playlist #8
 

Posted on 22.10.2023

Every day, discover one or more tracks from a film by Wim Wenders, for whom music is an integral part of the story.

Chan chan by the Buena Vista Social Club
in Buena Vista Social Club

Do the test: say "Buena Vista Social Club" and those around you will start humming the album's opening tune, the beguiling "para Marcané", repeated to exhaustion. Marcané is a town in the east of Cuba and Chan chan is a character from a children's story that the late Compay Segundo (1907-2003, a long life indeed) conjured up from his memory on a day of great inspiration. The melody is irresistible. We know the story: it was through Ry Cooder that Wenders was made aware of the existence of a group of Cuban sound veterans, united under the name of a legendary nightclub that has since disappeared. Wim took his digital camera, filmed them on location or in concert in Amsterdam, interviewed them, and the film ended up traveling around the world. We learned the names of Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa and others. And perhaps above all, although it's unfair to single out just one, we were enchanted by the pianist Rubén Gonzaléz, considered by many as the equal of Thelonious Monk. Listen to his album Pueblo nuevo or, better still, his solo work.

A. F.

SCREENING

Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders (Documentary, 1999, 1h45)
Cinéma Opéra - Sunday, 22 October at 2.30pm