Omara Portuondo

Everything about this release signaled that it would be yet another predictable installation in the hagiography of an aging Buena Vista star. It's not. Portuondo throws her all into her favorite songs, practically cutting her veins on the arresting "Vuela Pena" and breaking your heart lyric by lyric on "Yo Vi" -- and she still can summon the spirit of a young ingenue on a song like "Amame Como Soy." The collaborators -- Jorge Drexler, Chico Buarque, Swami Jr. and Richard Bona among them -- bring youth and vigor to this remarkable end-of-life recording, which we fervently hope is not her last.