Omar Sosa Music

An interesting example of Sosa's idea of music. Anyway, I think that its attractive ability is quite lower than MulatosMulatos that, for me, is the the best album of Omar Sosa.

Mucho Axe pra maestro Sosa! Folks this is the real thing. As best as fusion and world connectivity can get. Perfect. Mystifying! Cannot stop hearing it! I never write reviews but I got to spread the word. When you hear the junk people buy at Itunes and Amazon, we got to set the record straight for real muscial geniuses. I am Puerto Rican, very exposed to music, and this has me the my jaws still hanging!

An interesting example of Sosa's idea of music. Anyway, I think that its attractive ability is quite lower than MulatosMulatos that, for me, is the the best album of Omar Sosa.

Mucho Axe pra maestro Sosa! Folks this is the real thing. As best as fusion and world connectivity can get. Perfect. Mystifying! Cannot stop hearing it! I never write reviews but I got to spread the word. When you hear the junk people buy at Itunes and Amazon, we got to set the record straight for real muscial geniuses. I am Puerto Rican, very exposed to music, and this has me the my jaws still hanging!

I became interested in Omar Sosa after hearing his name associated with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, but frankly, it's hard to imagine two more different pianists coming out of the same Cuban tradition. Sosa's approach is percussive and jagged, sometimes at the expense of an identifiable melody--although he's not interested in abstraction as such. What keeps his music from being repetitive--here, at least--is the inventiveness of his accompanist, who provides an endlessly shifting texture of African/Afro-Cuban rhythms. It's a compelling statement about the contemporary African diaspora, in musical terms, and Sosa makes it clear in the liner "notes" that he's aiming for a sense of spiritual unity as well. Excellent work all around, and I'll be interested to see what else Sosa can do.

I got a copy of this fine disk on a whim, and was totally delighted from the start. It isn't Afro-Cuban (which I expected), but certainly incorporates many Cubano influences, especially in the multi-varied rhythms and percussion instruments throughout. More, the listener should expect to hear Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Poncho Sanchez, and a whole panoply of influential pianists and jazz musicians in this lovely recording by Omar Sosa.

OK, he doesn't play the guitar, but his piano playing bears a distinct resemblence to Egberto Gismonti's, the great Brazilian pianist and guitarist. Here, Gustavo Ovalles, a Venezuelan percussionist, plays Nana Vasconcelas to leader Cuban Omar Sosa's Egberto Gismonti.

Together, they have produced a disc every bit as enchanting as the Brazilians' Duas Vocez. Featuring the same deeply folkloric vibe, a similar percussive pianism, gorgeous lyricism, wide-ranging sound palettes for a duo recording, and some kind of impossibly deep world-jazz groove, these guys are the new standard bearers of cutting edge jazz beat.

A word about Omar Sosa. I've only heard one other complete disc from him, Portraits of Soul (see my Amazon review; I plan to obtain the remaining 11 discs of his as soon as I can lay my hands on the funds), but this guy is the most exciting world-jazz musician to come along since Egberto Gismonti, who, with Sanfona, had produced what I believe was the finest world-jazz disc until Portraits of Soul and with Sol Do Meio Dia, Danca Das Cabecas, Duas Vocez, Magico, and Folk Songs, had also produced the greatest body of world jazz yet.

From just listening to two of his discs, I believe Sosa is a serious challenger to Gismonti's legacy.

I'll be sending in more dispatches from the front after listening to Sendir, Bembon, Prietos, New Life, etc.

Omar Sosa, Cuban jazz piano genius, here presents his most ravishingly romantic stylings culled from four previously released discs to great advantage.

If you've never heard Sosa, this is as good a place as any to make his acquaintance. If you've encountered him before, I suggest you cut to the chase and acquire Mulatos, his signature disc. And while you're at it, get Ayagunos, Pictures of Soul, and Mulatos Remix.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't give the time of day to a compilation disc of this sort. I'm, however, cutting Sosa a major break because he's just such a stone genius. Combine that with the fact that he records for his own label, doesn't get the kind of distribution his peers get on their major record labels, and, hence, labors in jazz's backwaters, and you've got a disc that ought to receive widest possible distribution, even though it's a rerelease of previously recorded numbers.

Combine that with the fact that on the four discs that make up the material from which these selections were culled there are numerous problematic rap/hip-hop/bogus contemporary selections, and you have pure Sosa sans the chaff.

Nevertheless. Hear me on this. Sosa chaff is better than 90% of others' best stuff. My view is that you should pick up this altogether remarkable disc, and then pick the four others (Free Roots, Spirit of the Roots, Bembon, and Prietos) from which these selections were taken. Yes, you'll get some unpleasantness in the form of stupid rap/hip-hop, but even this grossness is superior to the vast majority of drek churned out by other artists.

Really, this is an altogether lovely disc, one of the finest jazz releases in the past decade. If it acquaints you with one of world jazz's monster players and gets you deeper into this marvelous music, all the better. But either way, you can't lose.

Why not pick it up and be majorly graced?

Omar Sosa is one of the most prominent figures in the modern jazz scene, and i must say I realy love his music. A fusion of jazz, afrocuban music and hiphop and what else, his music realy is avant garde, and this cd is no exception: Omar delivers again, with a truly compelling array of fine tracks. Some are more interesting, some less, but no doubt they are all very worth-while: check out the exploding montuno he plays on the second track!

Cuando se comprende las raices de esta musica, el espiritu con que fue creada, se podra entender a fondo la creatividad y el sentir, talento de estos musicos de antano y de los actuales que hoy son guiados por Omar Sosa. Me encontraba en un bar en Tokyo cuando se escucho los primeros compases de este album, salte de mi silla y procure por el nombre de este grupo. Omar Sosa! claro! Afro-america implicita. Adelante Omar!

Wow! This is a bad surprise. I have seen Omar in concert twice and consider myself a huge fan. The first concert I saw with Omar and John Santos was pure magic. This CD is NOTHING like what I heard in concert. The first song is hip-hop jazz. Cool, but not what I was expecting from Omar Sosa at all. My advice; listen carefully to the music samples and see what you think. You may like it. As for myself, I wish I had listened a lot more carefully before I bought. I thought I knew all about Omar Sosa and knew what I was buying. WRONG. Some of the tracks are good. Some I just hate. That's life in the food chain...