Sweet voice of light and carefree

07/19/11 12:33
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

Sweet voice of light and carefree

by Petar PLAMENOV

22 July (Friday), 2011
Omara Portuondo, Cuba
NPC Hall 1,
Start: 20:00, 45-90 BGN

National Palace of Culture
Address:
Sofia, 1 Bulgaria Sqr.
Phone: 02 916 63 69
Phone: 02 916 63 68

Omara Portuondo – vocals,
Swami Jr. – guitar,
Harold López-Nussa – piano,
Felipe Cabrera – double bass,
Andrés Coayo – percussion,
Rodney Yllarza Barreto – percussion

Omara Portuondo, who is celebrating eighty first birthday and sixty years in music, was only fifteen when she was noticed at the Tropicana cabaret as a dancer. She began singing American jazz standards, infused with Cuban bossa nova. In 1952, with her sister she formed the female vocal ensemble Cuarteto Las D'Aida before working for many years as a soloist.

She represented Cuba at the Sopot song festival but was also required to join other artists to entertain workers in the sugar plantations on the island. In 1996, when the Buena Vista Social Club album recordings began, Omara was also working in the Egrem Studio in Havana. Producer Ry Cooder took the opportunity to persuade her to sing the bolero Veinte Años with Compay Segundo. The rest is history.

The song was one of the highlights of the album and Omara became one of the resident stars of the Buena Vista Social Club series. On Ibrahim Ferrer’s first album, their duo sparkled with a bolero, Silencio, and next, Omara released some stunning solo albums: in 2000 Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo, and in 2004 Flor de Amor.

We last had the opportunity to see her at the National Palace of Culture in November 2005 as part of her world tour. She now returns with her newly recorded album Gracias and this is going to surprise even her most fervent fans. Gracias has the most intimate material, unusually betraying a deep Brazilian influence and she comes with the appropriate accompanying band.Her new album, Flor De Amor, with its modern string arrangements and glossy production turning classic boleros into haunting pieces of exotica, looks set to propel Portuondo to greater international success. She still seems to be brimming over with the vigour that has sustained her fame throughout Cuba’s fluctuating fortunes.

Unlike the bulk of the Buena Vista Social Club musicians with whom she came to international prominence, Omara does not purely specialise in the Afro-Cuban dance music beloved of world-music fans. Certainly, her set does include plenty of lively pieces infused with the rhythms of Santeria (the popular hybrid religion, mixing West African Yoruba practices and Spanish Catholicism), but it is equally dominated by big-band cabaret numbers and exceedingly melodramatic ballads.

In an interview with Cuban singer Omara simply reveals the secret of his art: “I know my music is not so traditional as some other people’s, but that’s OK I just want to do the music which makes people happy. Sometimes that is the dance songs, the rumba and son rhythms, but often people want to hear the boleros [sentimental ballads] or modern pop music, too. When I was growing up, we were not rich, but we were very happy, even if we had to share small amounts of food, and part of that happiness was always having music around. It’s part of being Cuban to always hear music and play music so I sing all the different kinds of songs to try to reach all the people and try and make them happier in their lives, too.”