We all know the parable of the Buena Vista Social Club project because it has entered the collective imagination like few other events. In 1996 the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the conductor Juan de Marcos Gonzalez gather a group of musicians, famous in the ’40s-’50s and mostly forgotten, who practiced the traditional sounds of Isla Grande: son, bolero, danzon, at the time crushed by the empire of salsa.
Eliades Ochoa was the child – «el nieto», the grandson – (before the arrival some years later, of the “little” Roberto Fonseca) in that cheerful gang of octogenarians who stunned the whole world. Yet Eliades Ochoa, in 1996, was not exactly of first hair: he was already fifty years old and and was known with his Cuarteto Patria party from Santiago de Cuba to export son everywhere.
Eliades Ochoa is today one of the most famous Cuban musicians of all time, also known as the “Johnny Cash Cubano” for his attitude to wear black and cowboy hat.
Growing up in the countryside around Santiago, he began strumming the guitar at the age of six, performing first on the street and then also in the brothels of Santiago, permanently rooting his musical history in the guajira.
His skill and reputation are such that in 1978 he joined the legendary Cuarteto Patria becoming its leader, immediately after he began to collaborate with Compay Segundo – together they record Chan Chan – until joining the ensemble of Buena Vista.
The rest is well-known history: his voice in El Cuarto de Tula and his guajira in El Carretero are unforgettable.
He won two Grammys (one American and one Latin) and received multiple nominations, as well as many other prestigious awards with his solo career that will lead him to collaborate with artists such as Manu Dibango, Pablo Milanes, Cy Tangana and many others.
In 2019, director Cynthia Biestek made the documentary film about Ochoa’s life entitled “From Cuba to the world” featuring Benicio Del Toro and Charlie Musselwhite.
On May 12, 2023, Eliades Ochoa’s new album Guajiro (World Circuit) was released, preceded by the single “Se Soltó un Léon“, with his guitar mastery and warm and engaging voice, Ochoa takes listeners on a journey through the traditional sounds and soul of Cuban music, confirming its status as an icon of the island’s sound culture.