Omara Portuondo: Sentimento (Escondido Music).

Coming to international attention and acclaim for the first time in the 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club, Cuban vocalist Omara Portuondo has since kept up a busy schedule of touring and public appearances around the world. She began her recording career in 1948 in Cuban Radio and later with a variety of orchestras and female vocal groups. Now, Portuondo's work and popularity span not only multiple generations, but also myriad cultural, political and artistic shifts in Latin America and abroad. To see an artist whose work has traversed so many sub-genres of Latin pop music maintain a viable presence in such a fickle marketplace is nothing short of amazing. That said, Sentimento stands out because it refuses to do what so many compilations of work by older artists (especially women) do: render them as quaint artifact.

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One of four releases by Buena Vista members, Sentimento covers a selection of Portuondo's recordings from 1973 to 1996, firmly ensconcing her work in the modern era, featuring numerous rumbas, jazz standards, ballads and more. From the delicate guitar accompanying on the opener "Verdad Amarga" to the cinematic, soaring, string-driven "Eso No Ie Hicho Yo" and the irresistible salsa burner "Vale La Pena Vivir", Sentimento showcases Portuondo's elastic vocal range and power, which makes each song burst with a joy, anger, heartbreak and passion approached by but a handful of modern pop singers.

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