only West Coast dates during their current North American tour.
“I'm going to try to bring them happiness [and] if after we play they are happier than before, we have reached our goal,” González told KNKX.
The invitation to perform at the 500-seat auditorium came from Steve Raider-Ginsburg, executive and artistic director at Field Hall. The two met about 10 years ago at an Afro-Cuban All Stars show on the East Coast and stayed in touch.
“He’s a very good friend of mine,” González said.
Such relationships are at the core of González’s work. Both Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club stem from his long-held dream to bring together veteran Cuban musicians he knows personally and highlight the rich musical traditions of the country.
González grew up in the historic Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood of Havana, where music was a predominant force in the culture and in his home. His father, Marcos González Mauriz, was a vocalist with pioneering Cuban musician, composer and bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez.
“My daddy was a great musician of the old times, and I was able to bring [together]…some of his friends, people that worked with him, and people of my neighborhood,” González said.
González is also largely to credit for reviving interest in Cuban music throughout the world.
Though it dominated global markets before 1959, Cuban music fell out of favor when Fidel Castro took power and plunged the island nation into revolution. This led to tension and military clashes with the U.S. starting in the 1960s.
Over the last three decades, both Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club have played a key role in reintroducing Cuban music to the world after decades of intense economic and diplomatic isolation.
“We have never, never stopped…the hurricane in my country. But it's a great country at the same time,” he said.
In the early-1990s, Cuban relations with the U.S. and other western countries began to improve. Around this time, González, who was performing in a prominent Cuban musical group at the time called Sierra Maestra, connected with World Circuit Records, a label in the U.K. That meeting led to the 1996 EGREM recording session.
Afro-Cuban All Stars’ A Toda Cuba le Gusta showcases a nearly 60-person multi-generational big band performing a diversity of Cuban traditional and contemporary styles. Buena Vista Social Club was a more pared down, acoustic-style record featuring the older Cuban musicians, as well as American guitarist Ry Cooder, and focused on traditional styles like bolero and son.
“If you want to make something valuable, you have to stand on your roots, and then from your roots, you have to project to the future. But you have to stand on the roots,” González said.
Though they toured widely for many years and even performed at Carnegie Hall, Buena Vista Social Club disbanded once the older musicians passed away, González said.
Still, there are several copycat bands, many of whom have direct ties to González, that tour under the same name. There’s also an award-winning Broadway musical, Buena Vista Social Club that spotlights the effects of communism in Cuba and the story behind the band. González was intimately involved in developing the musical, which is currently touring throughout the U.S.
As for Afro-Cuban All Stars, González is devoted to performing with this group. He loves playing “all styles” of Afro-Cuban music and taking audiences on a “journey through Cuban culture.”
“We start from the very traditional styles of Cuban music up to the contemporary Cuban music, which is more, let's say, danceable, more aggressive and more jazzy,” he said.
At the end of the night, audiences will take home “a piece” of his country.
“When we play music, you are going to be in touch with the spirit of the island,” González said.
Afro-Cuban All Stars will perform three shows, two evening performances and a matinee, at Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles, Washington Oct. 16-18.
