“…something unmistakeably regal about everything she performs”

With a voice almost Piaf-like in its passion, Omara Portuondo’s career had fallen on hard times when Ry Cooder, producer of the Grammy award winning Buena Vista Social Club recordings, happened to hear her sing and her subsequent contributions to that project were some of the most memorable and tender of the sessions.

Here she is on 2CDs of her original recordings from Cuba; covering four decades they reveal a woman full of vigour, a woman who has never stopped performing, never stopped giving…