Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo occupies a singular place among the enduring voices of Cuban music. Early sessions in the studio had already made her a household name on the island, yet her appearance on the 1996 album and video documentary The Buena Vista Social Club carried her reputation far beyond Cuba’s shores. The 2000 release of the solo project The Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo further cemented her role as one of the country’s most influential musical emissaries.

A lifelong Habanera, she was born one of three daughters to a member of the Cuban national baseball team and a mother of Spanish descent who turned her back on the security of a prosperous family to marry for love. The sound of her parents’ voices filled the household throughout her childhood, and she later sang in school choirs and music classes as a girl.

An older sister, the Tropicana cabaret dancer Haydee, exerted a decisive pull; Portuondo began attending the troupe’s rehearsals and, in 1945, stepped in when a dancer was suddenly needed. That engagement opened a professional path in dance, which she pursued in a successful partnership with Rolando Espinosa while continuing to sing with close colleagues. Together with Cesar Portillo De La Luz, Jose Antonio Mendez, and pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, she performed under the name Loquimbambla Swing, helping shape the filin style that fused bossa nova with American jazz. For a period she also appeared with Orquestra Anaconda.

In 1952 she joined her sister and Elena Burke to form the vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida. Pianist and director Aida Diestro, together with vocalist Moraima Secada, quickly defined the quartet’s characteristic sound. Although she issued her first solo album, Magia Negra, in 1959, she remained active with the ensemble.

The Bay of Pigs crisis of 1961 upended the group’s schedule. After regular engagements in Miami, FL, the singers found themselves barred from returning once diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States collapsed. Portuondo went home and continued performing with Cuarteto d'Aida until 1967, while her sister chose to remain in the United States.

She worked with Orquestra Aragon in the 1970s, yet by the mid-’90s she had largely withdrawn into semi-retirement. Those plans changed when Ry Cooder, then in Cuba to record with the Chieftains, heard her sing in 1995. Invited back the following year to produce The Buena Vista Social Club, Cooder asked her to join the all-star lineup as a featured vocalist. In 1998 she recorded the duo album Desafios with Cucho Valdes.