Afro-Cuban All Stars - Full Concert [HD] | Live at North Sea Jazz Festival 1998

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SATURDAY 11 JULY 1998 • TUINPAVILJOEN • Congress Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands

Afro-Cuban All Stars is a Cuban band led by Juan de Marcos González. Their music is a mix of all styles of Cuban music, including bolero, chachacha, salsa, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, rumba and abakua. They are internationally known for their 1997 album A Toda Cuba le Gusta, which was recorded during the Buena Vista Social Club sessions. Members included Rubén González, Orlando “Cachaíto” López, Ibrahim Ferrer, Raúl Planas, Pío Leyva, Manuel “Puntillita” Licea, Félix Baloy, Yanko Pisaco and more recently Caridad Hierrezuelo and Pedro Calvo.

In early 1996, Nick Gold, head of World Circuit Records, invited Ry Cooder to participate in an experiment combining Cuban and African musicians. A group of Cuban musicians had already been assembled, including Rubén González as pianist. However, because the African musicians had encountered problems obtaining visas, the focus shifted to recording Cuban music. In March 1996, Gold and Juan de Marcos González produced “A Toda Cuba le Gusta,” the first album by the Afro-Cuban All Stars. It was recorded at EGREM Studios in Havana and featured Rubén González (piano), Orlando “Cachaíto” López (bass) and a big band of experienced Cuban musicians and singers, most of whom had careers dating back to the Havana scene of the 1950s: Ibrahim Ferrer, Pío Leyva, Manuel “Puntillita” Licea, Raúl Planas, Félix Baloy and José Antonio “Maceo” Rodríguez. Cooder also played slide guitar on one track, “Alto Songo.” In the cover notes, the Marcos González, who led the project and played tres, wrote: “This album is dedicated to Rubén González, the genius of the Cuban piano.”

During follow-up sessions also held at EGREM Studios in March 1996, Cooder then produced the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club, featuring Rubén González (piano), Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa, backed by largely the same band that had recorded the album Afro-Cuban All Stars and featuring Juan de Marcos González. Cooder played guitar on all but one of the songs. Finally, in April 1996 and using the remaining studio time after the sessions that had produced the previous two albums, the solo album Introducing...Rubén González was recorded in just two days, live with no overdubs. On the album cover, Cooder is quoted as saying, “The best piano soloist I've ever heard in my entire life. A Cuban cross between Thelonious Monk and Felix the Cat”. All three albums were released in 1997 on Nick Gold's World Circuit Records. In early 1998, Wim Wenders filmed a documentary titled Buena Vista Social Club, which made the entire group of Cuban artists famous worldwide.

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