The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club ‘Adios Tour’
With a crying and a laughing eye, Maggie Gerrand, together with the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Arts Centre Melbourne and the Arts Project Australia present the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club ‘Adios Tour‘!
Adios? Yes, after 16 years thrilling audiences around the world, it is time for the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club to say goodbye. And what better way than with a big farewell world tour!
The group has been touring the globe in different forms, guises and combinations since 1997 and will now take to the road and return to Australia one last time in 2015 for a series of concerts that will glorify the Orquesta’s storied journey as ambassadors for Cuban music. As singer and longterm member Omara Portuondo states herself: “We wanted our traditional music to live on and to enchant the world and this is what our tours achieved. It has been an incredible part of my career and life.”
The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club
But what exactly is so special about the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club?
The band grew out of the 1997 release of the Grammy-winning best-selling album Buena Vista Social Club, and its line-up continues to include a number of the original artists featured on the landmark recording and film. However, that was only the starting point of an extraordinary journey. Over the years, there have been further acclaimed albums and Grammy awards, as well as a packed schedule of sold-out tours and concerts featuring many popular artists such as Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén Gonzalez or Cachaíto Lopez, to name a few.
Now, the 2015 ‘Adios Tour’ represents the distillation of more than a thousand shows over 16 years involving more than forty musicians. During that time the group has evolved into a customised, dynamic, multi-generational big band in which veterans and younger performers have combined to celebrate Cuban musical tradition with flair and élan.
Music with passion and élan
Under the musical direction of band leader and trombonist Jesus Aguaje Ramos, the line-up for the ‘Adios Tour’ will feature several of those who played on the original Buena Vista Social Club album and film all those years ago, including the incomparable veteran diva Omara Portuondo, trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal and laud virtuoso Barbarito Torres.They will be accompanied on stage by many of those who have joined the journey along the way.
So, what can you expect of this last world tour?
From son and guajira to danzon and bolero, cha-cha-cha and rumba, the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club farewell tour will showcase once more the classic styles and rhythms of Cuban music in a new stage presentation that will feature fresh songs and familiar numbers in new versions. On top of that, the shows will reflect the Buena Vista experience past and present with tributes to many of the late, great musicians who contributed so richly to the story.
So come and grab the last opportunity to let yourself be amazed by the ‘heart-warming,uplifting’ (The Edinburgh Evening News) and breathtaking live music of this group, who will ‘take the atmosphere up to a breathless level’ (The Independent) and who are definitely going to ‘leave their audience awestruck’ (Financial Times)!
What: The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club ‘Adios Tour’
When: Friday, 13 March 2015
Where: Sydney State Theatre