Search - Omara Portuondo :: Magia Negra

A Response

Brian Bartley | Brisbane, Qld Australia | 08/21/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Luis, I am prepared to accept everything you say about the provenance of this recording - your knowledge on the subject is greater than mine. But at the end of the day, most of us just buy recordings for listening pleasure rather than historical interest. It doesnt really matter how bad the master tapes were and how hard they tried to do their best. When the end result is as bad as this, it should come with a warning that the sound quality is inferior to what we are entitled to expect on a (full price) CD. Since the recording company has overlooked it, I thought I would let folks know. I also have to disagree about the relative value of the recordings. "Interesting" is about the best I can do - but for enjoyment, give me the recent recordings any time. These tracks are no doubt rare, but rarity is generally not much of a guide to quality -except that sometimes recordings become rare because they are not thought worth preserving. Sorry Luis, it's still 1 star for me."

OMARA PORTUONDO-MAGIA NEGRA

L. Dequesada | JAMAICA,, NY United States | 10/31/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In response to your August 21st response, if you own a copy of "Magia Negra" by Omara Portuondo and are a true fan of Omara, take care of it, I recently heard that after 40 yrs. the Velvet label either merged or went out of business. If that's true, its very likely that Cuba's "EGREM" or "RTV COMERCIAL" labels may re-issue copies of their own, because of the rarity and value of those recordings. Everything Omara has recorded with Buenavista and other groups in recent years, no doubt has far greater sound, but they don't even come close in value to those original 1958 sessions. Are the early recordings of Nat King Cole, Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, etc. worth preserving and re-issuing, even though their sounds may fall below current expectations? I certainly think so. Why take them away from fans and collectors who enjoy them in spite of shortcomings in sound which, was common during that era, not mention the wear and tear of these masters, now in existance for 42 years! "Magia Negra" is of great value to everyone who was born and grew up in Havana seeing and listening to her sing along with many other giants of our afro-cuban music of yesteryear."

Beautiful music

extreme budda | earth, galaxy universe | 03/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard this song from the movie "My Life without Me".
It's beautiful music. (beautiful enough to make me slow-mo the end credits to find out who the singers are since there is no movie soundtrack produced)I just started listening to Latin Music about 3 years ago, so i don't know the history that well but i know good music when i hear them.So if you never heard of her and still hesitating, i think this album is a good one to start.ps. i don't speak more than 4 words of spanish, if someone could translate the lyrics and post them somewhere, it would be greatly appreciated.ps2. the lyrics doesn't really matter, for all i know, she could be singing about eating slimy chicken meat while being chased by wild pigs, the music still sound amazing..."