Buena Vista Social Club

German director Wim Wenders’ film is a documentary of American guitarist Ry Cooder’s efforts to return to the limelight a group of Cuban musicians from the heyday of the Buena Vista Social Club, a long-forgotten club in the heart of Havana during the 1940s and ‘50s. The musicians themselves were long-forgotten, too, and their ages now range from about 65 to over 90. Even so, they seem to have lost little of their gift for music and none of their joy in making it. The film shows them in the studio recording an album with Cooder and performing as a group in Amsterdam and in New York’s Carnegie Hall, reveling in every moment. The performers are all consummate old pros, but the standout, as first among equals, it’s smooth-voiced crooner Ibrahim Ferrer, whom Cooder calls “the Cuban Nat King Cole”.