REYNALDO CREAGH
from the Vieja Trova Santiagera

Reynaldo Creagh did his first gig as a lead voice of Septet Sonora in Santiago de Cuba, back in 1938. In 1942, he joined Orquesta Cristal under Maestro Filiu Isiarte, again as a lead singer. In 1962, he created Orquesta Estudiantina Invasora in Santiago de Cuba. He is one of the founders of Vieja Trova Santiagera.

As a child in 1928 he used to sing for rich cigar and rum manufacturers. He took lessons with Augusto Puente Guillot and his fame grew as a classic singer of Trova, the sound of oriente.

He was a great friend of the great Miguel Matamoros from Santiago who formed the Trio Matamoros, and an outstanding composer who wrote the worldwide hit, Son de la Loma, and expressed the quintessence of oriente.

Miguel wrote a song for Reynaldo which he sings during the show at Bar at Buena Vista - El Paralytico. This tells the story of a Spanish doctor in Havana who, in the late 1920s, rcommended totally ineffective treatments for paralysis, with the famous refrain exhorting Suelta la muleta y el baston, y podras bailar el son, which translates to "put down that stick and get up and dance".

Creagh born in 1918 is eighty-six years old, but going on fifty.

MARACAIBO
from the Vieja Trova Santiagera

Accompanying Creagh on Tres guitar is his old friend Maracaibo, who is eighty years of age. Macaraibo, a multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, is a son montuno expert and master on tres, congas, trombone, violin and piano. He worked through the 1950s in all the top Havana cabarets with bands from Orquesta Riverside to the Conjunto Caney, and wrote songs such as Mi son Macaraibo for Beny More, the big self taught musical star who played in two of the most influential bands of the 1940s and 1950s.

MAESTRO RUBALCABA
Cuba's finest pianist

Maestro Rubalcaba comes from a legendary musical dynasty, playing violin and flute but earning his title 'Maestro' on the piano. Maestro Rubalcaba is a regular performer with the Buena Vista Social Club concerts in Havana, he tours regularly with the Afro Cuban Allstars and at the age of seventy nine is Cuba's pre eminent vintage pianist.

Rubalcaba was born January 10, 1922, and has so far dedicated fifty-eight years of his life to creating good Cuban music. In his native province of Pinar del Rio he played with various groups: Ases del Ritmo, Eden Pianero and Monte-Carlo. He also toured internationally with Enrique Jourrin's orchestra and in Europe with Juan de Marcos' Afro Cuban Allstars. He and his orchestra appeared on the show Cuban Legends televised by MIDEM in Miami along with other major figures including Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and Chucho Valdes.

In Cuba he is known as 'The Hands of Gold'

Papi Oviedo
The world’s no. 1 tres player….

Papi Oviedo, the world’s no. 1 tres player according to TUMI-music, started his music career at the age of 14 under the guidance of his father, Isaac Oviedo, himself one of Cuba’s best tres players ever.

Throughout his life he’s played with top bands like Isaac Oviedo’s septet, Abelard Barossa’s and Orlando Contreras’s bands, both top stars back in the 50’s in Cuba, and later on, with Cojunto Chapotin jr., Conjunto Tipico Habanero, Conjunto Estrellas De Chocolate, Los Papines the most famous Cuban percussion ensemble in history Orquesta De Elio Reve

Papi Oviedo has been a guest star with prominent international artists like Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Miranda, Tito Nieves and Orquesta De La Luz. In 1996 Papi Oviedo creates his own band, Papi Oviedo y sus Soneros. Tomi-music releases 2 cd’s, 1996 and 1997,

In 2000, Papi Oviedo is invited to join Omara Portuondo’s band the Buena Vista Social Diva, touring extensively all over the world in the peak of Cuban music international protagonist at the turn of the century. Papi Oviedo’s improvisational skills and showmanship have marked forever the way Cuban music is played.

SIOMARA AVILLA VALDES LESCAY

Siomara started singing in the late 1950s in a duet named Las tropical. In 1960 she started in Quarteto Las d'Aida with Omara Portuondo. Teresa Garcia Caturla joined later. She spent 15 years with this famous group and then became a soloist. She has toured the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, Rumania, Bulgaria, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Poland and recently Australia and New Zealand with The Bar at Buena Vista. She was also a special guest for many years at the Cabaret Tropicana and performed with the greats such as Compay Segundo, Maestro Rubalcaba and Pio Levya at the Hotel National Havana.

Siomara Valdes is the Cuban Diva in The Bar at Buena Vista.

Creagh and Maracaibo grew up and played music with Ibrahim Ferrer and they are still the best of friends. Singing and playing with seminal bands such as Sonora Matancera, Orquesta Aragon, Los Bocucos, they are the last surviving guardians of this dignified music, aching with nostalgia. Like Cuban rum, these guys just get better with age.