Which American musician assembled the musicians who had played 50 years ago in Havana, and created the film, the "Buena Vista Social Club"?

In 1996, the acclaimed American guitarist and producer traveled to Cuba with a plan to record an album blending West African and Cuban musical styles. When the African musicians were unable to get their visas, the project stalled. Instead of heading home, he shifted his focus to a new idea: recording an album of traditional Cuban son music with the veteran musicians who had been stars in the 1940s and 50s, before the revolution changed the island's cultural landscape.

Working with Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González, he began tracking down these forgotten masters. Many were living in obscurity; singer Ibrahim Ferrer was shining shoes, and pianist Rubén González no longer even owned a piano. The producer gathered these incredible talents, some in their eighties and nineties, into a Havana studio. The resulting album, recorded in just six days, became a surprise international sensation, winning a Grammy and sparking a global revival of interest in Cuban music.

The project's success didn't stop there. He later returned to Cuba with film director Wim Wenders to document the musicians' stories and their triumphant concerts in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall. The resulting 1999 documentary, which shared its name with the album and the group, received an Academy Award nomination and immortalized the artists he had brought back from obscurity.