Ry Cooder, born March 15, 1947

Buena Vista Social Club

Ry Cooder and John Lee Hooker

The Chieftains perform with Ry Cooder (right) at a concert in Glasgow

Ry and Taj Mahal

“Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.”

“In oddball places, the electric guitar has been taken as an almost alien object – this weird, six-stringed instrument that fell down to earth and was then played loud but with traditional grace and intelligence.”

“No second chances in the land of a thousand dances, the valley of ten million insanities.”

Photo by Susan Titelman

From “Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let’s Have A Ball”, a film by Les Blank taped at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA on March 25th 1987.

Concert was from a two night run – the last of nine total dates on the NorCal tour. Shot on 16mm film with an audio remote truck in the alley. Movie was released in Europe but not in the US. Great band, at one of the best venues in the ‘States, the last two nights of the mini-tour they were truly on fire. One venue was so small the band filled the stage and the dance floor.

Band:
Ry Cooder: guitar, vox
Jim Keltner: drums
Van Dyke Parks: keys
Jorge Calderon: bass
Flaco Jimenez: accordion
Miguel Cruiz: percussion
Steve Douglas: sax
George Bohannon: trombone

Singers:
Bobby King: tenor
Terry Evans: baritone
Arnold McCuller: tenor
Willie Green Jr: bass