Omara Portuondo
Encyclopedia
Omara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuba
n singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida
, and has performed with Ignacio Piñeiro
, Orquesta Anacaona
, Orquesta Aragón
, Nat King Cole
, Adalberto Álvarez
, Los Van Van
, the Buena Vista ensemble, Pupy Pedroso, Chucho Valdés
and Juan Formell
.
player. Omara joined the dance group of the Cabaret Tropicana
in 1950, following her elder sister, Haydee. She also danced in the Mulatas de Fuego in the theatre Radiocentro, and in other dance groups. The two sisters also used to sing for family and friends, and in 1947 joined the Loquibambia Swing, a group formed by the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn.
From 1952–1953 she sang for the Orquesta Anacaona
, and later in 1953 both sisters joined (together with Elena Burke
and Moraima Secada
) the singing group Cuarteto d'Aida, formed and directed by pianist Aida Diestro
. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole
at the Tropicana, and recording an album
for RCA Victor. In 1957 the sisters recorded an album with the quartet. In 1959 Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, involving both jazz
and Cuban music. Haydee left the Cuarteto d'Aida in 1961 in order to live in the U.S.A. and Omara continued singing with the quartet until 1967.
Orquesta Aragón
, and toured with them abroad.
In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martin Rojas, an album in which she lauds Salvador Allende
and the people of Chile
a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet
. Among other hits from the album, she sang Carlos Puebla
's beautiful "Hasta Siempre, Comandante", which refers to Ché Guevara
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u25jgVipKMc
She also recorded "Y que se sepa", with one of the most recognized recent Cuban bands, Los Van Van
. Later on she performed with Juan Formell
, singing Formell's song "Talvez", a song she recorded later on with Maria Bethania.
During the 1970s and 1980s Portuondo enjoyed success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Álvarez
), film roles, and her own television series.
In 2004 the International Red Cross appointed her International Ambassador, the first Cuban musician to hold this title, in Montreal
.
Today, Omara lives in a high-rise apartment just off the Malecón, Havana
, overlooking the sea. She remains a popular fixture on the local music scene, singing regularly at the Tropicana Club
, the Delirio Habanen and the Cafe Cantante.
) on the album Buena Vista Social Club
in 1996. This led not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall
with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders
' film The Buena Vista Social Club
, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). In July 2005 she presented a symphonic concert of her most important repertoire at the Berlin Festival Classic Open Air am Gendarmenmarkt for an audience of 7,000. The entire program was specially orchestrated by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, a conductor/pianist with whom she had worked during her early years at Havana's Tropicana Club
. Scott Lawton conducted the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
.
In 2007 she is performing the title role to sold out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD.
She recorded in 2008 a duets album with Brazilian singer Maria Bethania
, named Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo. In 2008 she recorded the album Gracias as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of her singing career.
Omara Portuondo on DVD
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida
Cuarteto d'Aida
The Cuarteto d'Aida was a famous Cuban female singing group. It was founded and directed by the pianist Aida Diestro in 1952. Diestro picked four brilliant young singers to form the group: Elena Burke, Moraima Secada and the sisters Omara and Haydée Portuondo...
, and has performed with Ignacio Piñeiro
Ignacio Piñeiro
Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez was a black Cuban musician and composer whose career started in rumba, and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total he wrote about 327 numbers, mostly sones.Piñeiro was a brilliant rumbero who worked with musical...
, Orquesta Anacaona
Anacaona (all-girl band)
Anacaona is the name of an all-girl orchestra, founded in 1930s Havana by Cuchito Castro and her sisters. Eventually, all 11 sisters joined the band. The band was formed during the Machado era when the political situation led to university closings, forcing Cuchito Castro to abandon her studies and...
, Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón was formed on 30 September 1939, by Orestes Aragón Cantero in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The band originally had the name Ritmica 39, then Ritmica Aragón before settling on its final form. Though they did not create the Cha-cha-cha, they were arguably the best charanga in Cuba during 1950s...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Adalberto Álvarez
Adalberto Álvarez
Adalberto Álvarez is a Cuban pianist, director and composer.During the 1970s, Álvarez attended the National School of Arts in Havana. He started the Cuban band Son 14 in the 1970s and disbanded it in the 1980s. In 1984, Álvarez started the group Adalberto Alvarez y su Son, which he directs today...
, Los Van Van
Los Van Van
Los Van Van is a Cuban band led by bassist Juan Formell, it is one of the most recognized post-revolution Cuban bands, while Juan Formell has arguably become the most important figure in contemporary Cuban music....
, the Buena Vista ensemble, Pupy Pedroso, Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists...
and Juan Formell
Juan Formell
Juan Formell is a Cuban musician, bassist, composer, and arranger, best known as the director of Los Van Van Orchestra. He is a creator of popular danceable music and credited with bringing electronic instrumentation into the Cuban musical form.His professional activity started in 1957 as musician...
.
Early life and career
Portuondo was born one of three sisters; her mother came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player. Omara joined the dance group of the Cabaret Tropicana
Tropicana Club
Tropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 at Villa Mina, a six-acre suburban estate with lush tropical gardens in Havana's Marianao neighborhood.-Influence:...
in 1950, following her elder sister, Haydee. She also danced in the Mulatas de Fuego in the theatre Radiocentro, and in other dance groups. The two sisters also used to sing for family and friends, and in 1947 joined the Loquibambia Swing, a group formed by the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn.
From 1952–1953 she sang for the Orquesta Anacaona
Anacaona (all-girl band)
Anacaona is the name of an all-girl orchestra, founded in 1930s Havana by Cuchito Castro and her sisters. Eventually, all 11 sisters joined the band. The band was formed during the Machado era when the political situation led to university closings, forcing Cuchito Castro to abandon her studies and...
, and later in 1953 both sisters joined (together with Elena Burke
Elena Burke
Elena Burke was a revered and popular Cuban singer of boleros and romantic ballads....
and Moraima Secada
Moraima Secada
Moraima Secada Moraima Secada Moraima Secada (born María Micaela Secada Ramos (Santa Clara, Cuba, 30 September 1930 – Havana, 30 December 1984), known to her admirers as La Mora (the moor), was a temperamental singer who created a special style of interpretation within the Cuban music genre...
) the singing group Cuarteto d'Aida, formed and directed by pianist Aida Diestro
Aida Diestro
Aida Diestro was a Cuban pianist, and the director of a famous choral group. She studied music with her father, the Presbyterian minister Diestro Camejo, and continued in a private conservatory...
. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
at the Tropicana, and recording an album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
for RCA Victor. In 1957 the sisters recorded an album with the quartet. In 1959 Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, involving both jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Cuban music. Haydee left the Cuarteto d'Aida in 1961 in order to live in the U.S.A. and Omara continued singing with the quartet until 1967.
1967–present
In 1967 Portuondo embarked on a solo career, and in the same year represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Marquez' "Como un Milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s she sang with the charangaCharanga
Charanga is a term given to traditional ensembles of Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra....
Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón
Orquesta Aragón was formed on 30 September 1939, by Orestes Aragón Cantero in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The band originally had the name Ritmica 39, then Ritmica Aragón before settling on its final form. Though they did not create the Cha-cha-cha, they were arguably the best charanga in Cuba during 1950s...
, and toured with them abroad.
In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martin Rojas, an album in which she lauds Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
and the people of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
. Among other hits from the album, she sang Carlos Puebla
Carlos Puebla
Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
's beautiful "Hasta Siempre, Comandante", which refers to Ché Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u25jgVipKMc
She also recorded "Y que se sepa", with one of the most recognized recent Cuban bands, Los Van Van
Los Van Van
Los Van Van is a Cuban band led by bassist Juan Formell, it is one of the most recognized post-revolution Cuban bands, while Juan Formell has arguably become the most important figure in contemporary Cuban music....
. Later on she performed with Juan Formell
Juan Formell
Juan Formell is a Cuban musician, bassist, composer, and arranger, best known as the director of Los Van Van Orchestra. He is a creator of popular danceable music and credited with bringing electronic instrumentation into the Cuban musical form.His professional activity started in 1957 as musician...
, singing Formell's song "Talvez", a song she recorded later on with Maria Bethania.
During the 1970s and 1980s Portuondo enjoyed success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Álvarez
Adalberto Álvarez
Adalberto Álvarez is a Cuban pianist, director and composer.During the 1970s, Álvarez attended the National School of Arts in Havana. He started the Cuban band Son 14 in the 1970s and disbanded it in the 1980s. In 1984, Álvarez started the group Adalberto Alvarez y su Son, which he directs today...
), film roles, and her own television series.
In 2004 the International Red Cross appointed her International Ambassador, the first Cuban musician to hold this title, in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
Today, Omara lives in a high-rise apartment just off the Malecón, Havana
Malecón, Havana
The Malecón is a broad esplanade, roadway and seawall which stretches for 8 km along the coast in Havana, Cuba, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana to Vedado.Construction of the Malecón began in 1901, during temporary U.S. military rule...
, overlooking the sea. She remains a popular fixture on the local music scene, singing regularly at the Tropicana Club
Tropicana Club
Tropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 at Villa Mina, a six-acre suburban estate with lush tropical gardens in Havana's Marianao neighborhood.-Influence:...
, the Delirio Habanen and the Cafe Cantante.
Buena Vista Social Club and since
Portuondo sang (duetting with Ibrahim FerrerIbrahim Ferrer
Ibrahim Ferrer was a popular Afro-Cuban singer and musician in Cuba. He performed with many musical groups including the Conjunto Sorpresa, Orquesta Chepin-Choven and Afro-Cuban All Stars...
) on the album Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club (album)
- Music :"Chan Chan", the first song on the album, is a Cuban song composition by Compay Segundo, revolving around two central characters, Juanita and Chan Chan. The song was one of Segundo's last compositions and was written in 1987, already having been recorded by Segundo himself various...
in 1996. This led not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
' film The Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club (film)
Buena Vista Social Club is a documentary film 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.-Synopsis:...
, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). In July 2005 she presented a symphonic concert of her most important repertoire at the Berlin Festival Classic Open Air am Gendarmenmarkt for an audience of 7,000. The entire program was specially orchestrated by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, a conductor/pianist with whom she had worked during her early years at Havana's Tropicana Club
Tropicana Club
Tropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 at Villa Mina, a six-acre suburban estate with lush tropical gardens in Havana's Marianao neighborhood.-Influence:...
. Scott Lawton conducted the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
The German Film Orchestra Babelsberg is a symphony orchestra based in Potsdam, Germany. It was founded in 1993 by Klaus Peter Beyer. The orchestra derives its name from the legendary Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam-Babelsberg, a city part of Potsdam today, where notable films such as Metropolis, Dr...
.
In 2007 she is performing the title role to sold out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD.
She recorded in 2008 a duets album with Brazilian singer Maria Bethania
Maria Bethânia
Maria Bethânia Vianna Telles Veloso , better known as Maria Bethânia , is a singer and sister of Caetano Veloso. She started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião"...
, named Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo. In 2008 she recorded the album Gracias as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of her singing career.
Discography
- 1950s: Amigas (by the Cuarteto las d'Aida)
- 1996: Palabras
- 1996: Buena Vista Social Club
- 1997: Omara Portuondo & Martin Rojas
- 1997: A Toda Cuba le Gusta (by the Afro-Cuban All Stars)
- 1999: Desafios (with Chucho Valdés)
- 1999: Oro Musical
- 1999: Magia Negra
- 1999: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
- 2000: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo
- 2000: Roots of Buena Vista
- 2000: La Colección Cubana
- 2001: Pensamiento
- 2001: La Sitiera
- 2001: You
- 2002: 18 Joyas Ineditas
- 2002: La Gran Omara Portuondo
- 2002: La Novia del Filin
- 2002: Dos Gardenias
- 2004: Flor De Amor
- 2005: Lágrimas Negras (Canciones y Boleros)
- 2007: Singles
- 2008: Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo
- 2008: Gracias
- 2011: "Omara & Chucho"
Omara Portuondo on DVD
- 2007: Live in Montreal
- 2008: Omara Portuondo & Maria Bethania Live
- 2011: "Omara & Chucho"