Review: 70-year-old diva energizes audience

While she glides onto the stage in a purple-sequined jacket and
does a little salsa step, there is only one word to describe Omara
Portuondo: diva.

Fronting a Cuban-Jazz-Fusion band at a still-young 70 years,
Portuondo performed to an almost sold out Royce Hall on
Saturday.

Born in Havana, Portuondo’s family inspired her at an
early age to study music, particularly singing. But it wasn’t
until a dancing gig with her sister Haydee that Portuondo started
to imagine singing as a career.

In 1952, she formed a vocal group with her other sister, Elena,
officially starting a singing career that would enchant the world
for the rest of the century.

Although Portuondo was heading toward retirement in the
mid-1990s, producer Ry Cooder of the Buena Vista Social Club
invited her to sing with the group. Luckily for Royce Hall’s
Saturday night crowd, Portuondo accepted. With an array of
traditional American and Cuban instruments, Portuondo’s band
played with the same energy and ferocity as she sang.
Portuondo’s alto voice rang similar to that of French
vocalist Edith Piaf.

The songs in the 90-minute set were mostly upbeat Cuban Jazz,
including one ballad with a Parisian tinge and an intimate encore
with just Portuondo and her guitar player, Swami Jr., performing.
The sounds of bongos, congas, timbales (Cuban drums) and a tres (a
Cuban guitar with three sets of strings) rang through the theater
at sometimes lightning speeds. The flamboyant tres player Papi
Oviedo played half of one of his solos with his instrument behind
his head, much to the audience’s approval.

The audience’s excessive clapping and aisle dancing made
it clear they loved the performance. Patrons yelling in Spanish
between almost every song attested to that review. The only thing
that could have made the concert better would be a margarita bar
and a dance floor.

Portuondo has been gaining popularity in the United States since
her 2000 release, “Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Omara
Portuondo,” which comes as no surprise, as the reigning
matriarch of Cuban jazz can perform at 70 better than many could at
22.

-Vasiliki Marras