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On Sunday night the Buena Vista Social Club returns to Chicago with a concert at Symphony Center. Many of the all-star Cuban orchestra’s greatest voices have died since the group became an unexpected phenomenon starting in 1998—including singer and tres player Compay Segundo, singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Pio Leyva, and pianist Ruben Gonzalez—and it’s been half a dozen years since the group has made any recordings, but there’s still plenty of firepower remaining. The lineup this weekend includes singer Omara Portuondo, singer and guitarist Eliades Ochoa, trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal, and laud virtuoso Barbarito Torres. Since Gonzalez died in 2003 the piano seat has often been filled by the richly talented Roberto Fonseca, who is assuming those duties again on the current tour. But over the last decade he’s been making music that veers far from BVSC’s old-school approach for something modern, syncretic, high energy, and rooted in the island’s rich Latin jazz history. Fonseca’s own nimble sextet will open Sunday’s concert.
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