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 st...