Omar Sosa © Massimo Mantovani
Cuban composer and pianist, Omar Sosa, has just launched the documentary of his life and music – Omar Sosa’s 88 Well Tuned Drums – on Amazon TVOD, the documentary having previously been shown only at jazz festivals. Sosa, regarded as one of the most versatile jazz artists of the day, masterfully blends with his Afro-Cuban heritage a wide range of sounds, including Latin jazz, world music and electronics.
The documentary, featuring names such as John Santos, Yilian Cañizares, Paolo Fresu, Secko Keita, Trilok Gurtu, Yosvany Terry, Manolo Badrena and Gustavo Ovalles, was directed by Soren Sorensen and is referred to by Unseen Films as a “Smashingly good biopic of the man and his music. A delight from start to finish. If you love music, especially jazz or anything related to Cuba, this film is a must-see”. Backseat/Mafia praises it as “A fresh and vibrant portrait of a veritable maestro”.
Omar Sosa draws his inspiration, he says, from traditional Afro-Cuban music, and European classical composers – such as Chopin, Bartok, and Satie – together with the music of Thelonius Monk, Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Chucho Valdés with his Cuban jazz group Irakere.
Multiple-GRAMMY-nominated Omar Sosa has toured Angola, the Congo, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua, spent time in the African-descent communities of Ecuador, and has appeared in venues such as the Blue Note in New York, Milan, and Tokyo, at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Getty Center, London’s Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, and Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt, as well as numerous jazz festivals across the world. He is a well-known name in the San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz scene and currently engages with artists from France, Cuba, Brazil, and several North, West and East African nations.
In the coming months, the documentary will also be available on Apple, TUBI and other platforms, but at present it can be viewed only on Amazon TVOD.
The soundtrack LP of Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums is also available. Details on how to order your copy on this link.
On March 27, Omar Sosa undertakes his West Coast Spring Tour with his Quarteto Americanos, which runs until April 7. The Quarteto Americanos features Sheldon Brown on saxophone and bass clarinet, Josh Jones on drums, and Ernesto Mazar Kindelán on baby bass.
The performance at Piedmont Piano in Oakland on March 29 is sold out, as is the show at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay on March 30, but the performances at Scripps Research Auditorium in San Diego, at the Denver Jazz Fest, at Blue Note Napa, at Mendocino College in Ukiah and at the Arts Center in Gualala still have availability. Tickets are available from the relevant venues.
For further information on Omar Sosa, visit www.omarsosa.com.
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