I'm Lisa Mullins and this is The World. For decades Communist Cuba had just one record label. Artists wanting to record their music had no choice but to work with the state-owned company, called EGREM. Cuban musicians were virtually cut off from the outside world. That all changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The U.S.S.R's subsidies ended -- plunging Cuba's economy into crisis. Fidel Castro reluctantly started to open the island -- to tourists and to foreign record labels. Outside companies were all too eager to access the musical gems they'd been denied for decades. But Cuba was slow to realize the value of its musical treasures. That's changing now. The World's Elizabeth Ross brings us the last in our series of "Cuba stories."

In the center of Havana there's a vintage 1940s recording studio. To reach it a guide takes me through a building. The entrance is dark and dingy. A sleepy receptionist sits behind the front desk. We cross an open walkway several floors up. Rain pours down heavily against the crumbling masonry.

EGREM

We walk through a poorly lit hallway....

And finally we reach it: a wood-paneled studio with creaking floor boards, peeling paint work and a legendary status all of its own.

EGREM studio

This studio is where almost where almost all of Cuba's great musicians have recorded for more than sixty years. As one of them put it, they were recording "their passions, their feelings and their music."

Recording equipment

Even American performers Nat "King" Cole and Josephine Baker poured out their hearts here.

That was before the revolution. This studio is the home of the first recordings of orisha chants and the cha-cha-cha. But it was a 1996 recording session that really put this EGREM studio on the international map. That's when two foreign record producers pulled a group of aging Cuban musicians together and formed the Buena Vista Social Club. EGREM's production director is Caridad Perez.

Caridad Perez

She says the company originally offered producers Ry Cooder and Nick Gold their modern recording facilities. They're in one of Havana's upscale neighborhoods.

Caridad Perez: "But they refused stating that this studio had the spirit of Josephine Baker and Nat King Cole. And they just recorded with the effort of everybody and from time to time they went to the corner in which the water was flooding and they dried it with a mop."

In the recording booth I bump in to a famous Cuban tres guitar player.

Pancho Amat is working on his latest album.

Amat says he can't imagine recording anywhere else.

Pancho Amat

Pancho Amat: EGREM has other studios, a lot more modern, but for small format groups this studio works a lot more because it humanifies the work. So what is happening is that the studio is providing us with this sound."

The sound Pancho Amat is talking about is preserved deep in EGREM'S musty record vaults. This is the "Motown of Cuba". The vault holds more than 40,000 tracks of music.

Jorge Rodriguez is one of the archives' guardians. He's proud to show me around.

E.Ross and Jorge Rodriguez: photo: Yuro Lopez

Jorge Rodriguez: "We have stored four decades of Cuban music in all of its aspects: bolero, son, jazz, dancing music, trovar. For four decades everything is stored in these archives."

And the archives have attracted great interest from record labels around the world. But EGREM has been slow to realize their commercial value. It's also been slow to promote its musicians. The producers of the Buena Vista Social Club recorded at EGREM.

But they didn't sign a deal with the company. To this day, the Buena Vista Social Club album has no official release in Cuba.

It's only available on the black market.

EGREM's lack of commercial savvy has a lot to do with the way the company was founded. It was created shortly after the revolution.

EGREM sales executive, Asnel Corrales, says the enterprise was never about making money.

Asnel Corrales & E. Ross: photo: Yuro Lopez

Asnel Corrales: "Our policy in the beginning of the enterprise was to diversify the musical product and to make it available for every Cuban. And so it turned in to a cultural enterprise as such." But times have changed.

These days EGREM is looking to market its music to people outside Cuba. Recently EGREM's been collaborating with an American record label.

Escondida Music is in the process of releasing a ten volume series called "Cuban Essentials." It's a sort of best-of collection. It pulls together tracks recorded at EGREM over the past 40 years. It includes several recordings from performers of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Armando Guerra helped compiled the series. He says it has a little something for everyone.

Armando Guerra

Armando Guerra: "What we wanted to do is to just to try to bring to the attention of younger generations this great music because if you want the funky stuff you have Irakere, or Compay Segundo I would say would be more for that Santiago de Cuba flavor. If you want some Cuban soul you have Omara Portuondo. If you want a moment of introspection then you have Ruben Gonzales. So it's this magic dream team so to speak."

Many of the tracks offer remarkable insights in to Cuban history. Just take Armando Guerra's personal favorite. It's a recording by funky Cuban 70s band, IRAKERE. And it's all about a codfish sandwich.

Armando Guerra: "Bacalao Con Pan translates as I would say a codfish sandwich. Bacalao con pan was a thing in the street. If you went to a cafeteria perhaps the only thing you could get was a codfish sandwhich. If you went home you would just get codfish for dinner. That was the only thing available in the 70s. So when people found this song that was really all beats and drums and jazz and disco and all dance and had a theme that was very close to them, it had all the ingredients for a major hit."

EGREM and Escondida Music are hoping all their "Cuban Essentials" recordings have the right ingredients.

Seven CDS in the ten part series have already been released. The complete collection will be out in the next few months.

For The World, I'm Elizabeth Ross, Havana, Cuba.

WORLD anchor Lisa Mullins at EGREM