Cuban musician Eliades Ochoa (June 1946), who performs this Monday at the La Mar de Músicas festival in the Spanish city of Cartagena, confessed that he would like Cuba to have a museum dedicated to Buena Vista Social Club, a unique musical project.
“Yes I’d like to; It would be very interesting to be able to have a place like this, that shows the history of the musicians who made it possible for a unique musical project like the Buena Vista Social Club to come out,” he replied to the journalist from Eph Baldo Corton.
Ochoa is one of the few survivors of the project, along with Manuel Guajiro Mirabal and Omara Portuondo, who has also arrived in Cartagena, where he will be presented this Tuesday.
?For [email protected] clueless. Here is the schedule of concerts by days of La Mar de Músicas de #Cartagena.
?️ Tickets at the box office before each show and online here: https://t.co/xaLBpuVuFW pic.twitter.com/ai8HOGRNel
— The Sea of Music ?? (@mardemusicasct) July 15, 2022
In an interview to Eph, Eliades Ochoa (1946) recalled that BVSC was a “well-run” family in which he had a special relationship with Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer, due to affinity and because the three were from Santiago de Cuba; especially with Compay, with whom Eliades already worked before Buena Vista and who considered him a father.
“I always remember the double meaning of Compay and the mischief with which he spoke of old loves,” the Cuban musician recounts hours before his concert at La Mar de Músicas, a festival he attended years ago accompanied by African musicians.
Regarding a musical genre that is currently so fashionable among young people such as reggaeton, he considers that “youth should have their space and express themselves in the way they want. There is always an audience for all kinds of music.”
Eliades likes new talents such as the Spanish C. Tangana, with whom he recorded the song “Muiendo de Envy”, with more than five million views on the Internet.
“In these times there are many talented young people. I believe that collaborations arise when there is a mutual musical affinity. In my case, I am open to sharing with other artists”, he says.
Eliades spends time in Spain when he is on tour because he says that in this country he feels at home. He does not like to talk about political issues, but the question of his country has undergone some change since the war in Ukraine, he points out that “nobody agrees with a war” and considers that “this is affecting us all”.
Many like to compare him to Johnny Cash, and although he never got to meet the musician from Arkansas (USA) who died in 2003, he confesses that he would have very much liked to have met him because “I think we have several things in common. I have read about his history and listened to his music; He’s a country legend.”
“If I go to a desert island I take the Cuban son that transmits joy and invites enjoyment, but it is no less true that they may ask me for a bolero,” he jokes.
This Monday’s session of La Mar de Músicas begins with Eliades Ochoa, the Senegalese Youssou N’Dour also performs; the Dominican Alex Ferreira and Cartagena Goodbye November.
Eliades Ochoa: the son enjoys tremendous health in Cuba and the world
Today you can listen to a song from the legendary Buena Vista Social Club album, an album that won several Grammys in 1997, which was included in the Sound Library of Congress of the United States and in which classics such as “Chan Chan”, “Dos gardenias” or “Maybe, maybe, maybe”.
Eliades is an ambassador of the traditional music of his island to the rhythm of sones, guarachas, guajiras and boleros. He has sung alongside Compay Segundo, Bunbury, Aute, Jarabe de Palo, Armando Manzanero or Pablo Milanés and has even paid tribute to Bob Marley by participating in a tribute album.
Baldo Cortón/Efe/OnCuba.
