Omara portuondo biography of rory

It was not until that Omara left the band and embarked on her solo career. She recorded numerous albums and gained the opportunity to tour internationally. The subsequent documentary film by Wim Wenders in brought her and her fellow musicians global fame. She has received numerous other awards and recognitions for her contributions to music, including:.

Two years later, the rising career of Cuarteto las d'Aida was blocked by the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba assisted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the subsequent Cuban missile crisis showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Omara portuondo biography of rory

Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated, and Portuondo, a supporter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, returned to her homeland. Her sister remained in the United States. Unlike the other musicians featured in the Buena Vista Social Club album and film, Portuondo was a longtime star. Portuondo headlined shows at the Tropicana. She worked with some of Cuba's top musicians, including future Gloria Estefan arranger Juanito Marquez.

The music Portuondo made as a solo artist showed the cultural influences with which she had grown up; her shows often included a Spanish translation of George and Ira Gershwin's "The Man I Love. Not an explosive salsa singer like her contemporary Celia Cruz, Portuondo was a classic vocal stylist sometimes compared to the melancholy American jazz diva Billie Holiday or the French chanteuse Edith Piaf.

Portuondo married and divorced; her son, Ariel, became her manager. Omaraa documentary film about her career, won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France in Portuondo could sing the upbeat jazz that became known as salsa, but at heart she was a classic vocal stylist sometimes compared to the melancholy American jazz diva Billie Holiday or the French chanteuse Edith Piaf.

Portuondo married and divorced, and her son, Ariel, became her manager. Omaraa documentary film about her career, won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France inand she visited the United States that year for the first time since the revolution. She did not make her solo performing debut in the U. By the early s, just when Portuondo's career might have begun to slow down, the Buena Vista Social Club projects raised her profile around the world.

She became involved with the group after its organizer and producer, American slide guitarist and world music enthusiast Ry Cooderheard her on a visit to Havana in the mids. As Cooder assembled his group of aging Cuban musicians at the government-owned Egrem studios inPortuondo was coincidentally recording a new album of her own in the same building.

Bandleader Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Portuondo recalled to Adams, "looked in on me and said: 'We need a female voice for a duet with [octogenarian] Compay Segundowhy don't you do it? She thought that little would come of the session, but the album sold upwards of six million copies around the world, and new touring opportunities began to mushroom. On the soundtrack of the Buena Vista Social Club filmdirected by German filmmaker Wim WendersPortuondo was featured in a different duet: in "Silencio," her duet partner Ibrahim Ferrera classic vocalist of the s bolero era, was seen using a handkerchief to wipe away a tear from her face.

The film's Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature helped make Portuondo better known among U. The Buena Vista Social Club projects were more than career valedictions; they relaunched Portuondo's career as well as those of many of the other performers involved. Her voice, like that of Ferrer, retained its essential sound, and she still had an unmistakable diva quality in performance.

Her Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo album ofwith full-scale string arrangements, was one of several successful spin-offs from the original Buena Vista Social Club album, and it brought her a Grammy award nomination for best traditional tropical Latin album. Though she was thrilled to be playing 20,seat venues, she drew a contrast between entertainment in capitalist countries and her life back home.

When I tour the world, I see your celebrities kept apart from the audience, and I wonder why that is; it seems a little sad. Portuondo saw herself as a musical ambassador, connecting Cuba with the rest of the world. The album included an old song called "Tabu" that addressed the theme of interracial love. The year saw her with a full schedule of appearances, including one at the Latin Passion festival in the Chinese enclave of Hong Kong.

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The elegant vocalist Omara Portuondonearly 70 years old at the time, was the only female artist showcased in the successful Buena Vista Social Club album and film that reintroduced classic Cuban music to American audiences in the late s. It wasn't only because she was a woman that Portuondo stood out, however. In contrast to the Afro-Cuban roots music made by the other Buena Vista Social Club stars, Portuondo brought to life a different kind of Cuban song, one with a thoroughly romantic spirit and with a strong influence from American jazz and pop.

I take the best from everywhere," Portuondo told San Diego Union-Tribune writer Andrew Gilbert through an interpreter she speaks Spanish in interviews. Portuondo was born in in the modest but musically rich Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Her parents were an odd and fairly controversial couple for the time: her mother was a high-born woman of Spanish descent who was expected to marry a man of similar background but instead chose an Afro-Cuban baseball star.

Neither was particularly musical, but sometimes they sang romantic duets around the house. Portuondo's father had been a schoolmate of Cuban song composer Ernesto Grenet, and musicians and artists were always welcome in the household. A silent type, Portuondo was a reluctant omara portuondo biography of rory at first. Her sister Haydee became a member of the chorus line at Havana's Tropicana Club, and when Omara was 15 she was asked to join as well after another dancer fell ill.

You'll see, one day you'll represent your country all over the world with your art. She and Haydee soon began doing a vocal-harmony act in Havana's nightclubs as well, performing American songs for the throngs of tourists who came to the city for a taste of the tropical life. Portuondo began to perform as lead vocalist with a group called Loquibambla Swing, fronted by a blind pianist named Frank Emilio Flynn.

The group took its name from pianist and director Aida Diestro, but another key creative contributor was Cuban jazzman Chico O'Farrill, who wrote many of their vocal arrangements. Two years later, the rising career of Cuarteto las d'Aida was blocked by the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba assisted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the subsequent Cuban missile crisis showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated, and Portuondo, a supporter of Cuban leader Fidel Castroreturned to her homeland. Her sister remained in the United States. Unlike the other musicians featured in the Buena Vista Social Club album and film, Portuondo was a longtime star. World Music Central. Retrieved 17 August An evening at the Sans Souci.

Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music Florida International University Libraries. Retrieved 29 January External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omara Portuondo. Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Authority control databases. MusicBrainz Grammy Awards.