Why did Ibrahim Ferrer have to shine shoes if he had the potential to win Grammy Awards, Oscar nominations, and sell out theaters around the world? Let’s take a look at the scene. Slow motion: we see the audience, excited, applauding. A close-up of the musician. He is crying of happiness behind his eyeglasses, wearing an expensive suit. The same man that went from singing with Pacho Alonso and Benny More to being forgotten, and then, at the end of his life, remembered again. Was Ry Cooder his salvation? The book “How Cuba made the world dance,” by Cuban journalist Juan Carlos Roque, offers a few answers. The answer to the question above, for instance is “No.” That’s what Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the former director of the Sierra Maestra band, and founder of Buena Vista Social Club along with Cooder, says: “Ry Cooder never sold more than 200,000 copies of an album in his life. I think he’s an excellent musician, but the success of Buena Vista Social Club was not determined by his participation.” And there’s more. When asked if Ry Cooder was conveniently under the shadow cast by Gonzalez, he replied: “Not under my shadow, under the...

“Dafnis Prieto has been one of the most impressive musicians in New York jazz over the past 15 years,” a New York Times review posted in May 2015 concluded about the Cuban-American drummer. It’s not the first time Prieto has been hyperbolically praised by the American media. His arrival in the U.S. has been compared to that of "an asteroid hitting New York," according to drummerworld.com. The comparison may seem exaggerated, but his music can convince us that the acclaim is well deserved. Prieto was born in July 31st, 1974. He comes from the same "school" that has produced some of the most successful Cuban musicians in the 21st century: the Columna B ensemble. The list of stars includes Descemer Bueno (1 million views in You Tube, several Grammy awards and a Goya award), Yosvany Terri (multi-awarded musician, a professor at Harvard University), Robertico Carcassés (multi-awarded composer, arranger and producer, director of Interactivo). In 2011, Dafnis Prieto became the first Cuban musician to win the Genius Grant of the MacArthur Foundation. He has performed along with renowned musicians such as Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O’Farrill, Jane Bunnett, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Roy Hargrove, Don Byron, among many...