Re: Buena Vista Social Club

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Thank you Henry (quote at bottom)!

Here is a quote of Ry Cooder in Folk Roots, July 1999, no. 193, pg.
21-27 talking about Omara Porteundo's music:

"...With Ibrahim the repertoire was obvious but with Omara I don't know
what you do. Of course she can sing great but what do you do to get her
sing? It's similar to Ibrahim- the up-tempo songs tend to lead you into
a shallowness which you don't want. Slow the numbers down and there is a
depth, although too much and it gets draggy. So it's a real issue to
figure out where the real essence of a singer like that lies."

And talking about Cuarteto Patria:

"...At the same time the musicians in Cuarteto Patria are folkloric
guys. They are just going to sit there and twang what they know. There's
no point in doing that to my mind. I wouldn't have bothered. It sounds
great for two or three tracks but then it's all the same stuff. "

And talking about his own approach:

"...It was my idea to turn those songs around a little bit, very much
the same idea as Buena Vista. It was a good concept, I thought. It still
holds water. But I just couldn't get the execution of it. I still can't.
That's why you need good people like Ruben and company. Then you get
results and your ideas can be realized. Ibrahim's album is the perfect
example of that."

And talking about Ferrer's suggestions for repertoire:

"...He came up with Silencio but we're talking about post-war Cuban
music and I knew the repertoire. You have Arsenio Rodrigues at the
beginning of it and Los Zafiros (the subject of a new World Circuit
re-release) at the other end in the sixties. That's the end of
mysterious Cuban music as far as I'm concerned and that's the span on
Ibrahim's record..."

What struck me in the above quotes and the movie, was the extent to
which Ry Cooder considers himself discoverer, preserver, promoter,
catalyst of development, and in the end, kaddish reciter of the music he
is presenting. This meta position is a common one taken by film
directors and producers (see Gajdo Dilo, Time of the Gypsies, Tickle in
the Heart, Black Cat White Cat - I don't know the English title of this
last film- ) These are films made by outiders whose voice becomes at
least as important, albeit subliminally, as the subject they are
presenting. 

What further struck me in the Wenders/Cooder film was the incongruity of
the musical style of Cooder's bottle-neck-singing-saw guitar style in
the midst of his Cuban performers. In fact, this style mix merely shows
what Cooder was obsessed with at the moment - Speedy West's pedal guitar
style. I wasn't impressed by his ability to adapt - he did just the
opposite, superimposing what style was interesting him at the most at
the time he made the film. Further proof of Cooder's superfluity in
delving into cultures which provide him with loot for further musically
messianic missions is the scene where he is sitting alone with another
guitarist-singer, trying to learn a song. The cut is very short- maybe
20 seconds, and Cooder plays a I major chord while the singer glides
through a series of secondary dominants. Cooder hangs on to that one
major chord, visibly embarassed by not picking up on the chromatic
chain. Either he was being very modest and courageous by letting that
scene make the final cut, OR he simply didn't have any other material
showing him delving deeply into the music he was presenting. Given his
musical contribution to the film, I tend to believe it was the latter.
And I don't think his involvement went past that....cut to the studio
scene where he's shaking the hands of the musicians who've just finished
the last session: The friend I saw the movie with turned to me and said, 
*gee, he looks like a typical producer-type - he  doesn't even look at
them when he's shaking their hands.*

Of course you can argue that in return for whatever shallowness and
music industry illusion-making we're boing sold, we get a snapshot of a
corner of the musical world which we wouldn't otherwise get, with an
added world tour to boot, and Ibrahim Ferrer gets a house, and what
would have happened to Son music if Ry Cooder hadn't been there to
revive it singlehandedly?..... but follow the scene up with some
journalistic digging 7 years henceforth and - although I'm not a prophet
- I think you'd be in for a shock regarding an answer to the *whatever
happened to that wonderful Son wave, I mean did Ry Cooder ever foot the
bill of the musicians' retirement convalescence with licencing proceeds
from the World Circuit label?* question. 

Don't get me wrong. I like Cuban lounge music as much as anybody, and am
really happy to see once forgotten musicians remembered. I also truly
enjoy listening to Ruben Gonzales and Ibrahim Ferrer (Manuel Galban
really gets my vote, though), but I'm very skeptical about fads which
are created out of fly-by-night contact work and calculated promo
budgets. Okay, I'm envious, I admit it. I want a house too. And while
you're at it, get me a gig at Carnegie Hall and put me in a film when I
don't have any teeth left in my head. In return, you can call my music
passe and get credit for reviving it all on your own, and you can even
make any part of the film in black and white if you think that makes it
really cool, though my Hawaiian polyester shirt is my favorite, but hey,
as long as you can pay for my prostate operation, you can even play with
me on the stage, so don't forget to bring your electric guitar and don't
worry, the tunes I choose will be easy enough for you so that we can get
it in the can fast enough to fit your schedule. After all, we're pros
aren't we? Josh Horowitz

***************************************************
Henry Sapoznik's letter:

The voice of the outsider
becoming                                                                        
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                          
> Though I agree with Hankus, I think a better filmic corollary to "Buena
> Vista..." would be "In the Fiddler's House". In both cases, the one screen
> interlocutors (Cooder and Perlman) are from outside the music community being
> represented and who include (or, depending how you feel about them, intrude)
> themselves, into the film and by extension into the musical folklife of the
> community.
> And then they're gone.
> In any case, people like Cooder, Perlman and also Paul Simon (with his
> utilizing South African music) or Mickey Hart or David Byre, bring the ethnic
> music they present to a far vaster audience than anyone working within the
> community could ever hope to accomplish.

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