ABOUT THE SHOW
For the last four years in Cuba, I have spent many blissful nights in some of the great bars of Havana, meeting some of Cuba’s legendary musicians, smoking exquisite cigars and drinking the world’s finest rum: a taste of Paradise.
Meeting Lucas, the original barman of the Social Club, an idea was born; not just to take the musicians of Buena Vista on tour, but to bring the Bar as well. Lucas worked not just the Social Club of Buena Vista but mixed cocktails at all thelegendary bars of Havana – Sloppy Joes, Niche Bar, The Floridita, The Bodeguita del Medio – and served the likes of Marlon Brando, Marilyn and, after a long night of Daiquiris, famously helped Ernest Hemingway find his way back home.
By bringing together young and old musicians from some of Cuba’s legendary super groups, I knew we could create a very special band and a very special evening. Tonight we have the last remaining icons of a unique musical heritage. There is a term in Cuba called "descarga" which means the expression of the inner self through improvisation, which you might call a jam session when musicians gather in a bar to drink, tell stories and play with old friends, sometimes until the dawn.
It was this informal nature of a musical evening I wanted to capture.To give people a unique chance to experience a blissful night of music in a classic old bar of Havana, and make some new friends.
This show adds to the legend of the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon by giving you a real insight into who the Club wasactually for, who played there, the dress codes, the danceetiquette, the gossip, from the man behind the bar: theeyes which saw it all.
In the bar at Buena Vista, we get the chance to showcase for the first time ever outside Cuba the extraordinary skills of EricTurro who dances with the Buena Vista Social Club in Havana.
I invite you to witness the last remaining legends of Cubanmusic and to meet the stars of the future.
So, get up and dance when the musicgrabs you and experience for one night only the romance, the passion and the heartbreak of a golden age, which is soon to pass.
TOBY GOUGH
Director
