Buenos Hermanos

With a solid band with some of Buena Vista Social Club's performers and the Cooder father/son team also on board, and having picked an exquisite combination of some compositions of his own and some Latin music standards, Ferrer is bound to make you get off your chair and dance, even if your deaf or have two left feet! From the first chord, time freezes around you and he embarks on a mission to make you smile and have a great time, without regards for anything troubling you. After all, he is the best example there is of getting a break: he made into stardom at age 73, so that oughta tell you something.

Highlights of the album: the opening track (loved it) and the classic "Perfume de Gardenia" with the thoughful participation of the Blind Boys of Alabama. Get it, love it, dance to it!


Too much Ry   November 1, 2003
Unlike Buena Vista and Mas Cuba Libres where Ry wisely stayed in the background and only occasionally made himself know, here he takes center stage once in a while.
In spite of this, there's just too much talent in this album to give it less than 4 stars.

While Mr. Cooder is to be commended by making such great music (I am particularly grateful for the rebirth of Ibrahim's and Ruben's careers) accessible to Americans after decades of withdrawal feebly filled in by the soulless and superficial commercial sop called 'salsa' it's worthwhile to mention that Europeans have been enjoying the renaissance of Cuban music for years. It was the release of the Estrellas de Areito in France in the late 70's that has snowballed into the rediscovery of this most sublime and richest of all music.

Ibrahim fans, checkout a Edenway's recent release of Ibrahim's 1950's recordings with Chepin's Orquesta Oriental. If you think his voice is honey smooth now, you should listen to him as a youngster.


This is an AWESOME sounding disc!   September 9, 2003
Andrew Pielet (E-town, Il)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Not only is the music on these "Buena" discs great and funky, the recording quality is beautiful. Recorded in the Egrem studios, it is one of the few discs that actually capture the vibe of the studio, where the drums are placed, and who the background singers are standing behind. If you think these are bad recordings, you don't have the proper listening equipment. You can almost feel the shape and size of the place, what the walls are made of. CD's are mostly recorded in the setting of a soundproof studio, where sometimes the sound that recorded is lifeless, but with a black background, and super digitized. These CD's are the opposite, and you feel like you are in the studio. look at the liner notes for the Buena Vista social Club, and Mambo Sinuendo, and you can see how the mics are set up, and you can tell why it sound the way it does. I bet the mics used in this recording are vintage and priceless (obscure).


It's Ibrahim ... what more do you need to know?   June 3, 2003
BVSC fanatic (United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

If this were just Ibrahim Ferrer reading from the Havana telephone directory, I'd have bought it anyway. But it's much more, of course. This loveable man brings one of the most moving interpretations ever to THE richest form of music on earth. And now nearly eighty years old, he doesn't appear to have slowed down one bit, nor to have lost any of his magic.

If you know Ibrahim Ferrer's music, then there is nothing I need to add. But if you don't, and if you love music, then you MUST get to know Ibrahim Ferrer. When his moment in the spotlight finally arrived, he didn't believe it, and practically had to be dragged to the studio. Now, audiences the world over have fallen in love with him.

The bad news is that it's recorded at the Egrem Studios in Havana. But even the miserable quality of that half drowned studio, with its ancient equipment, can't hold back the brilliance of Cuban musicians.

The good news is that Ry Cooder plays solo. I mean that he plays so low that you can't even tell he's playing. Apparently, he's finally gotten the message. Ry, we love you for what you have done to popularize artists like Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Eliades Ochoa and so many others. But slide guitar just doesn't go with son, pilon, or guaguanco.

And let's not forget the other musicians and singers (the usual suspects, of course): Manuel Galban, Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Amadito Valdes, Chucho Valdes, Miguel "Anga" Diaz, Jose Antonio Rodriguez and so many others.

My recommendation is that you buy this CD. You won't regret it. It's beautiful, it's soulful, it's moving, it's vibrant, it's Ibrahim!!!