Honoring the Ancestors

Spend enough time with Omar Sosa and conversation quickly shifts towards food. Spices, fine wine, the aromas of fresh ingredients and the careful construction of meals are often top of mind for this consummate artist. Not surprising for someone who creates elaborate musical compositions like a master chef.

Intentional yet capricious, with the rare ability to sense and utilize the connective tissue between musical traditions, Sosa synthesizes every available influence at his disposal, all while harnessing the rich history of Pan-Latin artistry that channels the very source of Jazz.

Sosa’s legacy is firmly intact. Few musicians of his era have done more to shape the integration of sound into an international exploration of musical excellence. Nothing has been off limits in that pursuit. Albums like Bembon, Mulatos, Prietos, Afreecanos, Across the Divide, Ceremony, and Eggūn make up the profound mosaic of work Sosa has produced unpacking multi-faceted narratives exploring the experience of African diasporic culture.

It’s not uncommon to find Sosa pairing layers of percussion, classical orchestration, big bands, spoken word, poetry, or field recordings along with the instrumentation found in contemporary Jazz. Sosa’s compositional genius and effortless piano play act as the ubiquitous binding agent, as he shapes disparate musical sensibilities into sacred art.

Along with the the clave and the foundation of Yoruba spiritual traditions, Sosa’s music embodies the best of what “world” can mean in modern world music. Sosa’s work not only introduces you to the splendor of instruments like the oud, kora, or a masterful approach to the maracas, but the authentic artistic expression bound to the cultural traditions of these instruments.

Whereas popular music is fond of appropriating culture, Omar Sosa has spent his life creating and supporting it’s most potent proponents, traveling the world learning, playing, teaching and exploring the roots and curious concentric circles of the world’s most intriguing musical traditions.