SONG OF THE DAY
“Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by Rhythms Del Mundo (Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba, HIP-O Records/ Universal Music, 2006). Written by Bono.
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba is a nonprofit collaborative album, which fuses Cuban rhythms and melodies with popular tracks from US, UK and Irish artists such as Dido, Arctic Monkeys, U2, Coldplay, Sting, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and others.
– Rhythms Del Mundo is comprised of an all-star cast of Cuban musicians. This includes music by famed Cuban singers Omara Portuondo and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died in 2005. The other Cuban musicians from The Buena Vista Social Club who perform on this album are as follows: Barbarito Torres, Amadito Valdés, Virgilio Valdes, Angel Terri Domech, Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal, Orlando Lopez ‘Cachaito’ and Demetrio Muniz.
– A follow-up album, Rhythms del Mundo Classics, was released in 2009.
– This project is the brainchild and concept of Kenny Young and the Berman Brothers. Kenny Young, Founder and Trustee of Artists’Â Earth Project, explains how the project emerged: “The project was sparked off by the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The idea came in to do a project with The Buena Vista Social Club to fuse their Latin sounds with Western artists and their familiar popular songs. The project evolved when more environmental disasters struck — the Asian Earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina. But the big picture was climate change. You can call these natural disasters but after all the research and scientific data, we know that we’re at least partly to blame for some of these disasters. Global warming is now in the news daily. If we don’t act in the time frame our experts give us, our grandchildren will curse us eternally.”
– Thom Yorke comments, “We need a law, we need to have the Government put climate change in its place. If you leave industry to sort it out on a voluntary basis that’s never going to happen. So everybody, if they’ve got any concerns about climate change, has to register that concern with their Government officials because it’s the only way to go.”
– Album proceeds benefits the environmental nonprofit organization Artists Project Earth, which raises awareness and funds for climate change projects and for disaster relief efforts. The artists on this album fully support the record as a commitment to the music and to the cause that it endorses.
– The main recording sessions took place in Havana at Abdala Studios from April 2005 to June 2006 and mixed at Lazy Moon Studios (UK). While the majority of the vocals remain the same, the musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club reworked the original orchestration from each song and created something utterly unique, casting their trademark mastery over each track.
Track listing
- Clocks – Coldplay – 5:01
- Better Together – Jack Johnson – 3:27
- Dancing Shoes – Arctic Monkeys – 2:29
- One Step Too Far – Dido & Faithless – 3:17
- As Time Goes By – Ibrahim Ferrer – 3:10
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2 & Coco Freeman – 4:53
- She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5 – 4:05
- Modern Way – Kaiser Chiefs – 3:58
- Killing Me Softly – Omara Portuondo (cover song of Roberta Flack) – 4:27
- Ai no Corrida – Vania Borges feat. Quincy Jones – 4:30
- Fragilidad – Sting – 4:17
- Don’t Know Why – Vania Borges (cover song of Norah Jones) – 3:10
- Hotel Buena Vista – Aquila Rose & Idania Valdez – 3:27
- The Dark of the Matinee – Coco Freeman feat. Franz Ferdinand – 3:58
- High and Dry – El Lele de Los Van Van feat. Radiohead (samples) – 5:14
- Bonus Track. Casablanca (As Time Goes By) – Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo – 3:10
– AMG rates Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba with 4.5 out of 5 stars and goes on to praise the flawless musicianship, the inspired arrangements and also the timeless quality of some of the tracks .
– The album made it to #4 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums 2006 chart.
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