Omar Sosa

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Photo by Tom Beetz
Photo by Tom Beetz

Omar Sosa (born April 10, 1965, in Camagüey, Cuba) is a composer, bandleader, and virtuoso jazz pianist.

He began studying marimba at age eight, then switched to piano at the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Havana, where he began to study jazz. Sosa moved to Quito, Ecuador in 1993, then San Francisco, California in 1995. In San Francisco he because deeply involved in the local Latin Jazz scene and began a long collaboration with percussionist John Santos. He also did a series of rercordings with Producer, Greg Landau, including the ground breaking, Oaktown Irawo, that feautred Tower of Power drummer, Dave Garibaldi, Cuban saxofonist Yosvany Terry and Cuban percussionist, Jesus Diaz. With Landau they recorded with Patato Valdes, Pancho Quinto and several film scores. In approximately 1999, Sosa moved to Barcelona, Spain.

He has played with a number of world musicians all around the globe, and often collaborates with those outside the jazz and Afro-Cuban traditions. Sosa mixes jazz influences alongside Latin rhythms, North African percussions and spoken word/rap lyrics. He also references Classical music. Deeply political and spiritual, he describes his music as an expression of humanism and Santeria. On various projects his sounds have ranged from pleasant and melodic, big Latin band, piano improvization, world music, to free jazz and avante garde.

Omar recently collaborated once again with Greg Landau [1] for a CD with Peruvian singer, Susana Baca, deconstructing the music of Cuban legend Bola de Nieve. His newest band, Afreecanos, explores African traditions in a powerful funky mixture that breaks many of the conventions of jazz and World music.


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