Asi Queiro Vivir

Maria Ochoa Y Corazon De Son, María Ochoa | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 19, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Jackel
• ASIN: B00004UAT2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #451,884 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The success of Buena Vista Social Club resulted in numerous CD spinoffs by several stars of the group, which included the ebullient sonero Eliades Ochoa. Now, Blue Jackel, the label that brought you the Grammy-nominated box set Cuba: I Am Time, presents his sister Maria Ochoa. Known as "La Dame de la Música Campesina," Ms. Ochoa has been a star in her hometown of Santiago de Cuba in that country's rural Oriente Province since the early '60s, but this is her debut CD.

Backed by a classic Cuban combo consisting of percussion, bass, flute, guitar, background vocals, and tres virtuoso Rey Cabrera Castelanos, Ochoa's pliant and piercing vocals sing of the heartland and the heart with the Cuban mix of Spanish, French-Haitian, and African melodies and rhythms that produced the native musical form known as the son. Ochoa and company unveil the different forms of the son: from Celina González's classic "Que Viva Changó" and the title track, motored by the elegant danzon-danzonette, to the overlapping cadences of Miguel Matamoros's sucu-sucu-syncopated "Comentario del Solar." Maria's celebrated brother plays guitar on the seductive jibaro-style "El Reto" and the zesty bolero cha-cha "Como Estoy Sufriendo." This engaging CD proves that talent does indeed run in the family. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Rhythm Magazine

Cuban vocalist Marma Ochoa is La Dama de la Mzsica Campesina-"the dame of country music." Born in Santiago, she toured with her brother Eliades Ochoa and his Cuarteto Patria. With her own group Corazsn de Son, she has now released Asm Quiero Vivir (Like This I Want to Live), featuring her brother as "special surprise guest." Based on traditional son music, the tracks are modern, personalized variations of Ochoa's childhood songs. Blending conservatory training with folk experience, the group plays different varieties of son-mostly son montuno, along with jibaro, sucu sucu, and guajira de salsn-on tres, bass, bongos, timbales, bells, maracas and flute. --Stacy Meyn

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Traditional Cuban Music Must-Have!, July 5, 2001

By 

Loren (Paris-France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asi Queiro Vivir (Audio CD)

Thanks to the success of the Buena Vista Social Club, traditional Cuban music is undergoing a comeback that is enabling artists, previously unknown outside of Cuba, to break through.

Coming from an unusual musical family, María Ochoa is maestro Eliades Ochoa's sister. She is bringing her first CD out here, an album that belongs to the traditional Cuban music section. It consists of remakes of songs written by the best authors of the genre: Celina González, Miguel Matamoros, Siro Rodríguez, Celia Romero, without forgetting the remake of Guillermo Portabeles' famous "Carretero".

A pure product of the Cuban land, this album is made up of "sones" and "guarachas" that relate simple themes in the lives of the Cuban peasants.

María's voice is full of emotion when she interprets the themes that she grew up with; the way she sings is reminiscent of that of her brother Eliades Ochoa and the music is simple without flourishes, making it all the more rustic and sincere.

Some of the most beautiful songs on the album are "Camina y ven", "Que viva Chango", "Soltando chispa", "No quiero celos" and "El carretero".

All the fans of traditional Cuban music will be overjoyed with this CD that does not contain a false note and gives us the impression of being in the middle of the Cuban countryside.