Havana, June 10 (RHC) -- World Circuit Records announced that it will reissue the debut album of the iconic Cuban band Buena Vista Social Club, on the 25th anniversary of its release precisely on World Circuit in 1997.
The British label announced on its webpage that the Buena Vista Social Club reissue will be released in several formats, including a double-LP and two-CD deluxe pack that will include a remastered version of the original album, bonus discs of rarities, art prints, and a 40-page book featuring new liner notes, photos, song notes, lyrics, biographies, and more. Individual double LP and CD sets will also be available, each with a selection of bonus material and booklets with the new liner notes.
Among those unpublished tunes one entitled ‘Vicenta’ stands out, performed as a duet by Francisco Repilado –better known as Compay Segundo- and Eliades Ochoa. Written by Segundo, “Vicenta” recounts the story of a 1909 fire that destroyed nearly all of the village of La Maya, located outside of Santiago.
Critics consider the 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album as probably the most important album of Cuban music in the late 20th century, and definitely the one that reopened the doors of international recognition for ‘Son Cubano.’” The band’s musical director, Juan de Marcos González, said in a statement. “Twenty-five years later I can still feel the positive vibes of the studio and, of course, the pleasure of having contributed to some extent to the album that rescued the music of my country and many of its great interpreters from the shadows.”
Since forming in London in the mid-1980s, World Circuit Records has made its reputation by producing some of the finest world music albums of the past three decades.
The label is best known for the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club album, which is the biggest selling world music album of all time and has contributed to the phenomenal rise in popularity of Cuban, as well as Latin American, music.
The Buena Vista series continued with solo albums from the Grammy-winning Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Guajiro Mirabal and innovative albums from Cachaíto López and Angá Díaz, which took Cuban music into the new millennium and beyond.
