Eliades Ochoa

Along with a number of other Cuban musicians, Eliades Ochoa – born on June 22, 1946, in Songo – La Maya, Cuba - has Ry Cooder to thank for his worldwide fame. Cooder's 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club was a collaboration between with Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González and featured many leading Cuban musicians who were barely known outside their own country, including Eliades Ochoa and his band Cuarteto Patria. The album's success and the popularity of the accompanying film provided a conduit to the world outside Cuba and projected traditional Cuban music onto the world stage. Eliades Ochoa learned to play guitar at the age of six but didn’t come to prominence until 1978 - at the age of 32 – when he was invited to become the bandleader of Cuarteto Patria, a long established Cuban ensemble. The band had originally formed in 1939 and the appointment of Eliades Ochoa has been pivotal in its subsequent success. He updated the group's sound and repertoire using his considerable talents on the traditional Cuban tres, a distinctive guitar type instrument featuring three paired sets of strings. Following their involvement in the album and film, he and Cuarteto Patria have performed all over the world and are now one of Cuba's leading musical exports. His work with the group has resulted in many albums over the years including Harina de maíz criolla (1980), María Cristina me quiere gobernar (1982), A una coqueta (1993), CubÁfrica (1996), Continental Drifter (1999), Tributo al Cuarteto Patria (2000), AfroCubism (2010), El Eliades Que Soy (2014), Los Años no Determinan (2016), Vamos a Bailar un Son (2020), and Guajiro (2023).

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