Buena Vista singer Pio Leyva dies (Buena Vista Social Club)

[IndianaGreen]

Last Updated: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 16:38 GMT

Buena Vista singer Pio Leyva dies



Cuban singer Pio Leyva, who gained global fame with the Buena Vista Social Club group, has died at the age of 88.

Leyva died of a heart attack on Wednesday evening, just days after suffering a stroke, his family said.

His work with the late guitarist Compay Segundo - perhaps the best known of the Buena Vista group - stretched back to the early 1950s.

They joined forces again in the late 1990s when the Grammy award-winning Buena Vista group was formed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4838222.stm

[Sal Minella]

1. I just watched Ry Cooder's "Buena Vista Social Club" DVD and

the music is delightful beyond belief. Highly recommended if you like good music and people who are performers with many decades of refining their art behind them. Really lovely to watch and listen to.

[saigon68]

6. I saw this on TV

It was excellent

[reprehensor]

2. :(

Too bad Ry Cooder didn't get his ass down there a decade earlier.

Could have had more good stuff.

Buena Vista is a great doc/film.

[brook]

3. So sad

to have these wonderful musicians leave us. Thank the powers that be that we have them preserved on CD's. But damn the politics that hid them from so many for so long.

[OneBlueSky]

4. I'm just thankful that Ry Cooder got all these musicians together . . .

and preserved some great music that would otherwise have been lost . . . I have the Buena Vista CD and Reuben Gonzolez's CD, and they're both great . . . as is the documentary, particularly the reactions of the elderly musicians to the standing ovations at Carnegie Hall . . . a few months earlier, Ibrahim Ferrer had been shining shoes in Havana . . .

RIP to all those who have since left us . . . and thanks for the music . . .

[Piedras]

5. I'm saddened to learn of his passing

I'm saddened to learn of Pio Leyva's death. The Buena Vista Social Club was one of the most enjoyable films I've seen {multiple times} in my life. I had the added pleasure of twice seeing them live in concert.

[psychopomp]

7. RIP Mr. Leyva

I, too, enjoyed the music. I live abroad and have had the pleasure of seeing a number of Cuban musicians perform locally that I could have never seen in the United States. I especially enjoyed hearing son music performed live.

[Judi Lynn]

8. What a shame we didn't see more of this excellent artist.

http://astronomica.supereva.it/img/Cristiano-Malgioglio+Pio%20Leyva.JPG

There's a song sample, number 7, "La Juma De Ayer" - with a very old Pio Leyva and Compay Segundo at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005UCEX/203-6160109-4548716

and number 10, "Pare Cochero - Pio Leyva" at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SSXK/002-3757831-5227234?v=glance&n=5174