Lost & Found (World Circuit Records, 2015)
It’s time to haul out your dancing shoes and grab those guayabera shirts from the back of the closet because on March 24th World Circuit Records is hitting the streets with Buena Vista Social Club’s Lost & Found. Compiling live tour performances from around the world and studio tracks from the 1996 Egrem studio sessions in Havana, Lost & Found is a treasure trove of goodies featuring Buena Vista Social Club superstars like Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Cachaito Lopez and Rubén González.
World Circuit’s Nick Gold explains, “Over the years we were often asked what unreleased material was left in the vaults. We knew of some gems, favorites amongst the musicians, but we were always too busy working on the next project to back and see what else we had. When we eventually found the time, we were astonished at how much wonderful music there was.”
Wonderful music indeed. This stuff is so warm and delicious you want to jump in and roll around in it. So good that I might just forgive Mr. Gold and associates for being the dreadful music hoarders they are in light of the hideous winter many have has to slog through this year. That said, Lost & Found delivers the goods with this recording all the sultry, savory vivacity that made the Buena Vista Social Club a world music standard. Released almost 20 years after the original Grammy-winning recording Buena Vista Social Club, Lost & Found is just as fresh and exhilarating as the original, and there’s not one track here that says leftover bin or discard pile.
Sensational percussion, tight, neat brass lines and vocals so good that you want to weep mark Lost & Found is a dazzling and welcomed revisit to the wonders of the Buena Vista Social Club.
Lost & Found lures and charms with the opening track “Bruca Maniguá” with Ibrahim Ferrer and his “banda gigante” taken from a live Paris 2000 performance before giving way the 1996 Egrem studio recording of “Macusa” with masters Eliades Ochoa and Compay Segundo. “Tiene Sabor” is truly a stunner with Omara Portuondo’s seductive vocals center stage against some saucy backing vocals.
Equally delicious is the track “Bodas De Oro” with trombone player Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos, pianists Ruben Gonzalez and his son Rubencito and Los Zafiros band member Manuel Galban on electric rhythm guitar.
Fans get a dose of full orchestra lush with tracks like “Habanera” and “Como Fue” with Ibrahim Ferrer. Sizzling salsa prevails on the offering “Guajira en F,” while the mastery of Eliades Ochoa reigns supreme with his guitar work on “Quiéreme Mucho/Pedacito de Papel.” Other gems revealed are the energetic “Mami Me Gusto” with Mr. Ferrer, “Lágrimas Negras” with Ms. Portuondo and the sweetly worked “Como Siento Yo” by the late Ruben Gonzalez, as well as a parting track where Mr. Gonzalez is recorded singing during a rehearsal at the Egrem studios. One of the biggest surprises is “Black Chicken 37.”
Recorded for the World Circuit release Cachaito, bassist Orlando ‘Cachaito’ Lopez, conga player Miguel ‘Anga’ Diaz, violinist Pedro Depestre, timbales player Amadito Valdez, bongo player Carlos Gonzalez and maracas player Virgilio craft a stunning, improvised, jazzy, Cuban number so delicious that I can’t imagine how it got left by the wayside.
Lost & Found is amazing. It’s true you might have to lay down until don’t feel dizzy anymore after the first listening, but this is sure to beat back the winter blues for those chipping ice off their cars or digging out from all the snow.
Buy Lost & Found in North America
Buy Lost & Found in Europe
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
