Sony G90 manual S I C & M U L T I M E D I a, E G S a N D O W

M U S I C & M U L T I M E D I A

The Vexed Question of Multimedia…

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…is it just a random mesh of sight and sound, or does some-		fun to look at, and Wenders simply left them out, a pardon-
thing really new emerge? This gets another look in this issue		able decision cinematographically, but not an accurate pic-
from Andrew Quint, who saw a performance in New York that		ture of what he surely saw.
made him think the much-hyped phenomenon might be real.		But the wonder of the Buena Vista film, apart from the
And I, along with anyone else who’s seen the Wim Wen-		sheer delight of watching it, is how it changed my hearing of
ders film Buena Vista Social Club, now better understand		the music. (I should note that it’s shot in grainy video, but
something simpler, but still important: How an extra visual		since Wenders is an artist, the grainy video becomes an
dimension can help us understand music.		artistic element. It helps convey the otherworldliness of
This is Wenders’ latest film, and its title ought to ring a		Havana, a city literally crumbling, but jumping with life. The
bell with people interested in Latin music, world music, or		colors are intentionally distorted, too, for an extra distanc-
just plain good music, thanks to the Nonesuch Records CD		ing effect.) I knew, for instance, that the musicians weren’t
also called Buena Vista Social Club. It’s a Ry Cooder project		young. But to see them – genial old coots in their seventies,
(another of his explorations of cross-cultural musical		eighties, and even nineties – makes them come alive.
styles), recorded in Cuba and featuring older Cuban musi-		We hear them tell their stories, too, and we realize some-
cians who hadn’t performed for quite a while. I’d had the CD		thing else. These aren’t just musicians. They’re top entertainers
for some time, along with others spun off from it, including		from another time, who know their business cold, even if they
something credited to the Afro-Cuban All-Stars (featuring		haven’t practiced it in quite a while. So for them, the Buena
some of the same people), and a recent solo album spot-		Vista Social Club recording isn’t just a job. It’s recognition.
lighting Ibrahim Ferrer, a Cuban singer with a tenderness,		Even more, it’s a kind of unexpected personal gravy. Never did
sly wit, and radiant sense of rhythm that mark him, for me,		they think they’d play again, least of all with international atten-
as an exceptional treasure.		tion. But they’re prepared. The old shticks – pianist Rubén
Wenders’ movie might be called a high-class “making of,”		González plays a solo moving up the keyboard, and when he
and it helped me understand something about the musical pro-		passes the highest note, keeps on playing in the air – work just
ject I hadn’t quite grasped. Ferrer apart, my first reaction to the		as well in Carnegie Hall as they did in old Havana nightclubs.
CDs was to think the music was nice, but a little sloppy and		A trip to New York for a Carnegie performance is the cli-
informal, traits I normally don’t mind (I love rock & roll, and		max of the film, and for the musicians, we sense, the climax
how could I, if I didn’t like sloppy and informal?), but which		of their careers. “Que linda, linda, linda, linda!” cries one of
struck me here as odd, maybe because I thought Cuban music		them, walking up Broadway. “How gorgeous, gorgeous, gor-
should be hot and tight. Adding to my puzzlement was a recent		geous, gorgeous!” They all go to the observation deck near
trip to Cuba, where I spent a week tracking down Cuban clas-		the top of the Empire State Building, and here – with Wen-
sical music for two articles I wrote for the Wall Street Journal,		ders scoring a coup for both delight and honesty, by filming
and which appeared there in May. It’s not that I heard any of		his stars exactly as they are – we see them searching for the
the Buena Vista musicians (my loss), or even any musicians		Statue of Liberty, even though none of them knows where it
like them (again my loss). But I got a shot of Cuba in my blood,		is or what it looks like, not even the one who swears he vis-
heard a lot of other Cuban things on CD, and even spoke to a		ited it, many, many years ago.
Cuban musicologist, who – maybe I took this out of context –		Of course I wanted to love their music. And I learned to
suggested that the Buena Vista recordings aren’t all that		hear it differently. What was sloppy once (though I should
remarkable to anyone who knows Cuban music well.		stress that not all of it is), is now adorable, in the spirit of the
And then I saw the Wenders film. I’ll tease Wenders		search for the Statue. What was lively gets promoted to
about one exaggeration, harmless but misleading – his many		completely irresistible, and what’s most important, most of
shots of old American cars. These, it’s true, are a famous		the players and the singers gain individual voices. They had
sight in Cuba, especially Havana, and for good reason. When		them all along, of course, but once I saw the movie, their
the Castro revolution hit in 1959, Cuba was economically		individuality was magnified. “That’s the one who prays to
and politically close to the United States (it was virtually an		Santeria gods…those are the guys who can’t stop playing
American colony, with Havana essentially controlled by the		dominoes…he’s the one who’s 90, and can’t stop grinning.
Mafia). American cars were naturally what people drove.		He says he’s working on his sixth child!”
When the US broke relations with the Castro government,		Not that all of this, in some metaphysical subliminal
American car imports stopped, and Cubans for a while had		form, wasn’t in the music anyway (and of course was part of
neither money nor the chance to buy anything else. They		the reason so many people hear these CDs with such
kept driving their old Chevys and Oldsmobiles, and still		delight). But the movie brought it out for me in implicit
drive them, holding them together with spit and ingenuity.		stereo, 3D, surround, and holographic hypertrue reality.
These ancient vehicles are a famous sight on just about		Go see the movie if it’s playing at an art house near you.
any Havana street. But they’re not the most common sight.		And get the CDs, all on Nonesuch: Buena Vista Social Club,
Most cars in Havana are creaky Russian ones, boxy and can-		Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer, and “A
tankerous, imported during the years when			Toda Cuba le Gusta,” credited to the Afro-
the Soviet Union was Cuba’s ally. They’re no	G R E G S A N D O W		Cuban All-Stars.