The Cuarteto d'Aida was a famous Cuban female singing group. It was founded and directed by the pianist Aida Diestro

Aida Diestro

Aida Diestro was a Cuban pianist, and the director of a famous choral group. She studied music with her father, the Presbyterian minister Diestro Camejo, and continued in a private conservatory...

 (1924–1973) in 1952. Diestro picked four brilliant young singers to form the group: Elena Burke

Elena Burke

Elena Burke was a revered and popular Cuban singer of boleros and romantic ballads....

, Moraima Secada

Moraima Secada

Moraima Secada Moraima Secada Moraima Secada (born María Micaela Secada Ramos (Santa Clara, Cuba, 30 September 1930 – Havana, 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...

 and the sisters Omara

Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuban singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and has performed with Ignacio Piñeiro, Orquesta Anacaona, Orquesta Aragón, Nat King Cole, Adalberto Álvarez, Los Van Van, the Buena Vista...

 and Haydée Portuondo. One of the group, Omara, is still alive and performing today; she was brought back into prominence as part of the Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club

The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s...

 phenomenon.

The group was part of a post WWII musical fashion known as filín (feeling). This was a post-microphone jazz-influenced song movement related to close-harmony groups. They could sing any type of Cuban song, though the bolero

Bolero

Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...

 was central to their style. The group was constantly heard on the radio, and toured many countries both before and after the Cuban revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

. Amazingly, the original group only made one LP record. Recordings after 1960 did not include any of the original singers.

When any of the girls left, or were otherwise unavailable, substitutes were found, many of them also highly talented. Teté Caturla

Teté Caturla

Teté Caturla, born Teresa García Caturla is a Cuban singer of high quality who sung in, and directed, the famous Cuarteto d'Aida. She is the daughter of Alejandro García Caturla, one of the most important Cuban composers of the 1920s and 30s.As a young woman Teté made her debut for Orquesta...

(Teresa García Caturla) joined them in 1963, and led them after Aida's death in 1973. Leonora Rega, Georgina Sánchez, Rosa Sánchez, Magaly Linares, Niurka Galarraga and Betty Tamayo are others who have sung with the group.