Jesus Terry Rodriguez

Born in 1933 to a working class environment in Havana, Terry had many jobs as an adolescent to help his struggling family. He started running small errands at the Social Club Buena Vista and as he got older he was offered a weekend job as a waiter.

Terry is a born singer and entertainer. In those early days in the club, he would listen to all the greats and learnt all the hits songs of the time by heart. He would sing along as he worked and often made fun of singers and became a well loved character in the Bar.

One of the singers (a back up vocal) was late one night and the band leader invited Terry to join them on stage, something he had secretly wished for. This became the beginning of his singing career. From then on, he took it seriously taking singing lessons and going to see every possible gig in town and was soon performing as backing singer with many of the local bands

However, Terry had a passion: Jazz..As a boy that would wander about the Havana port streets and peep into bars where jazz was played either on jukeboxes afashion of the time or by live jazz trios and quartets that would perform for a penny in some bars. Terry, still a kid, learnt his first jazz steps by watching through the lattice and imitating real jazz dancers from the sidewalk.

An opportunity came up in 1953 for Terry to travel to America. His uncle was living in the Bronx at the time. Terry decided to try his luck… go to America, make some money, come back to Cuba and start his own band. And so he did. He spent three years in New York.

In 1957, Terry came back to Havana and started his own quartet inspired by what he loved most while in New York: The Hilo´s, The Four Freshmen and The Ink Sports. He created his own quartet: Los Caribe which, all through the 60´s and early 70´s would perform in Havana´s cabaret and night club scene …

He´s 74 years of age and a full member since 1961 of the Sociedad de Santa Amalia, the only and very select jazz dancers´s society in Cuba. A documentary film on this Society was recently released.

Arturro Lucas

When Lucas came to Havana he tried his hand at many things. He used to guard cars for wealthy tourists outside a famous bar, Sloppy Joes, where he got a job as a table waiter and then barman. He soon moved on from Sloppy Joes and got a job in the Floridita Cocktail Bar under the tutelage of the legendary barman Constantine, the famed creator of the Daiquiri. Here he learned many secrets of the classic Cuban cocktails. Lucas served Mojitos to Marilyn, Cuba Libres to Marlon Brando and helped Ernest Hemingway find his way back home.

After an indiscretion with the owner’s wife he got a job in the Social club Buena Vista, here he worked the bar for nine years, and played for the social club’s baseball team. Havana society in those days was divided and the Buena Vista Social Club was predominantly for the poorer black population, there was a very specific dress code and etiquette that was strictly adhered to. Here Lucas invented his own cocktail, the Buena Vista, his own spicy creation.

He served one of his notorious full strength Buena Vista cocktails to Toby Gough one night in Havana and the rest is history.