'Young at heart', the Bluebells once chirped, inadvertently delivering what could have been the anthem for Ruben Gonzalez, 81, Ibrahim Ferrer, 73 and Omara Portuondo, 70.
They are, of course, three of the stars of the Buena Vista Social Club, an institution, a movie, an album, a trademark - and, for those lucky enough to have grabbed tickets before they disappeared, a highlight of Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Ry Cooder kicked off the latest Cuban-music craze five years ago when he arrived in Havana looking for lost Latin sounds, and he probably didn't foresee a trip to the SAR for any of the musicians he 'discovered'. But Gonzalez, Ferrer and Portuondo will be packing the Cultural Centre Concert Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday (February 13 and 14) as part of a world tour that has filled houses to bursting in Europe, New York and Japan.
Gonzalez, the pianist and showman of the three, was a pioneer of mambo and salsa, developing those styles from the traditional Cuban 'son' music, which was first huge in the 1920s. He played alongside the legendary Enrique Jorrin, the man behind the cha-cha, in the 1960s but by the mid-1980s had retired from the music scene. The advent of the Buena Vista team brought him back into the fold, however, and he released his first solo album, Introducing Ruben Gonzalez, on Cooder's World Circuit label at the age of 78.
The impish Ferrer (see right), perhaps the biggest star of the trio, plunged into obscurity and poverty when Latin showbands died out in the 1950s, but thanks to the Grammy-award winning Buena Vista Social Club saw his first solo album released last year to rave reviews.
Portuondo, meanwhile, the only woman member of the Social Club, has been called the 'Edith Piaf of Cuba', and still performs regularly at Havana's legendary Tropicana nightclub. She received her first big break at the club in 1945 when she started work there as a dancer.
