The digitally encoded pudding contains the ultimate proof

The Buena Vista Social Club
October 30, 1999
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI

The Del McCoury Band
November 3, 1999
The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI

Reviewed by Micah Holmquist
November 5, 1999

For a few hours I felt like I was in a pre-revolution Havana nightclub. Cigars and rum were the only things missing when the Buena Vista Social Club played Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI on October 30.

Buena Vista Social Club is actually the creation of Ry Cooder. Cooder went to Cuba to record an album with some of the Cuba’s legendary musicians. The result was Buena Vista Social Club, which won a Grammy award. Earlier this year a documentary by Wim Wenders came out that chronicled these recording sessions. Now these performers have come to the United States to do a tour and the results are quite impressive.

Many of these musicians are in their eighties and nineties yet they still put on a tremendous show. The night opened with a group lead by pianist Ruben Gonzalez. Gonzalez showed his formable showmanship skills as he had the crowd laughing at his comic antics many times. Bassist Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez also wowed the crowd. At times Lopez would let go of the strings and just tap the instrument like a drummer. Singer and crowd favorite Omara Portuondo joined Gonzalez and company midway through the show.

Then after a brief intermission came a set with singer Ibrahim Ferrer. Although all Ferrer was clearly the crowd favorite the real highlights came from guitarist Manolo Galban and trombonists Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos and Demetro Muniz. Galban would come out of nowhere with abrasive riffs that both seemed odd and fit the music. And then the trombone duel between Ramos and Muniz is beyond words. Neither wanted to give the other ground but in the end both shined through.

Simple descriptions of the actual performance do not do justice to this show, however. Most of the crowd was tapping their hands rhythmically and midway through the concert dancing broke out. Hill Auditorium is usually a pretty stuffy place but not on this night.

If the Buena Vista Social Club harkens back to legendary Latin American nightclubs, then the Del McCoury Band takes listeners to a rural town located in Kentucky.

It is a communal event. Anytime that the music’s volume went down, you could hear tapping feet.

Fans don’t clap all that much and they certainly do not sing along or pretend they are playing while listening to the Del McCoury Band. They do the music far too fast for any of that. McCoury has been playing bluegrass for well over 40 years and his guitar playing is still searing. Also part of the group were Del’s sons Ronnie and Robbie on mandolin and banjo, Jason Carter on fiddle, and Mike Bub on bass. All play with lightening speed to the crowd’s delight.

The most interesting part of the concert had to be that after beginning with a brief set list, the group mostly took requests. The crowd called out a song and the musicians seemed to play it. If they did ignore any requests, it was not obvious. It was truly impressive that the group was able to handle all the requests. Also pleasing was the music conveyed a wide array of emotions. Too often bluegrass comes across as just "up" music but with songs like "Black Jack County," the group showed it could do mournful tunes with the best of them.

The group came back with an encore that featured a cover of blues master Robert Cray’s "Smoking Gun." On that tune and all the others, the Del McCoury Band was smoking.

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