Buena Vista Social Club got 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. The group's eponymous album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called Buena Vista Social Club—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. This was followed up by a second documentary Buena Vista Social Club: Adios in 2017. The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music.

The West Coast Cuban Orchestra was created in 2011 by the internationally renowned Cuban Pianist and Composer Pablo Cardenas. On a trip to Vancouver Island for a performance he unexpectedly decided to stay for a while and met a few musicians that inspired him to start the band, developing it as one of his main musical projects with the purpose of keeping the Cuban music roots alive in North America while adding the influence of other musical tendencies like jazz fusion and certain African rhythms and sounds. He also wanted an eclectic line up with members from different cultural and musical backgrounds to enrich even more the sound of the project. Although Pablo’s main artistic priority was still his most experimental jazz projects, he has continued to develop this band once he has made Canada his main area of residency in the last few years, and saw that the project kept having a high level of demand performing at the most important festivals and venues of the region.