He began playing the guitar when he was six and in 1978 he was invited to join Cuarteto Patria, a group founded in 1939, as its leader. Although he looks like a guajiro, and he still wears his trademark cowboy hat, his roots are in the son, and he only agreed to take on the role of leader if he was allowed to introduce new elements to the repertoire. He plays the tres, and also a variant called cuatro (with two additional strings). His involvement with the Buena Vista Social Club and the Wim Wenders film of the same name, has led him to worldwide fame.
In 1993 he and the group recorded A una coqueta and in 1995 The lion is loose (Cubason CORA125); In 1998 he recorded the album CubAfrica with Manu Dibango (Melodie 79593.2); in 1999 Sublime Ilusion (Virgin DGVIR 85); and in 2006 a compilation of Virgin recordings appeared, La colleccion cubana: Eliades Ochoa (Nascente NSCD 114).
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