The landmark Buena Vista Social Club concert at Carnegie Hall-July 1, 1998-was both the start of a remarkable story and the culmination of a dream. This one-time-only event elevated veteran Cuban performers like Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo and Omara Portuondo to long-overdue status as international stars, and it transformed the BVSC's already critically acclaimed album into a commercial juggernaut. Since then, the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club, recorded at Havana's Egrem Studio by guitarist Ry Cooder, has sold over eight million copies, making it the best-selling world music album ever, and the 'Buena Vista Social Club Presents' imprimatur has come to represent an unwavering mark of quality. The evening also became the dramatic heart of German filmmaker Wim Wenders' popular, Oscar-nominated documentary, also called Buena Vista Social Club. No one who saw it could be unmoved by the sight of an elderly performer like Ferrer taking in the skyscraper vistas of New York City or being overwhelmed by rapturous applause after he sang. This live set, then, is the crucial link to everything that happened before or after the Buena Vista Social Club as a group of musicians and as a brand; it's the album fans have eagerly awaited for a decade.