"If I take off my hat it seems that I have taken my clothes off. I feel strange without it," says Eliades Ochoa on Zoom from Havana, with his guajiro hat pulled down to his eyebrows. It is something so closely linked to the character as

that hybrid between guitar and Cuban tres that he has been attached to since he was a child,

when he was playing and passing his cap through the streets of Santiago de Cuba. His musical career, from the year 63 when he took his first steps as a professional, has a milestone shared with some of the greatest Cuban musicians of the 20th century:

Buena Vista Social Club

, that album that in 1996 took Cuban son to another dimension. , selling eight million copies and winning a Grammy.

"I remember so many beautiful things that happened there ...", recalls Ochoa. "We met a few artists,

some of them had been 25 or 30 years without playing

or giving concerts, they had been ruined or were dedicated to other things. I don't know boy, it's one of those things that happens and then they are never forgotten."

Now, when a quarter of a century

has passed since

that recording and the album

is reissued on vinyl with abundant additional material

, the singer and guitarist recalls that the initial claim of Nick Gold,

capo

of the World Circuit label, and the American musician and producer Ry Cooder, was to bring together Cuban artists with others from West Africa. "This is what I had committed to in London with Nick, but

the Africans could not get to Havana due to visa problems

and so, with the help of Juan de Marcos, they started looking for other Cuban musicians. That's how they left adding Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Cachao López, Guajiro Mirabal, Omara Portuondo ... ".

Those forgotten legends of the Cuban musical tradition,

masters of the guaracha, the bolero and the son

, spent seven days in the famous Areito studios delivered to

the purest spontaneity

.

"They had told me that I had to sing

El carretero

and

El Cuarto de Tula

, but while I was there, with Ibrahim Ferrer by my side, I told him: 'I remember when I was young hearing you sing

Ay Candela, Candela, I burned up…

. 'And do you remember that, my

son

?' He asked me in surprise. I also remembered

On the way to the sidewalk

and we started playing those two songs, when Nick came in and said: 'rehearse them well, they're very nice and they're going to be on the album.'

This is how things were happening. "

For the Cuban musician, what makes that album so special is that "we did it

with the same joy that we had to be together again.

The joy of that reunion penetrated the songs."

Eliades Ochoa, wearing a hat, and Ibrahim Ferrer, singing, during the recording.

From that experience, says Ochoa, "I took as a lesson the seriousness with which they worked. If you had to be in the studio at four in the afternoon, at three they were there: Compay rolling his cigars, Pío Leiva with his cigar. ..

See those people so old recording for hours

and giving concerts in Amsterdam or New York ... They never said no! ". Nor did they say no to participating in the documentary of the same name directed by Wim Wenders, which, after its release in 1999, rekindled the popularity of the Buena Vista members. "Some year later I went to do a concert with my Patria Quartet in France and I found

a huge poster with my photo hanging from the Eiffel Tower

. And I, a humble man of peasant origin, felt for some time like an ambassador of Cuban music around the world, "he says visibly moved.

Eliades Ochoa has not been able to play live since the beginning of the pandemic for a year and a half, but he does not want to hear about a possible retirement.

"I still feel strong, wanting to make music anywhere in the world,

on any stage and at any time." In that time he has participated in recordings such as that of

C. Tangana

and his album

El madrileño

, in the same Areito studios: "I knew that

Dying from envy

was going to be very accepted, because of that wave that he has, which seems not to be He is interested in the world. He

is such an intelligent boy ...

I liked seeing his seriousness at work, his desire to do and try new things. " Shortly after he says goodbye, without taking off his hat, of course.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • C Tangana

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