Compay Segundo, a Star of the 'Buena Vista Social Club,' Dies at 95

July 14, 2004 - Compay Segundo, the salty Cuban singer and guitarist who was the eldest of the elder musical statesmen featured on the "Buena Vista Social Club" album and film, died on Sunday at his home in Havana, an official at his record company in Spain said. He was 95.

Mr. Segundo, who rose to global fame in his 90's after decades of obscurity, was the most accomplished of the dozen or so Cuban musicians gathered in Havana in 1996 by the American producer Ry Cooder for a recording session meant to recapture the lost music of the pre-Revolutionary Havana nightclub scene.

Mr. Segundo was nearing 90 at the time, but his rich and resonant baritone was undiluted, and his appearance in the film confirmed that his libido also remained intact. He boasted of being the father of five, and said with a mischievous grin that he was keen to sire a sixth.

The album and film of those sessions were both called "Buena Vista Social Club." The album was released in 1997 by the British music company World Circuit, and the film, directed by the German filmmaker Wim Wenders, was released two years later. Both became worldwide hits and revitalized the careers of all the Cubans, most of whom had spent decades in menial jobs in Cuba. Mr. Segundo had worked rolling cigars. Another, Ibrahim Ferrer, had been a shoeshiner.

The "Buena Vista" album went on to sell over a million copies in the United States, won a Grammy Award in 1998 for best tropical Latin album and sparked a franchise of solo albums. Mr. Segundo's solo albums have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.

But Mr. Segundo had already been the beneficiary of renewed interest in Cuban music before "Buena Vista."

In the late 1980's, he began playing with Eliades Ochoa, another member of the "Buena Vista" group, and in 1989 traveled to Washington to appear with Mr. Ochoa's band Cuarteto Patria at a Smithsonian Institution festival of traditional cultures in America.

Mr. Segundo began recording again after a 1994 trip to Spain, where he was seen by a small but excited group of record executives.

"One of our artists called us and said, `Listen, there's a Cuban guy playing in this tiny, tiny, tiny place in Madrid,' " said Charlie Sanchez, the managing director of DRO EastWest, a division of Warner Music in Spain. "We went there and it was great. We signed him and made six albums."

Born Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz in Siboney, on the eastern side of Cuba, he got his stage name — Cuban slang for second compadre — for his specialty in low harmonies. He began writing songs at age 14, and in 1929 moved to Havana, where he joined the group Los Cuban Stars.

With Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, Mr. Segundo formed the duo Los Compadres in 1949, which had great success throughout Latin America. The group disbanded in 1955.