Customer Reviews

Gracias

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This CD has the feel of an autobiography. The music, along with photos of Omara at different ages, has the feel of being transported to the times and places in which she lived. There is a sentimental quality to this music but the lyrics and rhythms carry you from place to place so that it never feels saccharine or contrived. It would help if you spoke Spanish, or, if you don't you might be motivated to learn just so that you could totally wallow in these songs -- that are sure to have more appeal for people of a 'certain age.' If she had written a book about her life in Cuba and listed all her stage performances and gossiped about every detail one could read it, enjoy it, and then put it away or pass it on, but you can play this CD over and over and marvel at what it must have been like to be Ms. Portuondo at every beautiful age.

It hardly seems like twelve years since the music of Cuba was everywhere. On TV, radio and, irresistibly, on tour.
The release of the Ry Cooder-inspired Buena Vista Social Club album and Wim Wenders' gorgeous film Buena Vista Social Club, placed Cuba, and a core of wonderfully talented but largely unknown musicians in the world spotlight.
Sadly, several of those late-blooming artists - Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, for example - are no longer alive.
However, the one woman to emerge with Buona Vista Social Club, the principal chanteuse Omara Portuondo, is thankfully still with us and a new album from her has just been released.
"I wanted to bring everyone together to celebrate 60 years. I've done lots of records; this time I wanted to work with songs I've done before but make them more contemporary, more actual", she says.
"I selected these tracks because they are very popular and people know them in Cuba. I like all of these songs and I wanted to work with younger people who play modern music which is still rooted in tradition".
Indeed, the backing band for this 13-track disc features the likes of jazz bass virtuoso Avishai Cohen and rising Cuban star Roberto Fonseca on piano. Other guest appearances include the Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanes, the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu, the sweet-voiced Richard Bona from Cameroon, the veteran pianist Chucho Valdés and the Brazilian crooner Chico Buarque.
From cabaret dancer in decadent pre-Castro Cuba to vocalist of intimacy and passion in the world-famous Buena Vista phenomenon, Omara has been a performer and entainer for six decades.
Her new album marks out her territory of sweet, sentimental nostalgia in favourite songs from all the eras she's lived through.
Her voice is not as supple as it used to be, and she struggles to hit the high notes, but Omara packs a good deal of emotion into this tender nostalgia-fest.
She's now 78, but her singing is still personal, distinctive and gently passionate. There are moments, as with the duet with her granddaughter, when she is in danger of switching from the charming to the slushy. But the set is dominated by thoughtful ballads, with suitably sensitive backing by the likes of pianists Roberto Fonseca and Chucho Valdés.
Quality production values and musicianship are everywhere, as in the samba "O Qu Ser" with singer/guitarist Chico Buarque in one of a scattering of Brazilian numbers, and an adventurous Afro jazz duet with percussionist/bassist Richard Bona.
With Jorge Drexler, the Uruguayan singer-songwriter who won an Academy Award for composing the song "Al Otro Lado del Rio" (The Other Side of the River) for the 2004 Che Guevara biopic The Motorcycle Diaries (Full Screen Edition), she harmonizez on the record's title track.
"It was very beautiful, because he's a very agreeable person, very gentle", Portuondo says.
Have a pleasant listening experience.
Peak of the album: "Cuento Para Un Nio" and "O Qu Ser"

Mi Sueño
Zamazu
Tiki
Carioca

This great artist has realized a very sublime album; I Strongly suggest to buy it.

My product was received Ok y my home,
This CD is a older beatiful music of Cuba of 60`s - 70's years.
Thank by yuor fast send it.

I must confess that when I bought the Buena Vista Social Club album and its many spinoff discs more than ten years ago, Omara Portuondo was the musician that interested me the least in the group. Sure I loved her voice, but I suppose my taste was more timbale than torch song. Similarly, when I saw her live in concert with Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez in Washington, DC in 2001, my eyes were usually glued on the pianist and her male vocal counterpart instead of the Cuban diva. I also must say that her CDs, both on World Circuit/Nonesuch and the "Cuban Essentials" series (see my review of the latter), have made it into my 5-disc changer much less over the years than those of her compadres.

With that being said, I am now happy to report that listening to "Gracias" multiple times over the past two weeks has been one of the best musical experiences of my life! You have to realize (if you don't already know from reading any of my more than 1300 reviews on Amazon), I have nearly 5000 CDs and I feel like I never get the chance to listen to anything anymore, let alone the time to slowly savor something like I have done this past fortnight with "Gracias." In many ways this album reminds me of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" -- I know, you're saying Richman's really lost it now! In the same way that Rick Rubin captured Cash's essence by having him take a musical walk down memory lane, on "Gracias" Omara constantly revisits old topics, her past and her island home, in multiple tributes and thank yous. And even what is lost in translation (I speak limited Spanish) doesn't matter because her presentation is so passionate and direct, and the music so gorgeous, that it transcends any barriers and offers true universal enjoyment. From the heart-aching piano introduction and her delicate vocal entry on "Adios Felicidad," to the brilliant Brazilian beats of "O Que Sera," to the adorable pairing with her granddaughter on "Cachita," to the grand guitar work on the title track, "Gracias" is an absolute masterpiece. I know that this may end up being Portuondo's swan song (the majority of her Buena Vista collaborators are now dead), but here's hoping that Omara can thank us all again with another collection of songs like this in the future. And if this is it, then Omara, "Gracias" a ti.

I must confess that when I bought the Buena Vista Social Club album and its many spinoff discs more than ten years ago, Omara Portuondo was the musician that interested me the least in the group. Sure I loved her voice, but I suppose my taste was more timbale than torch song. Similarly, when I saw her live in concert with Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez in Washington, DC in 2001, my eyes were usually glued on the pianist and her male vocal counterpart instead of the Cuban diva. I also must say that her CDs, both on World Circuit/Nonesuch and the "Cuban Essentials" series (see my review of the latter), have made it into my 5-disc changer much less over the years than those of her compadres.

With that being said, I am now happy to report that listening to "Gracias" multiple times over the past two weeks has been one of the best musical experiences of my life! You have to realize (if you don't already know from reading any of my more than 1300 reviews on Amazon), I have nearly 5000 CDs and I feel like I never get the chance to listen to anything anymore, let alone the time to slowly savor something like I have done this past fortnight with "Gracias." In many ways this album reminds me of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" -- I know, you're saying Richman's really lost it now! In the same way that Rick Rubin captured Cash's essence by having him take a musical walk down memory lane, on "Gracias" Omara constantly revisits old topics, her past and her island home, in multiple tributes and thank yous. And even what is lost in translation (I speak limited Spanish) doesn't matter because her presentation is so passionate and direct, and the music so gorgeous, that it transcends any barriers and offers true universal enjoyment. From the heart-aching piano introduction and her delicate vocal entry on "Adios Felicidad," to the brilliant Brazilian beats of "O Que Sera," to the adorable pairing with her granddaughter on "Cachita," to the grand guitar work on the title track, "Gracias" is an absolute masterpiece. I know that this may end up being Portuondo's swan song (the majority of her Buena Vista collaborators are now dead), but here's hoping that Omara can thank us all again with another collection of songs like this in the future. And if this is it, then Omara, "Gracias" a ti.

"Portuondo gives a modern touch to nostalgia creating a disc that will delight fans inside and outside Cuba." - Songlines

5 STARS - The Independent

"...still going strong at 78, Portuondo is exemplary... she only keeps improving... The greatly understated young Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca...brings a beautiful lyricism to the project... framing Portuondo's remarkable instrument and classic repertoire." - fRoots

"Even now she is still experimenting...Omara Portuondo is still Cuba's great diva." - The Guardian