Nueva Antología

Originally released two decades ago, this dazzling double album was, for many, the introduction to Compay Segundo immediately prior to the global sensation that was the Buena Vista Social Club. In addition to the 34 tracks contained on the original 1996 release, four new songs have been appended: ‘A los Barrios de Santiago’, ‘Descripción de un Sueño’, ‘Lágrimas Negras’ and ‘Versos Para Tí’. The album still stirs: the soft yet raw percussion, the old-world swing, the spacious arrangements and the foregrounded vocals all serve the maestro's art as singer and musician (though his guitar was always adapted to his vision, with extra or fewer strings).

Ry Cooder polished the material later on, but perhaps he also flattened it, spread it thin. What stands out on Nueva Antología is Compay Segundo's grace, untainted by decades of low-key hotel gigs or time out of performing, plus his formidable talents as a songwriter. Sometimes, his legacy is reduced to ‘Chan Chan’ and a kind of charming aged fatherliness. But this was a legend of 20th-century Cuban music and the anthology is the best repository of his wide-ranging gifts.