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BRAHIM FERRER 'BUENOS HERMANOS'WCD 065

SONGLINES MARCH 2003

Turns out to be perhaps his best album to date....the miracle that is Ibrahim Ferrer- that a man who is approaching his '80s can be spoken of in terms of continuing artistic development shows what makes him so extraordinary. Bless him and long may he dazzle and delight.

IBRAHIM FERRER
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB PRESENTS WCD055

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH May 1999

An unassuming mellow-voiced septuagenarian, Ibrahim Ferrer was perhaps the central figure in The Buena Vista Social Club, 1997's million-selling meeting of the veteran Cuban singers with Ry Cooder. Ferrer's laid-back charm and ever-present cloth cap came to sum up the whole project. This first solo effort, featuring the same production team and many of the same musicians, is a beautiful realised work that shows their collective inspiration going from strength to strength. Smoochy strings and some gloriously sleazy saxes evoke the mood of Ferrer's Fifties heyday, when American big band music was fusing with the sounds of Cuba's rustic hinterland.

His effortless delivery, wonderfully well complemented by Manuel Galban's tingling electric guitar work and octogenarian Rubén González's sprightly piano playing, evokes a feeling of lost hours - days even - in ancient, crumbling ballrooms. But this isn't just a wallow in nostalgic kitsch. Ferrer means every mellow word.