Nick Gold

Last updated

Nick Gold
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • Audio engineer
  • Music executive
Years active1996–present
Labels World Circuit

Nick Gold is a British record producer, multi-instrumentalist and music executive. He is the CEO of World Circuit Records and the organiser of Buena Vista Social Club, a Cuban musical ensemble which he established in 1996. Gold is a two time Grammy Award winner. In 2006, The New York Times described him as a "Musical Matchmaker". [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Gold graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in African history, his father was a TV producer, [3] prior his graduation he started his career working in a jazz record store in London where he discovered about Arts Worldwide, an organization ran by Anne Hunt and Mary Farquharson that puts up British concerts tours for musicians from Latin America and Africa. The organization would go on and created a record company to produce recordings after high demand from audiences who wanted records. [4] Preceding the creation of the label, the organization hired Gold as the pantologist of the label and was given first appointment to find a recording studio and a producer for Kenyan musical group, Shiratti Jazz. According to the New York Times, that was his first time in a recording studio and the first time he saw a mixing console. [5]

Around early 90s, Gold bought the organization and took over. Prior that, Gold invited American musician Ry Cooder and Malian singer Ali Farka Touré in london where they passed a guitar to and fro and came to an agreement to work together in the future. [6] In 1996, he intended to bring two Malian guitarists to Cuba for sessions with Ry Cooder and a group of Cuban musicians, as an inspection in Afro-Cubanism but the guitarists didn't make it to Cuba because they were not given visas. Gold would go on and congregated more Cubans of varying ages and performing styles and founded Beauna Vista Social Club. [7]

Gold produced 1984 Grammy award-winning studio album by Ali Farka Touré, Cherie, he co-produced Buena Vista Social Club's 1996 debut studio album Buena Vista Social Club. Gold is also noted for his production, engineering and coordination credits on Toumani Diabaté, London Symphony Orchestra, Afro-Cuban All Stars, Afel Bocoum, Tony Allen, Orchestra Baobab, Djeli Moussa Diawara, Fatoumata Diawara, Cheikh Lô, Oumou Sangaré and Hugh Masekela. [8]

In 2018, Gold sold World Circuit Records to Bertelsmann Music Group.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ry Cooder</span> American musician

Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.

<i>Buena Vista Social Club</i> (film) 1999 film

Buena Vista Social Club is a 1999 documentary film directed by Wim Wenders about the music of Cuba. It is named for a danzón that became the title piece of the album Buena Vista Social Club. The film is an international co-production of Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubén González (pianist)</span> Cuban musician

Rubén González Fontanills was a Cuban pianist. Together with Lilí Martínez and Peruchín he is said to have "forged the style of modern Cuban piano playing in the 1940s".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buena Vista Social Club</span> Cuban musical ensemble

Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the homonymous members' club in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, some of whom had been retired for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Cuban All Stars</span> Cuban musical band

Afro-Cuban All Stars is a Cuban band led by Juan de Marcos González. Their music is a mix of all the styles of Cuban music, including bolero, chachachá, salsa, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, rumba and abakua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibrahim Ferrer</span> Cuban singer (1927–2005)

Ibrahim Ferrer was a Cuban singer who played with the group Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental, and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in 1991, he was brought back in the studio to record with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club, in March 1996. He then toured internationally with these revival groups and recorded several solo albums for World Circuit, before his death in 2005.

<i>Buena Vista Social Club</i> (album) 1997 studio album by Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club is the debut album by the Buena Vista Social Club, an ensemble of Cuban musicians directed by Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder. It was recorded at Havana's EGREM studios in March 1996 and released on September 16, 1997, on World Circuit. It is the only standard studio album exclusively credited to the Buena Vista Social Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Circuit (record label)</span>

World Circuit is a British world-music record label, established in London in the mid-1980s, that specializes in Cuban and West African recording artists, among other international music stars. The label's founding principle was to be an artist-led company with all aspects of each release tailored to the artist. This continues to be the label's way of working. World Circuit celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006 by releasing World Circuit Presents..., a 2-disc retrospective compilation album. In 2018, World Circuit was acquired by BMG Rights Management.

<i>In the Heart of the Moon</i> 2005 studio album by Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté

In the Heart of the Moon is a 2005 record by Malian musicians Ali Farka Touré on the guitar and providing vocals and Toumani Diabaté on the kora. The album was recorded in the "Toit de Bamako" conference room on the top floor of the Hotel Mandé overlooking the Niger River in Bamako, Mali. It is the first in a three-part series released on World Circuit Records entitled "The Hotel Mandé Sessions" followed by Savane and Boulevard de l'Independence. The album's title is derived from Touré's own more lengthy descriptive title for the recording session; "A very important meeting in the realm at the heart of the moon."

<i>Savane</i> (album) 2006 studio album by Ali Farka Touré

Savane is the final solo album by Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. It is the third and final part of the Hôtel Mandé Sessions, featuring Touré and Toumani Diabaté, recorded by World Circuit head Nick Gold. The album was released posthumously by World Circuit on 17 July 2006, more than four months after Touré's death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan de Marcos González</span> Cuban bandleader and musician

Juan de Marcos González is a Cuban bandleader, musician and actor, best known for his work with the Buena Vista Social Club and in the 2021 Sony Pictures Animation film Vivo as the voice of Vivo's owner, Andrés.

Manuel "Puntillita" Licea was a Cuban popular singer. Puntillita was active in the 1940s and 1950s, and later gained notice when he joined other elderly Cuban musicians to form the Afro-Cuban All Stars and the associated group of singers who recorded the Buena Vista Social Club with American guitarist Ry Cooder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal</span> Cuban trumpeter (born 1933)

Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal is a Cuban trumpeter, best known for his work with the Buena Vista Social Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Galbán</span> Cuban musician

Manuel Galbán was a Grammy-winning Cuban guitarist, pianist and arranger, most notable for his work with Los Zafiros, Ry Cooder and the Buena Vista Social Club. He died on July 7, 2011, of cardiac arrest at his home in Havana, Cuba.

<i>Mambo Sinuendo</i> 2003 studio album by Manuel Galban and Ry Cooder

Mambo Sinuendo is a studio album released by Cuban performer Manuel Galbán and producer Ry Cooder. The album was the first number-one album in the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart for Galbán and the second for Cooder, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 46th Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Farka Touré</span> Malian singer and musician (1939–2006)

Ali Ibrahim "Ali Farka" Touré was a Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist, and one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians. His music blends traditional Malian music and its derivative, African American blues and is considered a pioneer of African desert blues. Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and number 37 on Spin magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

African blues is a genre of popular music, primarily from West Africa. The term may also reference a putative journey undertaken by traditional African music from its homeland to the United States and back. Some scholars and ethnomusicologists have speculated that the origins of the blues can be traced to the musical traditions of Africa, as retained by African-Americans during and after slavery. Even though the blues is a key component of American popular music, its rural, African-American origins are largely undocumented, and its stylistic links with African instrumental traditions are somewhat tenuous. One musical influence that can be traced back to African sources is that of the plantation work songs with their call-and-response format, and more especially the relatively free-form field hollers of the later sharecroppers, which seem to have been directly responsible for the characteristic vocal style of the blues.

<i>AfroCubism</i> 2010 studio album by AfroCubism

AfroCubism is a Grammy-nominated album featuring musical collaborations between musicians from Mali and Cuba. It was released in 2010.

<i>Lost and Found</i> (Buena Vista Social Club album) 2015 compilation album by Buena Vista Social Club

Lost and Found is a compilation album, and the third under the Buena Vista Social Club name, released on March 25, 2015 on World Circuit Records and Nonesuch Records. It is a mixture of leftover tracks from the Egrem studio sessions, and from a string of dates through the late 1990s and early 2000s, and live performances from the band in the years that followed.

Jerry Boys is a classically trained British record producer, and engineer, noted for his works with The Beatles, Omara Portuondo, Pink Floyd, Ibrahim Ferrer, The Kronos Quartet, Everything but the Girl, The Shadows, John Lee Hooker, Richard Thompson, The Rolling Stones, Ali Farka Touré, Steeleye Span, Shakira, R.E.M, Buena Vista Social Club, Sandy Denny, Olivia Chaney, Toumani Diabaté, Shirley Collins, Yehudi Menuhin, Orchestra Baobab, Manfred Mann, Level 42, and Ry Cooder.

References

  1. Sisario, Ben (23 July 2006). "Nick Gold, the Musical Matchmaker Who Gave Mali the Blues". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  2. "Nick Gold". Grammy Awards . Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  3. "Biographies – Buena Vista Social Club". PBS . Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  4. "The man who sold the world another music". The Independent . 5 October 2006. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  5. Sisario, Ben (25 July 2006). "A master of mixing world musicians – Arts & Leisure – International Herald Tribune". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  6. "Ry Cooder Interview 2 Excerpts – Buena Vista Social Club". PBS . Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  7. Sisario, Ben (25 July 2006). "A master of mixing world musicians – Arts & Leisure – International Herald Tribune". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  8. "Nick Gold | Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 25 February 2023.