Greatest Hits

This is a compilation to embrace, a beautifully varied album of relatively unknown material by veteran Cuban singer Omara Portuondo. Eighty this year, her career spans back to the 1940s when, in her mid¬teens, she sang in cutting-edge Havana groups like the Loquibambia Swing quartet and Cuarteto D’Aida. She first became famous in the 50s and 60s as the novia del filin – the sweetheart of the fílin movement (which, loosely summed up, amounts to ballads given a jazz touch).

Latterly she’s become known to the world as the first lady of the Buena Vista Social Club. Portuondo’s genius lies in marrying an enormously attractive voice with fabulously expressive phrasing.

Here she is heard with accompaniment from top musicians from larger orchestras (on ‘Te Dije Quédate’), with a charanga group on ‘La Última Noché, where improvised riffs, chachachá style, include the emblematic ‘Oye Como Va’ chords. There’s fine picked guitar for ‘Me Faltabas Tú, which brings home how close to Brazilian styles Cuba was in the mid-20th century.

Portuondo has sung with every major Cuban orchestra, each filled with renowned virtuoso musicians, some of whom she was to meet again in BVSC. It’s a treat to hear her with the groundbreaking Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, which really pushed the frontiers in the 60s and 70s, and with the great Elena Burke on ‘Este Son Homenaje, Movingly, we also hear her feisty version of Chilean Violeta Parra’s ‘Gracias a la Vida, one of Latin America’s seminal 20th century songs by one of its greatest female songwriters.