Eliades Ochoa

Eliades Ochoa
Ochoa performing live May 2009 Photo: Juan Gonzales Andres
Ochoa performing live May 2009
Photo: Juan Gonzales Andres
Background information
Born (1946-06-22) 22 June 1946 (age 78)
Songo – La Maya, Cuba
GenresCuban Son, Cuban Trova, Latin jazz, salsa
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar, tres
Years active1978–present
Websitehttp://www.eliadesochoaofficial.com/

Eliades Ochoa Bustamante (born 22 June 1946) is a Cuban guitarist and singer from Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago de Cuba.[1]

He began playing the guitar when he was six and in 1978 he was invited to join Cuarteto Patria, a group founded in 1939, as its leader. Although he looks like a guajiro, and he still wears his trademark cowboy hat, his roots are in the son, and he only agreed to take on the role of leader if he was allowed to introduce new elements to the repertoire. He plays the guitar, tres and also a variant of the guitar, with two additional strings. His involvement with the Buena Vista Social Club and the Wim Wenders film of the same name (1999), has led him to worldwide fame.

In 2010 he recorded an album with a number of Cuban and Malian musicians, including Toumani Diabaté, titled AfroCubism.[2]

  1. ^ alternatively, in Mayarí. Leymarie, Isabelle, 2002. Cuban fire: the story of salsa and Latin jazz. Continuum, London; orig. publ. Paris 1997. p. 257, ISBN 978-0826455864
  2. ^ Jon Lusk (11 December 2010). "REVIEW : AFROCUBISM". Soundsandcolours.com. Retrieved 20 March 2020.