Buena Vista Social Club Singer Ibrahim Ferrer is Dead

If he’s not too late, perhaps Peter Jennings can hitch a ride to heaven on the chariot of Ibrahim Ferrer, lead singer of the Buena Vista Social Club band, who died on Saturday in Havana. Ferrer suffered from emphysema. Although, miraculously, it never caused a discordant note in his mesmerizing voice – which was reportedly in very fine form just weeks ago during their performances at the 39th Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. He was 78.

Regrettably, 99% of you have probably never had the pleasure of hearing Ferrer sing, let alone see him perform. I shall be eternally grateful for being tuned into him a few years ago by a friend whose interest in Ferrer’s culture and music parallels her dedication to the health care of the Roma people (a.k.a. Gypsies) in her native Serbia.

In fact, Ferrer had much in common with the Roma: from his life of extreme hardship and discrimination as a black man living in Communist Cuba (despite the revolutionary myth that Cubans are non-racists) to his love of music which he performed in humble obscurity for much of his adult life.

But no eulogy from me can possibly do his life and music any justice. Therefore, I shall suffice to recommend a truly informative, endearing and, above all, entertaining documentary on Ferrer (and his bandmates). The film traces the visionary pursuit of music producer Ry Cooder who rescued them in the late 1990s from menial jobs like shining shoes and funded their recording of Cuban rhythms that they had not played since the 1950s.

They became an instant sensation – even if their music was drowned out by the coarse sounds of pop, rap and rock-n-roll. But I cannot recommend this documentary more highly. And, if it is too difficult to come by, I urge you to go to your nearest music store and pick up any CD by the Buena Vista Social Club or any of Ferrer’s solo CDs.

Farewell amigo…

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