Buenos dias Buena Vista

Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club's veteran members (left) are sure bets to pull in big crowds at the Bowl of Brooklands (below). Photo / Supplied

Cuban veterans fire up Womad. Tony Nielsen explains why

They were a late addition to Womad 2015, but one that has devotees of the music festival dancing with anticipation.

Although it's hard to pick favourites among the line-up of performers this year, Buena Vista Social Club are who every ticket-holder will want to see.

Decades of history swirl around Buena Vista Social Club, named after the Havana club of the same name, which closed in the 1940s. American slide guitar virtuoso and filmmaker Wim Wenders ignited world interest in the Cuban music genre in the late 1990s, recording an album then travelling with the musicians to Amsterdam and to New York's Carnegie Hall in 1998 to record and document their concerts. The release of the Buena Vista Social Club film in 1999 created intense interest.

Many of the original performers' careers got a new lease on life, even though they were in their 70s and 80s.

Players like Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Ruben Gonzalez have now been dead for a decade, but, luckily for us, they passed the baton to a new generation, who mix with some of the long-time members still active.

Jesus Aguaje Ramos is the original trombonist and now band leader, trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal and laud virtuoso Barbarito Torres will continue with Buena Vista for this visit, with the incomparable diva Omara Portuondo.

The line-up will also include veteran tres player Papi Oviedo, the young piano star Rolando Lunas, double bassist Pedro Pablo, percussionists Andres Coayo, Filiberto Sanchez and Alberto La Noche, a three-man trumpet section and two singers.

Eighty-four-year-old Portuondo celebrated 60 years as a performer in 2008 with a new album called Gracias, but the reality is she has been recording for decades, initially for the small Havana label Egrem Studios, and following the revival of the Buena Vista Social Club she was captured on two solo albums, in 2000 and 2004. They demonstrate a remarkable talent, deftly bringing the unique aspects of the Cuban musical heritage and blending it with jazz.

The Orquesta's Womad performance is part of a world farewell tour.

As an interesting aside, especially with the recent announcements heralding a normalising of the relationship between the US and Cuba, Ry Cooder was fined $25,000 for his involvement in Havana with Buena Vista, in contravention of the US embargo.

* Womad plays over the weekend of March 13-15 at New Plymouth's Bowl of Brooklands.