Buena Vista Social Club ft. Omara Portuondo - Full Concert [HD] | Live North Sea Jazz Festival 2008

FRIDAY 11 JULY 2008 • AMAZON • Rotterdam Ahoy, The Netherlands

LINEUP
Omara Portuondo (vocals); Swami Jr. (musical director, guitar); Harold Lopez Nussa (piano); Felipe Cabrera (double bass); Andrés Coayo, Rodney Yllarza Barreto (percussion).

ABOUT
At this year's festival, Omara Portuondo will sing songs from her forthcoming album Gracias, on which the grand old lady of Cuban music takes her listeners through her entire, powerful career. The emphasis is naturally on the "filin", an exotic blend of Afro-Cuban, Latin and vocal jazz, but her favorite song is there as well: the Chilean Gracias a la Vida - Thanks to Life. Omara Portuondo is one of the most colorful and famous singers in Cuba. For years she fronted the famous Cuban revue group Tropicana and the legendary Orquesta Aragon. And last but not least: she is the only woman of the old Buena Vista Social Club to enjoy worldwide fame through her melancholic yet swinging Cuban music. The singer, now well into her seventies, is justifiably a living legend. She sings of lost and tragic love with passion and a fitting quiver in her voice.

Omara Portuondo, also spelled Portuando, (born October 29, 1930 in Havana) is a Cuban singer. Portuondo was born in October 1930 in Havana, one of three sisters. Her mother, from a wealthy Spanish family, had caused a scandal by eloping with and marrying a black professional baseball player. Omara began her career in 1945 as a dancer at Havana's Tropicana Club (following her sister, Haydee). The two sisters sang for family and friends and were briefly involved in a band called Loquibambla Swing. In 1952, together with two friends (Elena Bourke and Moraima Secada), they formed the vocal group Cuarteto las d'Aida, accompanied by pianist Aida Diestro.

They were moderately successful, touring the United States, appearing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording an album for RCA Victor. In 1959, Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, in which she combined jazz ...