Omara: Cuba's Legendary Diva documentary screens on PBS, Friday

Omara – a long-overdue documentary on Buena Vista Social Club singer Omara Portuondo airs on PBS tonight at 10 pm Eastern.

Happy Birthday Omara Portuondo!

Raising a glass to great Cuban vocal stylist Omara Portuondo with her stellar performance at the 2008 Montreal Jazz Festival. 

Happy Birthday Omara Portuondo!

Here are a few typically stellar performances from the great Omara Portuondo. 

Alex Cuba releases new duets album Sublime in September

Alex Cuba connects with Latin legends Omara Portuondo & Pablo Milanés along with future stars Silvana Estrada and Alex Ferreira on his latest project. 

Here's the scoop...
The spark of creation is a rare and special moment. That’s Alex Cuba’s favorite part of music-making: when inspiration strikes at 3 AM, stepping out into the little studio in his garage, turning on the heater (he’s made a home in the far north of British Columbia, far from the Cuba of his birth), and being alone with a new musical idea. His new album, Sublime (out September 20 on Caracol Records), is all about “capturing that magic, while it’s still hot,” as Alex says, “in that moment of higher truth.”

Alex Cuba wanted to find just the right title for this new project. It had to strike a chord with his Spanish- and English-speaking listeners. It had to reflect the way he’s been distilling the Alex Cuba sound down to its pure essence. “One day I was listening to the masters, having a coffee, and all of a sudden the word crosses my mind: “Sublime,” he recalls. In Spanish, English, and even French, that title captures Alex’s goal: to find the spirit at the heart of his music, leaving out everything that doesn’t need to be there.

What’s left is that sound that brings together Afro-Latin influences into one distinctive voice, the sound that has already won him Latin Grammys, Junos, and three Grammy nominations. It’s purely Alex Cuba, while leaving space for Alex’s signature duets with artists both well known and about to break out.

For one thing, it’s Alex playing every instrument you hear on Sublime. “I’ve recorded with incredible musicians for previous albums,” Alex recalls, “but the vulnerability of these songs led me to this choice. It’s so simple, and yet so strong, I wanted to express all that myself.”

The album’s first video, for single “Yo No Sé,” gives visual expression to the process: Alex plays all the roles, from a grizzled bass player laying down a driving groove, to a beanie-wearing percussionist, to a trio of singers harmonizing syncopated staccato rhymes. “I recorded a vocal guide while I was arranging in the studio. It sounded so much like a bandleader telling the band what to do, the video idea was born right there. I knew it had to be the first single.”

Digging deep into his essential sound requires a certain maturity and honesty. As Alex’s musical career has progressed, he’s learned his strengths. “For years I was a rocker, a funky guy, but I know that my voice calls people to reflect on their own lives. The songs that stay with people are the ones that bring peace and calm, so I wanted to embrace that and be completely naked and intimate.”

That intimate feel, the careful attention to songwriting, and the largely acoustic sounds lend Sublime a vibe that could be called retro, and that’s okay with Alex. “Acoustic music just goes with my soul,” he explains. “I’m not against synths and electronics, but I’m not interested in just making a big noise and getting people to dance. I wanted the songs on this album to have some breathing space. I suggest things, leave things at a subliminal level. Every listen will tell you something else.”

Alex may be focused on his own sound and songwriting, but he still relishes collaborating with other artists. Duets with Ron Sexsmith and Nelly Furtado were instrumental in his career, after all. This time around, Alex pairs his voice with some of Cuba’s brightest lights: Pablo Milanés, a founder of the Nueva Trova sound; Omara Portuondo, the vocalist of the legendary Buena Vista Social Club; and singer-songwriter Kelvis Ochoa, the Cuban vibes king. “This album has the most important duets of my career,” Alex says. “Pablo shaped my generation in Cuba. I listened to his music almost every day of my life, so recording “Hoy Como Ayer” (out Friday, August 23) is a dream come true.”

Alex recorded Sublime in Canada and Cuba, the places he calls home, and also in Mexico and Spain. Sublime is graced by duets with artists in Mexico City’s music scene, both superstar Leonel García (one half of the duo Sin Bandera) and up-and-comers Silvana Estrada and Alex Ferreira. These songs came out of spontaneous collaboration, capturing ideas and emotions by bouncing ideas around together. “It is a wonderful thing to share,” Alex muses. “When you do it with the right people who think and feel alike, it’s an empowering thing to do. It’s like you expand your musical universe.”

From the pensive heartbreak of “De Los Dos” to the insistent groove of “Yo No Sé,” from the frenetic “Ciudad Hembra (La Habana)” to the easy optimism of “Dividido,” Sublime sees Alex Cuba pull off two simultaneous feats: honing his sound down to a sharp edge while expanding his musical universe.

Previously unissued Buena Vista Social Club recordings due March 23

Buena Vista Social Club "Lost and Found" (World Circuit)

Almost two decades after the release of the original, Grammy winning album, the romance of the Buena Vista Social Club continues with Lost and Found, a collection of previously unreleased tracks, some recorded at the first legendary sessions in Havana and others during the extraordinarily rich outpouring of music that followed.

The original Buena Vista Social Club album was recorded for World Circuit Records over seven days in Havana in 1996, bringing together many of the great names of the golden age of Cuban music in the 1950s, several of whom were coaxed out of retirement for the sessions by Eliades Ochoa and Juan de Marcos Gonzalez. The album became a surprise international best-seller and the most successful album in the history of Cuban music.

At the time, nobody had any idea that the record was merely the start of a musical phenomenon. In the years that followed the Buena Vista veterans toured the world to ecstatic audiences and were the subject of a celebrated feature film directed by Wim Wenders. Further acclaimed recordings followed, including solo releases by the singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, virtuoso pianist Rubén González and bassist Cachaíto López and a celebratory live album recorded at a triumphant concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Buena Vista Social Club had become a household name. A core band featuring several of the original musicians continue to sell out shows world-wide as Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club. They embark on their farewell ‘Adios’ tour in 2015.

"Over the years we were often asked what unreleased material was left in the vaults,” says World Circuit’s Nick Gold. “We knew of some gems, favourites amongst the musicians, but we were always too busy working on the next project to go back and see what else we had. When we eventually found the time, we were astonished at how much wonderful music there was.”

All the studio tracks were recorded for World Circuit at the Egrem studio in Havana during the rich and prolific period of creativity that followed the recording of the original album and stretched into the early 2000s. Spiced with live recordings from the same fertile period, there’s a tremendous and sometimes surprising variety to the material heard on Lost and Found. But there is a unifying thread built around a core collective of legendary musicians expressing an esprit de corps which everyone who was ever enchanted by Buena Vista Social Club will recognize and enjoy.