Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos keeps music of Buena Vista Social Club alive

It would be hard to imagine a better group of artists to bring to life the golden age of Cuban music that the one Ry Cooder cobbled together in Havana nearly three decades ago. Guitarist vocalist and composer Compay Segundo, pianist Rubén González, singer Ibrahim Ferrer—these were just a few of the elder statesmen of the island’s musical heritage that Cooder brought together to become the musical miracle that would be known as the Buena Vista Social Club.

By all rights, it shouldn’t have happened. Ferrer was retired, sometimes shining shoes on the street to supplement his pension. González didn’t even own a piano anymore. And the American guitarist was in Cuba on a completely different project, a long-planned collaboration between Malian and Afro-Cuban artists. But when the African players couldn’t get their visas, and those sessions had to be cancelled at the last minute, Cooder and producer Nick Gold found themselves with a recording studio on their hands and no music to fill it.

They turned lemons into—well, first limes, then not limeade, but rather a delicious daiquiri the likes of which Hemingway might have savored at the El Floridita bar when boleros , sones, danzones and cha cha cha filled Cuba’s airwaves and the aging, some nearly forgotten artists of the newly formed Buena Vista Social Club were young men in their prime.

Like El Floridita’s iconic daiquiris, the Buena Vista’s influence was vast, its followers legion. The eponymously titled album, entirely acoustic, brought back Cuban standards from the ‘40s and ‘50s as well as original compositions like “Chan Chan,” which would become Buena Vista’s calling card. It was a heady mix, smooth and sweet going down, but, wow, did it pack a punch. “Buena Vista Social Club” sold eight million copies and still holds the Guinness record for the best-selling world music album ever made.

With many players in their 70s and 80s when the recording was produced, though, the show couldn’t go on forever. By 2016, when Buena Vista finally did its “Adios” tour, five of the original stars of the 20-piece band had passed away.

It has been up to Buena Vista’s surviving members, themselves now in their 60s and 70s, to carry the torch. Some, like guitarist Eliádes Ochoa, have gone on to have solo careers (Ochoa played at the Afro Roots Fest in Miami last spring). Trombonist and conductor Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos opted for a different approach, bringing younger musicians into the fold and creating a 21 ^st century version of the original ensemble.

On Saturday, Oct. 19, Ramos brings his ten-piece Buena Vista Orchestra to the Miami Beach Bandshell, part of a whirlwind 44-city tour with dates everywhere from Red Butte, Utah to New York’s Town Hall.

In a telephone interview in Spanish, Ramos explains the need to keep the Buena Vista sound alive.

“Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer, Cachaíto López, Roberto el Millonario are no longer with us—all those legends of Cuban traditional music. And we had to continue with that story that we saw grow, that we saw be born, that we nursed and that we gave to the world. And this orchestra is the continuity of all that.”

Ramos is a fitting choice to keep Buena Vista’s fire burning. With his flashy suits and natural charisma, he cut a dashing figure onstage at the Carnegie Hall concert that was immortalized in Wim Wenders’ 1998 documentary “Buena Vista Social Club.” At 73, he still does, and he considers it an honor to be, as he calls it “the guardian of the art of making music”—traditional music like the generation of giants he accompanied for so many years had imagined it.

According to Ramos, it was as if that quintessentially Cuban music had “stopped in time” with the Revolution in 1959, preserved in amber for the Buena Vista artists and others who followed them to bring back, just as it was, for new audiences around the world to enjoy.

“Our music did not leave Cuba’s borders,” he explains. “We had the vision to break that blockade and start with Buena Vista and bring that music to the rest of the world again, to take its rightful place, the place that traditional Cuban music has always had.”

Ramos’s Buena Vista Orchestra leans heavily on a new generation of players who strive to stay true to the vintage sound of their predecessors. The only veterans of the original Buena Vista Social Club are Ramos and upright bass player Fabián García. Ramos’s daughter, Lorena Lazara Ramos Díaz, a trombonist like her father, is in the group, along with Geidi Chapman (lead vocals and guitar), Andy Abad Acosta (keyboards), Antonio Remigio Rubio Borayo (timbales and percussion), Hector Randy Olmo Gómez (congas), Amaury Oviedo (trumpet) and Aldo Isidro Miranda Álvarez (vocals). Ángel Menéndez Otero emcées the shows and sings backup vocals.

So, what are the qualities a young artist needs to have to be able to interpret the music of their grandparents?

“The first thing a musician must have to be able to interpret this music is to have been born and raised in Cuba,” says Menéndez. “Because it is in Cuba where that essence is, that you can breathe in, that is part of the environment. Without that essence, it is impossible for a Cuban musician to interpret music in this way. Musicians from other countries can play a very important role in the development of this type of music…but you have to be Cuban to be able to interpret it this way.”

While not everyone will agree with Menéndez’s assertion, one thing is certain: you don’t need to be Cuban, you don’t need to speak Spanish and you don’t even need a daiquiri in your hand to enjoy this music and let it take you on a nostalgic journey to a wistfully remembered time in a not so far away place.

If you go:

WHAT: Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos and his Buena Vista Orchestra

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19

WHERE: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

COST: $49.44, standing room, $59.74, $67.98, $78.28, $88.58; $1001.16 for a Club Level Cabaña Box; $129.78 to attend “Meet and Greet” with artists (concert ticket must be purchased separately). Tickets at dice.fm.

INFORMATION: (786) 453-2897 and miamibeachbandshell.com

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