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RAYUELA

SHANTI PAUL JAYASINHA

HECTOR CONTRERAS & HIS LATIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE

MIKE BARONE BIG BAND

PHILLIP LAMBRO

OMAR SOSA (PIANIST)

Omar Sosa is one of the most versatile jazz artists on the scene today: composer, arranger, producer, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. He fuses a wide range of world music and electronic elements with his native Afro-Cuban roots to create a fresh and original urban sound – all with a Latin jazz heart. On stage, Mr. Sosa is a charismatic figure, inspiring his fellow musicians with his dynamic playing and improvisational approach to the music – an approach full of raw emotional power and humor. Mr. Sosa invariably inspires audiences to their feet and to join him in chorus vocals, heightening the sense of spontaneity and connection.

Mr. Sosa's latest CD on Otá Records, Mulatos , features Latin jazz master Paquito D'Rivera on clarinet. The recording is an adventurous, finely wrought, and wholly delightful mélange of Cuban jazz, Latin dance grooves, French chanson, North African trance music, and European folk. It dances with rhythmic inspirations of Indian tabla, jazz drums, and studio mixing. Also featured is the delicate voice of the Arabic lute, the oud, and the composer himself on marimba. “Mulatos” was recently nominated for Latin Jazz Album of the Year by the NYC-based Jazz Journalists Association.

Mr. Sosa's music is a unique style of Afro-Cuban jazz, and while it is rooted in the folkloric traditions of the African Diaspora, he always takes an exploratory approach – never one to let orthodoxy stand in the way of his pursuit of freedom. Sosa offers a joyful mix of jazz and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, combining percussive forays inside the piano and a series of electronic effects with his inspired, passionate playing at the keyboard. His tempos are fluid, and his moods change freely. Sosa revels in the irresistible clave grooves of Latin jazz, while adding experimental touches to keep his listeners on their toes.

Omar Sosa has released 15 recordings on the Oakland-based Otá Records label since 1997, including 2002's GRAMMY-nominated Sentir . He performed recently with his Octet at the opening of Carnegie Hall's new Zankel Hall, about which Alex Ross of The New Yorker remarked that Sosa has “a ferocious flair for rhythm and a keen musical wit”. Composer John Adams, who curated the opening of Carnegie Hall's new venue, commented that “Sosa is a deeply creative musician with an extraordinary harmonic sense. His piano playing is sui generis : It has obvious roots in Cuban music, but he's taken his approach to the keyboard into completely new regions”. And Don Heckman of The Los Angeles Times recently wrote “Sosa's vision of contemporary jazz reaches across every imaginable boundary”. For more information, please visit www.melodia.com .

Omar Sosa was nominated in 2003 for a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the ‘Americas' category, along with Ibrahim Ferrer, Caetano Veloso, and Os Tribalistas. He began 2004 with the debut of his first work for symphony orchestra, entitled From Our Mother , performed at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland by the Oakland East Bay Symphony under the direction of Michael Morgan. The 45-minute work in three movements, which combines folkloric elements from Cuba, Venezuela, and Ecuador with modern jazz harmonies, was co-commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, with partial funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

OMAR SOSA - AFREECANOS (2008)

Omar Sosa (Cuba) piano, Fender Rhodes, vibraphone, marimba, percussion
Julio Barreto (Cuba), drums
Childo Tomas (Mozambique), electric bass
Stephane Belmondo (France), flugelhorn
Leandro Saint-Hill (Cuba), flute, alto saxophone
Mola Sylla (Senegal), vocals, percussion
Baba Sissoko (Mali), talking drum, ngoni
Mamani Keita (Mali), vocals
Jorge Alabe (Brazil), rum, rumpi, agogo, vocals
Graca Onasile (Brazil), vocals
Lázaro Galarraga (Cuba), vocals, batá
Fanta Cissoko (Senegal), vocals
Orestes Vilató (Cuba), timbales
Lionel Belmondo (France), bamboo flute
Ali Wague (Guinea), tambin
Ali Boulo Santo (Senegal), kora
Mohamed Soulimane (Morocco), violin
Christophe "Disco" Minck (France), ngoni, kamalengoni, guitar-sitar
Ousseynou Piagne Epa (Senegal), piano drum, zabar
Michael Spiro (U.S.A.), batá
Bill Ortiz (U.S.A.), trumpet

OMAR SOSA - AFREECANOS (2008)

EGEA RECORDS

review by Chip Boaz: OMAR SOSA - AFREECANOS (2008)

recensione di Gian Franco Grilli: OMAR SOSA - AFREECANOS (2008)

1. Prologo
2. Ollú
3. Nene La Kanou
4. Yeye Moro
5. Babalada
6. Light In The Sky
7. D'Son
8. Tres Negros
9. Mon Yalala
10. Tumborum
11. Why Angá?

more tracks can be heard on Vinilemania's Radio Channels

OMAR SOSA - LIVE A FIP (2006)

Omar Sosa: piano, electronics, vocals

Miguel "Angá" Diaz: percussion

Steve Argüelles: drums, electronics

Childo Tomas: electric bass, mbira, vocals

Luis Depestre: saxophones, minor hand percussion

Review by Jason Crane: OMAR SOSA - LIVE A FIP (2006)

Review by C. Michael Bailey: OMAR SOSA - LIVE A FIP (2006)

Recensione di Paolo Peviani: OMAR SOSA - LIVE A FIP (2006)

Nuevo Manto

Metisse

African Sunrise

Dos Caminos

Iyawo

El Consenso

Paralelo

Muevete En D

more tracks can be heard on Vinilemania's Radio Channels

OMAR SOSA - MULATOS (2005)

Omar Sosa Piano, fender rhodes, harmonium, marimba, vibraphone,
tubular bells, all percussion, samples, vocal
Dhafer Youssef Oud
Renaud Pion Clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet
Dieter Ilg Acoustic bass
Phillippe Foch Tabla, bowl
Steve Arguelles Drums, scratches
Aziz Arradi Guembri, qarqabas, vocal
Paquito D'Rivera First clarinet and solos on tracks 1,2,6