The photographs treasure unique moments of the exciting life of Omara Portuondo. In one of those images “frozen” by the camera, Ms. Omara Portuondo smiles while sitting on a wicker piece of furniture and the air waves her hair even more. There is another picture where she is surrounded by some of her colleagues.
“That’smy life hanging on the wall”, said the Diva of the Buena Vista Social Club when she welcomed OnCuba at her place in Havana and gave us a few minutes of her busy schedule, dedicated that afternoon to rehearsing with her musicians a special repertoire, that of her latest album Black magic, which she is now sharing with her followers in Brazil and Chile, as she did last week in Mexico.
Her house is decorated with several reproductions of important paintings (Gioconda, by Da Vinci; and El rapto de las mulatas, by Carlos Enríquez). Are you fond of plastic arts, Omara?, I asked her.
Then, Portuondo shocked me with her confession: “I wish I could paint, but I don’t have that gift. Nature didn’t give me that talent”.
Don’t say that, you have an incredible voice, I told her. “Well, I do have a voice, but if I were able to paint, I could have done it right too. Anyway, I wish I could play the piano. I couldn’t, back at that time there was no money to learn”, explained Omara.
It’s strange she didn’t learn to play the piano considering she is a singer, I thought. The Bride of Feeling assured she did learned “sports, dancing in Tropicana, dancing rumba and singing in the female vocal quartet Las D’Aida; just that kind of things”.
Definitely Omara has a rich history, for which she was recognized in the Spanish city of Cartagena with the award La mar de musicas.
“That award made me feel very happy. That city reminds me a lot of Havana. It has many things in common with my city. However, I was mostly impressed by the work I did there with a group of children, from the street, but they went there to sing. I found that really nice, and human. It was a nice gesture. We sang a song that I had recorded a long time ago: El carpintero”.
You have just returned from Mexico and now you are leaving to Brazil and Chile. Are you working on the promotion of your album Black magic?
“That’s an album I never released because I was in Las D’Aida. It was recorded but nothing happened with it. Now my son, Ariel Jiménez Portuondo, who is also my representative, and other people, thought this album should be retaken and remade. And we are working on that”.
A key point during our interview was about the Buena Vista Social Club retiring from the stages. The project has been on since the late 90’s making the most of our traditional music throughout the world. Omara thinks it will not be over with Adios Tour, a worldwide tour they are immersed right now. And I confess me neither.
The Divaof the Buena Vista Social Club noted: “I don’t want it to be over because it champions Cuban music all over the world. It has had for many years now. There were other similar experiences like that with television director Amaury Perez, with dancers and singers through Europe for about a year. That was a valuable experience too”.
“And now we did it with the Buena Vista, and by the way, several of its members took part in that project by Amaury Perez”.
How much of Cuba has the Buena Vista Social Club left in the stages throughout the world?
“We don’t leave anything. People enjoy it. It’s half and half. We share our love for music, our idiosyncrasy, and our rhythms with the audience abroad. Wherever we go, people dance and enjoy what we do”.
Are you planning to perform in the United States any time soon?
“With the Buena Vista and without it, I have always performed in the US and in many parts of the world. We have been already there this year”.
I recalled Omara about that spectacular track she recorded with Chucho Valdez, where she invited US trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, the leader of New York’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. She immediately la-la-la Esta tarde villover, by Mexican Armando Manzanero and acknowledged she was proud of having been able to meet a man like Marsalis, and all the rest. Because it’s the music speaking. It gives us the chance to expand internationally.
“For years Americans have come to Cuba. They performed in our stages. They came looking for high quality Cuban musicians for working. Jazz festivals used to take place here –by the way, that genre had been practiced in Cuba for a long time, since I was at school, but it didn’t have the international reach it enjoys today”.
“With the feeling movement many things were done. I had the opportunity to meet great artists. I worked with them in Tropicana and other places. I met Nat King Cole and a few years ago we ran into each other with her daughter in a festival in California. The Buena Vista closed that show and Natalie was there with other musicians. The meeting with her was very nice. Then we thought about recording Quizas, quizas, which her father had interpreted here in Cuba and we are waiting for her response”.
Surrounded by many young musicians Omara notices how good they are in their job. “Quality brings about good things, as those going on with women and the youth. But there are musicians that are not familiar with artists from days gone by, as for example, Paulina Alvarez, who used to be the queen of danzonete. I hope the youth will listen to the album I recorded with some tracks she immortalized. The youth really has good things going on and I wish they knew the oldest did too. That’s going to be very good for everyone”.
Details of Black magic
Black magic, produced by Colibri Productions and OmaraPortuondo’s Office, is scheduled to be out in the market by next November.
The design of the album derives from a drawing by renowned plastic artist Eduardo Roca (Choco). The musical production was in charge of Juan Manuel Ceruto, as well as the recording, the mixing and the mastering were in charge of engineer Orestes Águila.
This time, Omara was accompanied by outstanding musicians such as Brazilian Iván Lins, maestro Luis Carbonell and trumpet player Alexander Abreu.
During the performances in Brazil and Chile the Diva of the Buena Vista Social Club is followed by young Cuban instrumentalists like Rolando Luna (piano), Gastón Joya (bass), Rodney Barreto (drums), Tonatiut Isidrón (trumpet) and Andrés Cuayo (conga drums).
