OMAR SOSA
Artist Webpage: Omar Sosa
Social Media Pages: IG | Facebook
Streaming Service: YouTubeMusic
|
|
|
|
Composer-pianist-bandleader Omar Sosa is one of the most versatile jazz artists on the scene today. His musical trajectory traces the Diaspora from Cuba to Africa and Brazil; from Central America to Ecuador’s African-descent communities; from San Francisco and New York to his current home base in Barcelona. True to his Afro-Cuban origins, Sosa fashions a spirited vision of uncompromising artistic generosity that embraces humanity at large. Nominated for seven GRAMMY awards and twice for the BBC World Music Awards, Mr. Sosa received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC in 2003 for his contribution to the development of Latin jazz in the United States. In April 2017 he was featured at SFJAZZ for 4 nights grossing over $100,000 in box office receipts. He is returning to SFJAZZ as a resident Artistic Director in 2026 presenting his Big Band arrangements and three of his touring programs, Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita SUBA Trio, Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares Aguas Trio, and Quarteto Americanos
Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita SUBA Trio with Seckou Keita on Kora, and Gustavo Ovalles on percussion just finished a successful tour of North America with a string of sold out shows including Carnegie Halls Zankel Theater. Their Tiny Desk Concert has over 400,000 views to date.
Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares Aguas Trio with their 2018 recording Aguas. Mixing Afro-Cuban, western classical music, and jazz, Aguas is a beautiful and inventive recording and touring project. The recording is dedicated to Water, and especially to Oshun, the Goddess of Love and Mistress of Rivers in the Lucumí tradition of Yoruba ancestry known in Cuba as Santería – a spiritual practice important to both artists. As water is synonymous with life, and energy, and strength, and space, the music on the album is inspired by the important influences of water – its hidden powers, its infinite transmutations, and its relentless destruction and creation.
Quarteto Americanos is Omar Sosa’s first U.S.-based jazz ensemble since the 1990s! Featuring drummer Josh Jones, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, and saxophone / clarinet / flute player Sheldon Brown, the group came together in February 2021 when Omar was in the Bay Area for several live streams. Connecting with Josh and Sheldon was a gratifying reunion for Omar, as he played extensively with them during his early days in San Francisco and Oakland in the late 1990s. Josh Jones’ Trio at the time, including Omar and bassist Geoff Brennan, played frequently at Bay Area clubs. Josh remains one of Omar’s favorite drummers - a versatile musician and educator equally at home in Latin, jazz, hip-hop, and fusion styles. Sheldon Brown was a member of Omar’s first Septet ensemble in the Bay Area, performing in San Francisco and Oakland and around the world in support of Omar’s earliest recording projects, ‘Free Roots’, ‘Spirit of the Roots’, and ‘Bembón’, also known as the Roots Trilogy. Sheldon is a talented composer, arranger and producer whose first recording, ‘Shifting Currents‘, caught Omar’s ear when he first moved to San Francisco in 1995. Ernesto Mazar Kindelán is a dynamic Cuban musician who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 following a ten-year stint with Charanga Habanera, the celebrated Cuban timba band from Havana.
Omar Sosa is available for concert and clinic activities.
The Critics Speak:
"Sosa is one of the truly illuminated minds of world jazz. He is shaping a new synthesis of Latin and American jazz."
-Billboard Magazine
“As dazzling a pianist and idea-maker as there is in current Latin jazz and beyond, Omar Sosa is an immense talent and never ceases to amaze. Making his debut at Dizzy’s with his Quarteto Americanos in September 2023. -Michael Nastos, Hot House Jazz Magazine
"Sosa's vision of contemporary jazz reaches across every imaginable boundary. He has all the traits necessary to become one of the important figures in jazz."
-Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
"Sosa's music is the unifying sort, yoking together Africa and jazz and Latin America and hip-hop. He makes it work, being one of those rare birds whose keyboard skills are near those of Chick Corea and Chuco Valdes."
-Ben Ratliff, New York Times
"Although Cuba has produced more than its share of leonine jazz pianists, Sosa stands out among them because of the crystalline beauty of his touch and the nimbleness of his technique."
-Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita SUBA Trio with Seckou Keita on Kora, and Gustavo Ovalles on percussion just finished a successful tour of North America with a string of sold out shows including Carnegie Halls Zankel Theater. Their Tiny Desk Concert has over 400,000 views to date.
Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares Aguas Trio with their 2018 recording Aguas. Mixing Afro-Cuban, western classical music, and jazz, Aguas is a beautiful and inventive recording and touring project. The recording is dedicated to Water, and especially to Oshun, the Goddess of Love and Mistress of Rivers in the Lucumí tradition of Yoruba ancestry known in Cuba as Santería – a spiritual practice important to both artists. As water is synonymous with life, and energy, and strength, and space, the music on the album is inspired by the important influences of water – its hidden powers, its infinite transmutations, and its relentless destruction and creation.
Quarteto Americanos is Omar Sosa’s first U.S.-based jazz ensemble since the 1990s! Featuring drummer Josh Jones, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, and saxophone / clarinet / flute player Sheldon Brown, the group came together in February 2021 when Omar was in the Bay Area for several live streams. Connecting with Josh and Sheldon was a gratifying reunion for Omar, as he played extensively with them during his early days in San Francisco and Oakland in the late 1990s. Josh Jones’ Trio at the time, including Omar and bassist Geoff Brennan, played frequently at Bay Area clubs. Josh remains one of Omar’s favorite drummers - a versatile musician and educator equally at home in Latin, jazz, hip-hop, and fusion styles. Sheldon Brown was a member of Omar’s first Septet ensemble in the Bay Area, performing in San Francisco and Oakland and around the world in support of Omar’s earliest recording projects, ‘Free Roots’, ‘Spirit of the Roots’, and ‘Bembón’, also known as the Roots Trilogy. Sheldon is a talented composer, arranger and producer whose first recording, ‘Shifting Currents‘, caught Omar’s ear when he first moved to San Francisco in 1995. Ernesto Mazar Kindelán is a dynamic Cuban musician who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 following a ten-year stint with Charanga Habanera, the celebrated Cuban timba band from Havana.
Omar Sosa is available for concert and clinic activities.
The Critics Speak:
"Sosa is one of the truly illuminated minds of world jazz. He is shaping a new synthesis of Latin and American jazz."
-Billboard Magazine
“As dazzling a pianist and idea-maker as there is in current Latin jazz and beyond, Omar Sosa is an immense talent and never ceases to amaze. Making his debut at Dizzy’s with his Quarteto Americanos in September 2023. -Michael Nastos, Hot House Jazz Magazine
"Sosa's vision of contemporary jazz reaches across every imaginable boundary. He has all the traits necessary to become one of the important figures in jazz."
-Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
"Sosa's music is the unifying sort, yoking together Africa and jazz and Latin America and hip-hop. He makes it work, being one of those rare birds whose keyboard skills are near those of Chick Corea and Chuco Valdes."
-Ben Ratliff, New York Times
"Although Cuba has produced more than its share of leonine jazz pianists, Sosa stands out among them because of the crystalline beauty of his touch and the nimbleness of his technique."
-Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune