Published October 24 , 2000

If you haven't seen a Buena Vista Social Club concert, then it ought to be the next item on your shopping list. I was very fortunate to have attended a concert by Omara Portuondo, the lead female voice of the Club, in Washington DC's Warner Theatre on October 21 (last Saturday). This graceful event reinforced my belief that good music is the only thing that breaks all national borders and unites people together.

Omara Portuondo is one of Cuba's most celebrated female vocalists. Her singing style is similar to Poon Dik Wah and Cheung Lo (Alex To's mother). Her singing transcends with time. The concert wasn't only a showcase for her talents, but it also demonstrates her ability to get the audience involved in an ostensibly conservative environment. I have attended concerts where musicians attempt to entertain on stage, while most of the spectators remain stiff in their seats. I have also been at performances where the audience enjoy themselves tremendously by engaging in loud, insulting and obscene locution, thereby disturbing the entertainers' concentration. Good performers and a good, responsive audience can rarely co-exist in a cozy environment unless a facilitator skillfully connects the two. Omara, while serving as the entertainer herself, does a fabulous facilitating job by engaging the crowd in a body-shaking movement. By the end of the concert, even the originally stiff rock audience couldn't help but got up and started moving rhythmically, if not dancing.

Omara started her concert with a fast-paced and lively Cuban mambo "Donde estabas tu?" that warmed up the audience. Then Omara alternated boleros (Cuban love songs) and other fast paced songs in midst of her humorous Spanish jokes and body movements. (I must point out that Omara is still in great shape since she could bend down and touch her toes with her hands. That's pretty impressive for a lady in her mid-70s!) In between or within songs, many solo trumpeters, trombonists and saxophonists are featured. And if a solo was well received, Omara would let the soloists shine once more in the form of a mini-encore. This is a fresh idea to me, which I think many local performers should borrow. Of course, an excessive use of mini-encores has also the danger of being old too quickly.

The concert was breathtaking for there was not one pause in the tight performance delivered by the awesome band. Every band member (especially the trumpeters) has much to offer. The mutual understanding between Omara and the band was also impeccable. When Omara began singing Gershwin's composition "El hombre que yo am (The Man I Love)" to please the American audience, the whole concert hall went ballistic. It was almost a feeling similar to the song title, "Stepping Out of a Dream."

The dreamlike performance of Omara and her band is not without criticism. First, Omara sang mainly songs from her own release "Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo." She only performed a few songs that were outside the coverage of her album. That disappointed me a little. Second, the band didn't utilize its arrangements to the fullest. Each song was played for only three to four minutes discounting the mini-encores. This fault may not be Omara's, but it should definitely be attributed to the conductor/arranger. Finally, the final encore was a bit short. Omara only sang three minutes of the ending stemming from the previous leftover tune (kind of like frozen food in the refrigerator). It was quite an unfair treatment after the ever more enthusiastic audience clapped and screamed their lungs out just hoping to hear a little more of Omara. We deserved a little more than that.

Overall, the concert was fabulous. It will make you selective of choosing your next concert. If you haven't encountered pre-Castro Cuban music before, the concert will surely make you pick up a disc from the Buena Vista Social Club series in your local record store. If you still don't like the music after the concert, then you need serious psychotherapy.

Henry Y. Chung