Jazz Articles about Omar Sosa

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Omar Sosa: Across The Divide: A Tale Of Rhythm & Ancestry

by Mark F. Turner
March 21, 2009

In what might be considered a heartfelt ode to Africa, Cuba and America, Grammy-winning pianist/composer, Omar Sosa offers Across The Divide: A Tale Of Rhythm & Ancestry. Both inspired and uplifting it encompasses a “song cycle" that documents the shared rhythms of Sosa's ancestry and Tim Eriksen, a New England ethno-musicologist specializing in native and adopted American music. The program musically tells of the paths of history towards the present; informed of the Middle Passage slave ships ...

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Omar Sosa: Afreecanos

by Chip Boaz
March 26, 2008

Forward-thinking Latin Jazz grows like a tree, starting with its roots and then the tree itself reaching high into the air. The roots represent the music's heritage; they are both the starting point and the foundation. The trunk symbolizes the musician's strongest connection to their roots, their background. The branches reach away from the tree, just as the musician experiments with new approaches. Omar Sosa does just this on Afreecanos, as he brings together a strong vision solidly representing the ...

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Omar Sosa: Promise

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 10, 2007

Ad ogni nuovo disco, la figura di Omar Sosa si conferma tra le più innovative e stimolanti del jazz d'inizio secolo. Usiamo il termine jazz pur consapevoli che la sua musica è talmente ricca e sfaccettata da sfuggire ad ogni classificazione. È comunque vero che molti stilemi tipici del jazz, e soprattutto lo spirito di ricerca, rappresentano una componente centrale del suo stile, che mantiene un approccio “colto" pur essendo influenzato dalle musiche etniche africane e dalle molte sintesi nate ...

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Omar Sosa: Live à Fip

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 18, 2007

Per la prima registrazione live con il suo quintetto, Omar Sosa ha scelto la Francia, paese che ama in modo particolare la musica del pianista cubano. Il primo brano si apre su un'introduzione di solo piano. Procede su una vena malinconica nella quale fatichiamo a riconoscere il Sosa cui siamo abituati e forse, proprio per questo, ci risulta piacevolmente sorprendente. Dopodiché il metronomo comincia a correre veloce. Le percussioni (tra cui ricordiamo il prematuramente scomparso Miguel Angá Diaz), le scansioni ...

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Omar Sosa: Live a FIP

by Jason Crane
January 12, 2007

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Omar Sosa: Live a FIP

by C. Michael Bailey
October 3, 2006

Omar Sosa is a Caribbean Thelonious Monk. While his compositions lack Monk's cranky angles, Sosa's songs nevertheless challenge and ultimately soothe the listener with their subtle harmonic turns and melodic velocity. Sosa's Monkness is more apparent in his solos, where he combines dissonance with a Don Pullen-like percussive approach. Sosa's beautiful pianism at first seems to have no form, but reveals its delicate latticework on subsequent listenings. Live à FIP is Sosa's first live recording since 2003's Aleatoric EFX: Live ...

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Omar Sosa: Mulatos Remix

by AAJ Staff
May 2, 2006

Given the source material for this remix project, expectations will no doubt be running high. Mulatos (Ota, 2004) brought Cuban pianist Omar Sosa's multilateral vision to his broadest international audience to date, earning Grammy and BBC Radio 3 nominations for its warm, flowing sound (as well as a spot on my own short list).

Be prepared to scale back those expectations when you hit play on Mulatos Remix. It's only fair, really. These ten beat-heavy, loopy electronic remixes do a ...