1. Bruca Maniguá - Ibrahim Ferrer, Rodriguez, Arsenio 2. Herido de Sombras - Ibrahim Ferrer, Francia, Pedro Vega 3. Marieta 4. Guateque Campesino - Ibrahim Ferrer, Romero, Celia 5. Mami Me Gusto 6. Nuestra Ultima Cita - Ibrahim Ferrer, Medina, Armando 7. Cienfuegos Tiene Su Guaguancó - Ibrahim Ferrer, Lay, Victor 8. Silencio - Ibrahim Ferrer, Hernandez, Rafael 9. Aquellos Ojos Verdes - Ibrahim Ferrer, Menendez, Nilo 10. Qué Bueno Baila Usted - Ibrahim Ferrer, Moré, Benny 11. Como Fue - Ibrahim Ferrer, Duarte, Ernesto
Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Picking up where Buena Vista Social Club left off, BVSC Presents Ibrahim Ferrer soothes with the hushed romanticism of Cuba's yesteryear while boasting the talents of one of its greatest singers, Ibrahim Ferrer. Again there's an all-star lineup of musicians led by pianist Rubén González and singer Omara Portuondo creating music at the renowned Egrem studios, whose live room brings the slow lucidity and intense vigor of the Cuban classics to life. --Karen K. Hugg Amazon.com
It should never cease to amaze how spry and dramatically potent a force is the Buena Vista Social Club. The group--really a gaggle of aging Cuban maestros brought together for stunning all-star performances--keeps its footing in Cuban dance music at the same time as it revels in the lax tempo of layered hand percussion and traditional rhythms. Ibrahim Ferrer stepped to the international fore as the vocalist on the eponymous BVSC CD in 1997 and here furthers his already-obvious command of everything from sultry, horn-swaying ballads to gritty son tunes like "Mamí Me Gustá." Ferrer's tattered vocal inflections shape the more rollicking tunes so their texture is palpable, especially when belted in antiphonal give-and-takes with the rest of the huge band he totes along here. A 15-member-strong string section steps forward on the bolero tracks, which send off a smoldering passion that's startling in light of the BVSC's heightened, horn-charged charts. But the rich string passages color songs in wide brush strokes, which is to say that they heighten the passion to no end. Ferrer's debut might come in his twilight years, but it's a majorly luminous event. --Andrew Bartlett
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Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
- Audio CD: 0 pages (1999-06-08)
- Publisher: Nonesuch
- Label: Nonesuch
- Studio: Nonesuch
- Average Customer Review:
based on 109 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #12866
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: He could sing the phone book 2008-02-27
Comment: Ibrahim Ferrer could sing the phone book and I would be enthralled. The man's voice was a treasure. This CD is not quite as good as Buena Vista Social Club, but almost nothing is. It's not as exciting as BVSC, but Ferrer is gone now, and any little phrase he sang is better than tons of other people's work.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Makes ya Smile.......it's magic, a must have 2007-11-07
Comment: Everything about this CD makes you smile. It is a work of art. The ambiance will surround you with a sence of being there in some Cuban nightclub where the sounds of Ferrer's unmistakable voice and the instruments reflect from the walls creating pure magic. Highly recommended. Ry Cooder did the musical world a huge service in rediscovering this music.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great singer 2007-09-17
Comment: This guy has an amazing voice and remarkable control; for anyone, not considering his age. Of course he IS singing tunes that he sang in the 50s, so some of them are a little lounge-lizardy, but some of them are just great. He was famous for the son and for good reason. On those pieces he's outstanding. He never sings anything the same twice, while floating above a complex rhythmic background with repeating bass line and periodic interjections from a vocal trio. I got three of his CDs at the same time and listened to nothing else for about three weeks. He's a master; but his stuff.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excelente!!!! 2007-06-12
Comment: Jamas escuche a este Señor en Cuba, pero su voz en guaracha o en bolero es inigualable. El duo de El con Omara Portuondo esta fuera de liga. Una lastima que lo tuvieran escondido por tantos años.
1 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I LIKE A SPICY CUBAN DISH (In A Little Black Dress) 2007-03-18
Comment: [*I first became conscious of the strange phenomenon when I was about 15 years old: I ordered something to eat in a little fast food Mexican joint on Venice Boulevard in West Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to the young Latinas working behind the counter, the very next person to place his order was my Pa, and when he joined me at a table, he related to me how one girl said to her co-worker after I walked away, "That guy was cute," and the other agreed.*]
Good Friend Melanie gave me the IBRAHIM FERRER album of Cuban Jazz as a gift the Christmas before last. (I had mentioned beforehand that I have more music than time to hear it, but she listened to me about like men listen to women. No one's to blame for the communication disconnect between the genders, really, because we have such disparate origins: A woman is from Venus and a man is from a woman's "Monologue.")
[*Including my ENTIRE life, I can count on two fingers how many White, Black, or Asian women have had me and the "Mystery Dance" occupying the same thought in their mind. But Hispanic women have always found me to be irresistible, and I don't know why. I am a very ordinary looking, but extremely analytical individual who tends to mentally dissect everything in order to comprehend why and how such and such is so. But I've yet to concoct even the most rudimentary theory to explain the Latin woman's attraction to me.*]
I almost gave up on the IBRAHIM FERRER recording because I just couldn't seem to warm up to it for the longest time. At one point, I considered posting a Two-Star review on this website which I thought to title, "I'LL HAVE THE NUMBER THREE COMBINATION PLATE AND A MARGARITA, PLEASE." The music just made me feel like I was sitting in a booth at a Mexican restaurant. "Not that there's anything wrong with that", but tunes for home listening? And since Good Friend Melanie wasn't too crazy about Bright Size Life - the Pat Metheny disc I had given to her - we even considered trading, and each of us keeping the item we had purchased.
[*The brilliant and world-renowned South American sociologist, Yoey O'Dogherty, once observed that, "Hispanic women are especially drawn to the warm magnetism of masculine intensity, just as conversely, snowmen are drawn to frigid climates." And in my youth I was sometimes known by the nickname, "Mister Intense." Perhaps this accounts for why Latinas are so susceptible to the energy of my aura?*]
I finally decided that I would play nothing but IBRAHIM FERRER whenever writing on my computer until either my ears became educated enough to enjoy it, or until I could stand it no longer and gave it away to Lupe, the waitress at Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy who always gives me extra guacamole and a wink.
[*You know how women can give men "the once over" without tipping their hand to the guys, while men just ogle openly? Well, these spicy Hispanic gals sometimes lose their highly refined skills around me, unable to extinguish the hungry flames in their orbs. Even at my advanced age of 47, wearing spectacles, and with plenty of grey cohabitating with the brown on my scalp and in my goatee, I still sometimes catch `em eyeing me.*]
Well, to my great surprise, I not only eventually came to differentiate between all of these melodies, but came to embrace them as if they were part of my own culture. The tremendous blasts of brass; the lively, intricate percussion work; the sparse but soulful guitar touches of Ry Cooder; and the emotional and romantic Spanish vocals really move me ... and they make my writing move, too. I've found that IBRAHIM FERRER puts some added zest into my words - really gets the creative juices flowing. (Can't you tell?) Because of its dancing rhythms, it's become maybe my very favorite disc to play as background music while writing anything.
[*I once had a sweet and shy Mexican girl tell me about a week before her wedding that all along it was me she had been hoping to catch. And less than twelve months ago, this 18-year-old hot Hispanic thang let it be known that she was interested in me. (She went by Wendy, but I'm pretty sure her Mama named her Maria.) She was a real cutie and had an absolutely OUTRAGEOUS body to go with that face: all the curves in just the right places and very well pronounced like: "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain!" To borrow from The Commodores, she was truly built like a "Brick OWse!" The night I had to turn her down, pointing out that at my age I was nearly old enough to be her grandpa, I drove home gnawing on my knuckles and chanting over and over again, "There had better be a Heaven! There had better be a Heaven!"*]
As if the music alone wasn't reason enough to purchase IBRAHIM FERRER, the song MARIETA contains one of the funniest lyrical passages ever. Translated into English it says: "My wife was suffering from an illness of the heart in Havana. So the doctor came one morning to examine her. He took off her dress, her p*nties, too. And her slip. But when I saw that indecency I said: This isn't good; I really don't think my wife's heart is that far down." Imagine that, a song about a doctor "playing doctor."
[*So, you're wondering why I told you how attractive Latinas find me? Well, it just so happens that I wasn't talking to you, Dude; I was trying to send a discreet message to your hot, Hispanic girlfriend. But you know what? To heck with subtlety: Hola guapa, llamame cuando tu novio esta fuera.*]
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