Buena Vista’s Farewell Tour

 Barbarito Torres, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Guajiro Mirabel and Jesus Aguaje Ramos 

Following 16 years of entertaining audiences around the world, the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club is set to bid “Adios” with a farewell world tour. The group—which has been touring the globe in different forms and configurations since 1997—will take to the road one final time in 2014–15 with a series of concerts and related cultural events that will celebrate the Orquesta’s storied journey as ambassadors for Cuban music. “We always wanted Cuba’s traditional music to live on and to enchant the world,” says singer Omara Portuondo. “Our tours have achieved this, and it has been an incredible part of my career and life.”
The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club grew out of the 1997 release of the Grammy-winning, best-selling album Buena Vista Social Club, and its lineup continues to include a number of the original artists featured on that landmark recording and subsequent film. Under the musical direction of band leader and trombonist Jesus Aguaje Ramos, the lineup for the Adios Tour will feature, in addition to veteran diva Portuondo, several of those who played on the original Buena Vista Social Club album and film: Cowboy-hatted singer/guitarist Eliades Ochoa, trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal and laud virtuoso Barbarito Torres. They will be accompanied on stage by musicians who have joined the journey along the way, including dynamic veteran tres player Papi Oviedo, Havana’s young star pianist Rolando Luna and celebrated son singer Carlos Calunga.
Over the years there have been acclaimed albums and sold-out concerts featuring artists such as Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Cachaito Lopez, Manuel Galbán, Anga Díaz and Roberto Fonseca. The Adios Tour represents the distillation of more than a thousand shows involving more than 40 musicians over 16 years. During that time the group has evolved into a dynamic, multi-generational big band in which veterans and younger performers share the stage to celebrate Cuban musical traditions.
The tour will kick off in the summer of 2014 and run through the fall of 2015, hitting worldwide markets and showcasing the classic styles and rhythms of Cuban music in a new stage presentation featuring old favorites and fresh new versions of familiar numbers. From son, guajira and danzon to bolero, cha-cha-cha and rumba, the Adios Tour will reflect the Buena Vista experience past and present, and pay tribute to many of the late, great musicians who contributed so richly to the story. Local guests will appear at shows along the way, and a series of master classes will take place in local schools and universities in an effort to engage the wider community. Finally, the tour will come to an end back where it all began, with a gala homecoming performance in Havana, Cuba.