Omar Sosa Afreecanos Quintet March 22, 2010

Five-time GRAMMY-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa brings his unique style of Afro-Cuban jazz to the Yoshi’s Oakland for a three-night engagement on Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, 2010. Afreecanos - Rooted in Africa - Omar Sosa continues to explore the African roots of traditional musics throughout the Diaspora, using modern jazz harmonies and the latest audio technology. Sosa’s new Afreecanos ensemble features drum-&-bass pioneer Marque Gilmore, Mozambican electric bassist Childo Tomas, and extraordinary Senegalese vocalist and percussionist Mola Sylla. The ensemble fuses the folkloric with the contemporary, the ancestral with the urban - all with a Latin jazz heart. Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune has commented that “Cuban pianists often tower over their peers. But within this elite class of pianists, few have been more stylistically adventurous than Omar Sosa. Though deeply schooled in jazz improvisation techniques, Sosa always has pushed beyond jazz orthodoxy. At his best, his art encompasses a remarkable range of influences: European symphonic repertoire, religious music of Gnawa, traditional sounds of Senegal and other far-flung idioms have coursed through his work. All of which piques one’s interest in his newest ensemble, Afreecanos Quartet.”

Drummer Marque Gilmore is a founding member of New York City’s Black Rock Coalition, and pioneer of the New York and London live drum-&-bass scenes. He has worked with an international array of artists, including Joe Zawinul, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and innovative musician-historian Cheick Tidiane Seck. Marque is acclaimed for his multimedia performance project, DRUM-FM, and his recent remixes of tracks from Omar Sosa’s CD Mulatos are featured on the Mulatos Remix CD. In addition to the electric bass, Childo Tomas sings in his native Mozambican language of Ronga, and plays m’bira. Mola Sylla sings in his native Senegalese language of Wolof, and plays m’bira, xalam, and kongoman. Mola and Childo are both featured on Omar’s CD Afreecanos.

New CD, Ceremony:

Ceremony is a major new project, the fruit of pianist-composer Omar Sosa’s first big-band collaboration with composer-arranger-cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, Hamburg’s 18–piece NDR Bigband (North German Radio / Norddeutscher Rundfunk), and the Omar Sosa Quartet, featuring Julio Barreto (drums, Cuba), Childo Tomas (electric bass, Mozambique), and Marcos Ilukán (Afro-Cuban percussion, Cuba). Sosa himself plays piano and marimba.

Recorded in two sessions (2007 and 2008) at NDR’s Hamburg studios, under the direction of Morelenbuam and Sosa, Ceremony features Morelenbaum’s brilliant arrangements of selections from Omar’s Spirit Of The Roots (1999), Bembón (2000), and Afreecanos (2009) CDs—together with two new Sosa offerings, “Llegada Con Elegba” (the introductory track) and “Salida Con Elegba” (the closing piece).

Rooted in the Quartet’s Afro-Cuban percussive traditions, Sosa’s finely textured compositions enable Morelenbaum to summon forth a broad palette of sounds, fully mobilizing the NDR Bigband’s sonic potential and its brilliant soloists, while leaving ample space for Sosa’s own luminous improvisations.

Ceremony takes something of the structure of a sacred batá ceremony, invoking a panoply of Yoruba deities, while also delving into the Cuban son, danzón, and cha-cha-cha. Reflecting Sosa’s own spiritual grounding, Ceremony opens in sacramental veneration of Elegba, the divine messenger and guardian spirit, the all-powerful medium and diviner of human fate. “Changó En Esmeraldas” is an extended tribute to the deity of thunder and lightning, fire and moral retribution, and a reflection upon Sosa’s musical sojourn in the Afro-Ecuadorian community of Esmeraldas. “Yemaya En Agua Larga” honors the great mother and goddess of the sea, the moon, creation, and female mystery. In keeping with Yoruba tradition, Ceremony exits with a final ritual salutation to Elegba.

Ceremony acknowledges the majesty of the legendary Afro-Cuban big bands of Frank “Machito” Grillo, Chico O’Farrill, and Dizzy Gillespie, while extending those revered traditions in a contemporary salute to the expansive universe of world jazz, wherein Sosa himself continues to reign as a joyous, generous, abundant, and essential creative spirit.

Ceremony grew out of a conversation with Hamburg producer Stefan Gerdes of NDR, who brokered the connection with Brazil’s Morelenbaum, who is much sought after as an arranger, reflecting his signal work with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Cesária Evora, and Mariza, among many others.

The NDR Bigband is an ensemble of accomplished soloists whose talents have been highlighted through the work of such noted arrangers as Steve Gray, Colin Towns, and Michael Gibbs. Over the years, the NDR Bigband’s artistic collaborations have comprised a virtual “Who’s Who” of world jazz: including Chet Baker, Paquito D’Rivera, Pee Wee Ellis, Joe Gallardo, Lionel Hampton, Dave Holland, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pat Metheny, Joe Pass, Maria Schneider, Wayne Shorter, Oscar Brown, Jr., Al Jarreau, and Bobby McFerrin.

Official Website: http://www.yoshis.com