BuzzFlash Reviews
Mi Sueno (CD)
Ibrahim Ferrer
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
It was Ferrer's last recording before he passed away, and what a soulful, raw and seductive album it is.
As one online reviewer noted, it is like sitting in a Cuban night club after hours when an old pro does a private peformance in a smoky room, during the wee small hours of the morning.
"Ibrahim Ferrer-The son and bolero master vocalist had a fabled entrance into this world: he was born in Santiago in 1927 at a social club dance. He began his career in the early 1940s with local musical outfits in Santiago. Like most musicians, he had a succession of “day gigs” to make ends meet, jamming by night. In the 50s, he was the lead vocalist for bandleader Pacho Alonso, and also sang for the legendary Beny Moré. At the time of the Buena Vista sessions, Ferrer was living in a decaying apartment in Old Havana; like many of the Buena Vista elders, Ferrer was in semi-retirement, occasionally shining shoes for money. Juan de Marcos González found him taking his daily stroll on the streets of Havana—and the rest is, as they say, history."
-- ThisisRealMusic.com
""Mi sueno" means "my dream", and that is literally what this posthumous new album meant for him: he had always wanted to record a collection of boleros - meltingly romantic traditional songs - and that is what he spent his last weeks recording.
Luckily, his death didn't prevent that dream being realised, as he'd left a cache of high-definition demos.
So here we are: sensitively backed by his superb group on piano, bass, guitar, and drums, and at one point poignantly joined by fellow veteran Omara Portuondo, Ibrahim calls to us from beyond the grave with inimitable grace."
-- An Online Reviewer
"The success of the Buena Vista Social Club series gave Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer the chance to finally begin his dream project in 2005, the recording of an entire album of bolero pieces, the musical form Ferrer loved above all others. Unfortunately the 78-year-old singer died in August of that year while sessions for the project were still underway, and that Mi Sueno (My Dream) exists at all is in itself a small miracle. Ferrer left behind high-quality vocal demos of the boleros he still intended to record for the album, but these tapes were apparently misplaced and Ferrer's dream seemed destined to go unfulfilled. The demos were eventually recovered, and Mi Sueno has finally seen the light of day. It is the perfect goodbye from Ferrer, a fitting and beautiful last testament that spotlights his easy and smoky vocals over subtle, non-intrusive arrangements generally featuring pianist Roberto Fonseca, guitarist Manuel Galbon, and bassist Cachito Lopez. The late Rubén González adds piano to the beautiful "Melodía del Río," a track produced by Ry Cooder in 1998 that fits seamlessly with the newer recordings. Javier Zalbar's clarinet lines add perfect lift to "Copla Guajira," the closest thing to an up-tempo piece here, but then the romantic lilt of the classic Cuban bolero isn't about speed and energy but is instead about an elegant gliding through the motions of love, and Ferrer does it perfectly. He would have been proud of this album. It has a calm and measured grace, and flows like a watery sequence from a dream -- Ibrahim Ferrer's dream, to be exact."
-- Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Ferrar passed away in August of 2005 at the age of 78.
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