<p style="text-align: justify;">The Buena Vista Social Club performing at Carnegie Hall in 1998 as its Grammy-winning album sold eight million copies.The original idea for the record, as conceived by Nick Gold of the British label World Circuit, was to bring a group of prominent African musicians to Cuba for an intercontinental jam session. But when visa delays thwarted the Africans’ travel plans, Mr. Gold and his producer, Ry Cooder, improvised by inviting some Havana old-timers into a studio there and voilà. The resulting “Buena Vista” album, recorded in 1996 and released a year later — a slow, romantic stroll through the sounds of prerevolutionary Cuba — sold eight million copies, won a Grammy and spawned more than a dozen solo albums.
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