Cuarteto Patria was founded in 1940 by María Emilia García, a singer and maracas player. From the beginning, the group followed the tradition of the trova style left behind by Ñico Saquito, Miguel Matamoros and Los Compadres -the duo formed Lorenzo Hierrezuelo and Compay Segundo-, and, little by little, its popularity has grown up the point where it has become the best known Cuban quartet, winner of numerous awards.
For many years now, the leader of Cuarteto Patria was Eliades Ochoa. He joined the band when veteran group leader Roberto Echeverría left Cuarteto Patria in 1978. Until then, the legendary group had not recorded any albums despite its popularity.
With the addition of Eliades Ochoa, Cuarteto Patria started its international career, playing since then in Europe, Mexico and even the United States. In addition, the music repertoire was expanded from the original bolero and criolla, Cuarteto Patria’s specialties, to include son montuno, guaracha and guajira. All of it perfectly integrated in a natural way by a group bent on preserving the best musical tradition in Cuba with an essential line-up: guitars, acoustic bass, percussion and well harmonized vocals.
In 1997 Eliades Ochoa participated in the Buena Vista Social Club project, that Ry Cooder produced, bringing together some of the best performers of Cuban son. Today, Cuarteto Patria is made up of Eliades, with his brother Humberto on second guitar and two young musicians, William Calderón on acoustic bass and Roberto Torres who plays bongos and congas.
Discography
A una coqueta (Corason, 1993)
The lion is loose (Corason, 1995)
CubAfrica with Manu Dibango (Mélodie, 1998)
Sublime Ilusión (Virgin, 1999)
Tribute to the Cuarteto Patria (Higher Octave, 2000)
Estoy como nunca (Higher Octave, 2002)
A la Casa de la Trova (Escondida, 2005)
La collección cubana: Eliades Ochoa (Nascente, 2006)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
