Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo is the great dame of Cuban music. While her first recordings made her the star of Cuba, her participation in the 1996 album and documentary Buena Vista Social Club, thrust her into the international spotlight. Her solo album "The Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo", released in 2000, reinforced her status as one of the greatest musical ambassadors of Cuba.

Born in Havana, Portuondo was one of the three daughters of a baseball placer in Cuba’s national team and of a woman of Spanish descent who left the comfort and support of her wealthy family home to marry the man she loved. Her parent’s singing provided the soundtrack for the first years of her life. As a child, she sang in school choirs and in music lessons.

Strongly influenced by one of her older sisters, Haydee, a Tropicana cabaret dancer, Portuondo attended many of the group rehearsals. When in 1945 the group was one dander short, they took her on to fill the spot. The experience launched her career as a dancer and formed a successful association with Rolando Espinosa. Portuondo divided her time between dancing and singing with friends including Cesar Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez and pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, who joining together under the name Loquibambla Swing, helped begin the development of her style, which blended bossa nova and American jazz. She also performed with the Orquesta Anaconda for some time.

In 1952, Portuondo joined her sister and Elena Burke to form a vocal group, Cuarteto d'Aida. The group’s sound was established with the addition of pianist and director Aída Diestro and feminine vocalist Moraima Secada. Although she released her first solo album, Magia Negra, in 1959, Portuondo continued with the group.
Cuarteto D'Aida’s fortune was drastically affected by the crisis in Bahía de los Cochinos in 1961. Although they were performing frequently in Miami, Florida, they were forbidden to go back when relations between Cuba and the U.S. collapsed. While Portuondo returned to her country and continued performing with Cuarteto d'Aida until 1967, her sister chose to stay in the U.S.

Although she performed with Orquesta Aragón in the seventies, Portuondo had semi-retired until the mid nineties. Her plans to end her career were changed after Ry Cooder, who was recording with the Chieftains, heard her sing in 1995. When he returned the following year to produce Buena Vista Social Club, Portuondo was invited as vocalist. In 1999, Portuondo recorded a duet album, Desafíos, with Cucho Valdés.

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