Ibrahim Ferrer Planas

He was a Cuban son singer with a pure and smooth voice. He lived in the old town of La Habana. He was a shy and simple man, imbued with intense faith.

He achieved worldwide fame in 1998 with the success of the musical project Buena Vista Social Club, where he recorded twelve of the fourteen songs on the album and had the pleasure of collaborating with many of the performers he had always admired, such as Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Barbarito Torres and Guajiro Mirabal. This album would win a Grammy and a year later he would record his first solo album, Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer. His second solo album, Buenos Hermanos, won another Grammy in 2004.

Ferrer was born in Santiago de Cuba, at a dance being held at a social club. His life was difficult; he almost died from tetanus and at age 12 he was left orphaned of both mother and father.

With the need to work, he spent more time on the streets than in school, selling candy and popcorn. However, Ibrahim Ferrer clung to music as his ally and at age 14 he formed a group with his cousin to entertain the neighborhood parties. They called themselves Los Jóvenes del Son.

For more than two decades he was the lead singer of the Cuban orchestra of Pacho Alonso in the nineteen fifties. In 1955 he sang the song "El Platanal de Bartolo" with the Orquesta Chepín Chovén.

He moved to La Habana in 1957 and worked with the legendary orchestra Ritmo Oriental and with the great Beny Moré, before reuniting again with the group Los Bocucos de Pacho Alonso. He toured the world with this band and over the years gained followers.

However, his name always remained in the shadows; he was loved by the audience but not by his colleagues. He lost his enthusiasm for music and retired in 1991.

He was seen shining shoes in the streets and his old house he exchanged for a small boarding house where he shut himself away, withdrawn from the world and sadly from music.

But in 1997, his friends convinced him to come out of retirement and return to music to record his debut with the orchestra Afro Cuban All Stars, the album A toda Cuba le gusta, followed that same year by his appearance in Buena Vista Social Club, an album that was the work of Ry Cooder, a recognized music producer who traveled to Cuba and bet on the talent of notable figures known only on the island such as Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer.

His albums have won all sorts of awards—among them two Grammys—and his concerts have filled Carnegie Hall in Nueva York, European stadiums and even the very demanding Japanese auditoriums. This not counting the 1998 film about his story.

Ibrahim Ferrer passed away at age 78, in the afternoon of August 6, 2005, in a hospital in La Habana.

Discography
As a soloist
Buenavista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer. 1999
Buenavista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer (Japan Edition). 1999
Buenos Hermanos. 2003
Buenos Hermanos (USA Edition). 2003
Mi sueño. A bolero Songbook. 2007. Presented by Buena Vista Social Club.

Collaborations
Buena Vista Social Club. 1997
A toda Cuba le gusta. 1997
Buena Vista Social Club (documentary film). 1998
Distinto Diferente. 1999
Havana Café. 1999
Buenavista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo. 2000
Chanchullo. 2000
Cachaíto. 2001
Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?) by Gorillaz. 2001
Specialist in all styles. 2002
Rumbero soy. 2002
Llegó Teté. 2003
Callejero. 2004
Buenavista Social Club presents Manuel Guajiro Mirabal. 2004
Cuba le Canta a Serrat (Track 6: Te Guste o No). 2005
Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba (Track 5: As Time Goes By; Track 16: Casablanca). 2006