Omara Portuondo: Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara (WorldCircuit)
There are many memorable moments in Wim Wenders's wonderful Buena Vista Social Club, but one in particular remains vivid: Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo have just finished singing the emotional Silencio. As the applause rains down, a tear forms in the eye of the only woman performer in that august band. I understood it at the time to be tears of joy at belated recognition, but Wenders believes it encapsulates the bitter-sweet romance of Cuban music. And that's what concerns this latest offspring of the Buena Vista story. Portuondo, 70 this year, has been one of the stalwarts of the local scene, but the passion of romance still charges her 1950s music, whether it be big band or string settings. The years have robbed her voice of the colour that gave rise to comparisons with Piaf and Holiday, but she still has great presence and power.
- Joe Breen
Giant Sand: Chore of Enchantment (Independent)
Howie Gelb's sometime band amble into town with as beguiling a collection as you'll hear this year. Gelb's music is strangely intimate, coursed with country and mingled with blues. Overlay the simple guitar, bass and drums with an array of desert noises, echo and gentle electronic squeaks and squaks, and you begin to get the message - sort of Neil Young meets the Velvet Underground. The songs are the kind of obscure, quietly weird whispered reports from the edge that you might walk pass first time around, but find yourself being drawn back again and again, if only to savour the surprise of hearing opera singer Jussi Bjorling's voice book-ending the intriguing No Reply or the 1.02 rush of 1972. Gelb's Giant Sand persona rarely spills over into his Calixco (his other band) twang; yet it is equally odd and equally as compelling.
- Joe Breen