The Cuarteto d'Aida was a famous Cuban close-harmony female singing group. It was directed by the pianist

Aida Diestro Adelaida Diestro Rega (21 December 1924 – 28 October 1973), better known as Aida Diestro, was a Cuban pianist and the director of the famous vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida. Career Diestro was born in Havana on 21 December 1924. She studied mu ...

(1924–1973) in 1952. Three brilliant young singers -

Elena Burke Elena Burke (born Romana Elena Burgues Gonzalez on February 28, 1928, in Havana, Cuba – June 9, 2002 in Havana, Cuba) was a revered and popular Cuban singer of boleros and romantic ballads. Biography She started her career by working in rad ...

Omara Portuondo Omara Portuondo Peláez (born 29 October 1930) is a Cuban singer and dancer. A founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida, Portuondo has collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio G ...

and her sister Haydee Portuondo - came to Diestro with the idea of the quartet, which originally would include one male singer. Thinking that the quartet would sound better, Diestro replaced the proposed male singer with another woman,

Moraima Secada Moraima Secada (born María Micaela Secada Ramos (10 September 1930 – 30 December 1984), known to her admirers as ''La Mora'' (the moor), was a temperamental singer who created a special style of interpretation within the Cuban music genre o ...

. Of this original group, only one, Omara is still alive and performing today. Her career kind of languishing, Omara was brought back to popularity thanks to the fact that she made part of the Buena Vista Club phenomenon, a group integrated by old musicians forgotten by the public and the music-industry-controlling government. The Cuarteto d'Aida was part of a post World War II blend of jazz and Cuban bolero movement in Cuba known as "feeling" or "filin", which renovated the traditional harmonies and lyrics of the music on the island. The quartet could basically sing any type of song, from standards like Maxwell's "

Ebb Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide ...

" to a guaracha and a rhumba, though the bolero was central to their style. The group was heard on the radio, had many TV presentations, as well as in all the major and all the important cabarets of Havana and abroad. They also toured many countries both before and after the Cuban revolution of 1959. Amazingly, the original group recorded only one LP, Recordings after 1960 included just one of the original singers, Omara, who left the quartet in 1967. Elena Burke was the first to become a soloist, followed a couple of years later by Moraima Secada. Omara's sister, Haydee, stayed in the United States after the quartet finished a gig in the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Throughout the years, when any of the singers left the group or were otherwise unavailable substitutes were found, many of them also very talented. Teresa "Tete" García Caturla joined them in 1963, and led them after Aida's death in 1973. Leonora Rega, Marisela Ramirez, Georgina Sánchez, Rosa Sánchez, Magaly Linares, Lilita Penalver, Niurka Galarraga, and Betty Tamayo are others who have sung with the group.Giro Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba''. La Habana. vol 2, p5.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuarteto d'Aida Cuban musical groups Musical groups established in 1952 1952 establishments in Cuba