Prietos (OTA1008, release date: 5/2001)

Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa's new large-ensemble recording Prietos continues to blaze new musical trails with its explosive mix of sounds from Cuba, Morocco, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and the United States. Voices and instruments from all of these cultures find joyful expression in this fresh, powerful, passionate CD.

Exploring Latin jazz beyond its traditional Cubop expressions, Omar Sosa juxtaposes folkloric melodies and rhythms with contemporary jazz harmonies. Yoruba (Cuba) and Gnawa (Morocco) chants are intertwined with hip-hop (U.S.) verses to create a modern, urban sound with a Latin jazz heart. Omar Sosa is a 21st century mix of Thelonious Monk back from the beyond and Eddie Palmieri in the full-blown and innocent spirit of his youth.

Prietos is World Music in its truest sense. Not "music to make you feel good", but strong, uncompromising sounds - yet always welcoming, and above all honest. Throughout this recording we hear Omar's genius as an arranger and his extraordinary inspiration at the piano.

Prieto is Spanish for black - really black. Omar uses Prietos as the title of this recording because he wants to put the music of many black cultures together on the same plate, giving expression to the fact that they are all children of the same Mother Africa.

On this recording you'll find tongues in Arabic, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yoruba, as well as instruments like the gimbri, oud and bendir from North Africa, djembe drums and balaphon from West Africa, and its sibling from Esmeraldas (Ecuador), the marimba.

Bembon (OTA1007, release date: 3/2000)

"Modern Urban Music with a Latin Jazz Heart "

"Omar Sosa will be ranked among the great
wizards of the keyboard, like Chick Corea."
-North Sea Jazz Festival, 1999

Like his CDs Free Roots (OTA1003) and Spirit of the Roots (OTA1005), Omar Sosa's new large-ensemble recording Bembon is an amazing mixture of Cuban, jazz, spoken word, and world music elements. Omar's is a World Jazz vision, gracefully weaving a tapestry of musical threads from Afro-Ecuadorian, Afro-Cuban and Afro-American traditions. His subtle fusion of rhythms, harmonies, voices, and instruments is an exploration of Latin jazz beyond its traditional Cubop expressions.

Bembon is a word commonly used in the Afro-cultures of the Americas to describe a person with thick lips. With courage and affection, Omar takes the term as the title of his new CD to symbolize the common African roots of black music and culture in the Americas. Throughout this new recording we hear Omar's genius as an arranger and his extraordinary inspiration at the piano.

Bembon was recorded and mixed in Quito, Ecuador during the summer of 1999. It features musical themes from the Esmeraldas region of Ecuador, the Lucumi culture of Cuba, and from black American R&B and hip-hop forms. For the first time, Omar uses a classical string quartet to enhance the subtlety of his arrangements. Bembon features contributions from Cuban percussion masters Orestes Vilato and Pancho Quinto, and from Ecuador's Papa Roncon.

Inside (OTA1006, release date: 9/1999)

Cuban pianist Omar Sosa's new CD, Inside , contains an intimate and engaging set of solo piano improvisations. They are at times pensive and introspective, at times romantic, playful and delicate - always inventive and unpredictable.

"Omar Sosa is the cat to watch these days," writes noted Bay Area music critic Chuy Varela. "His impressionistic musings are creating an exciting buzz - they are an imaginative aural feast". About Omar's first solo piano CD, Varela wrote, "Omar Omar (OTA1001) is a stunning album marked by unorthodox technique, offbeat rhythmic energy, and harmonic boldness. Omar's musical imagination is eclectic, mysterious, wryly humorous, and wonderfully improvisational". Inside follows in a similar, if slightly quieter, vein.

Showcasing at the IAJE Convention in Los Angeles earlier this year with percussionist John Santos, Omar's creativity caught the attention of North Sea Jazz Festival producers (Holland), where Omar performed in July of this year. The Festival exclaimed that "Omar will be ranked among the great wizards of the keyboard, such as Chick Corea and George Duke". Omar returns to Europe in October with John Santos for the European release of Inside , his second solo piano recording.

Inside follows the release earlier this year of Omar's extraordinary large ensemble recording, Spirit of the Roots (OTA1005). Part three of Omar's "Roots Trilogy" is scheduled for release in January 2000. Part one of the Trilogy is Omar's groundbreaking 1997 CD Free Roots (OTA1003).

Spirit of the Roots (OTA1005, release date: 1/1999)

Omar Sosa's Spirit of the Roots is a celebration of the hybrid African spirituality that developed in Cuba, Ecuador, Brazil, and the United States over the past several hundred years. It is a complex blend of many voice of the African Diaspora - in English, Spanish, and Yoruba - over a rhythmic base containing many layers of drumming also drawn from these cultures. Sosa absorbs from each culture that touches him - the energy and storytelling of hip-hop, the free-spirited experimentation of jazz, the heartfelt power of an AfroEcudorian choir, and the celebration of sensuality of Cuban popular music.

Like many other young Cuba musicians, Omar is also influenced by the dexterity and energy of jazz-fusion, and his conception of this music reflects his own meditative and inquisitive nature. It leads him to explore the styles of Bola de Nieve and Perruchin, and to consider the ways Cuban musicians have incorporated elements of their African cosmology into their music.

In seeking the roots of his own spirituality, Omar pays tribute to pianists Thelonious Monk and Lili Martinez, whose musical voices have influenced his own playing. In Thelonious Monk, Omar hears a kindred soul, questioning the dominant cultural and musical boundaries of the day.

Omar's creativity brings together this wealth of experience and reflection in a beautifully crafted package blessed with ache. Take off your shoes, close your eyes, and allow the sounds to take you on a journey to the Spirit of the Roots .

Nfumbe (OTA1004, release date: 10/1998)

In their musical collaboration, Omar and noted Bay Area percussionist and educator John Santos allow the intuitive, the mysterious and the spontaneous to claim free reign.

In this live duo recording, Sosa and Santos do indeed capture a very special chemistry. John plays a variety of rare hand percussion instruments as well as congas and bata drums.

Omar is simply inspired.