Omar Sosa (born April 10, 1965) is a jazz pianist from Cuba.

Biography

A native of

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by S ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, Sosa studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte. In the 1980s he started the band Tributo, recording albums and touring with the band. He worked with Cuban vocalist Xiomara Laugart and several Latin jazz bands. In the 1990s he moved from Cuba to

Quito, Ecuador Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...

; to

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...

; to the

San Francisco Bay area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

; and finally settled in

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. While in California, Sosa released his first few albums under his own name. He had received

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominations for four of his albums, three in the Latin Jazz category, as of 2020. In January 2011, Sosa and the NDR Bigband e(North German Radio Bigband) won the 10th Independent Music Awards (IMAs) in the Jazz Album category for ''Ceremony''. He has also collaborated with

Paolo Fresu Paolo Fresu ( sc, Pàulu; born 10 February 1961) is an Italian jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, as well as a composer and arranger of music. Career Born in Berchidda, Sardinia, he picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the ban ...

Seckou Keita Seckou Keita (born 14 February 1978) is a kora player and drummer from Senegal. He is one of the few champions of the lesser-known kora repertoire from Casamance in southern Senegal. Musical career Keita was born in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Thro ...

Adam Rudolph Adam Rudolph (born September 12, 1955) is a jazz composer and percussionist performing in the post-bop and world fusion media. In 1988, Rudolph met jazz musician Yusef Lateef, and the two would go on to collaborate and perform together for th ...

, and many other musicians. Sosa has released most of his recordings on his own Otá label.

Discography

* ''Solo Piano'', originally released as ''Omar Omar'' (Otá, 1996) * ''Nfumbe: For the Unseen'', with

John Santos John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

(Otá/ PriceClub, 1997) * ''Free Roots'' (Otá, 1997) * ''Inside'' (Otá, 1998) * ''Spirit of the Roots'' (Otá, 1999) * ''Bembon'' (Otá, 2000) * ''Prietos'' (Otá, 2000) * ''Sentir'' (Otá, 2002) * ''Ayaguna'', with (Otá, 2003) * ''A New Life'' (Otá, 2003) * ''Pictures of Soul'', with

(Otá/Meta Records, 2004) * ''Aleatoric Efx'' (Otá, 2004) * ''Mulatos'' (Otá, 2004) * ''Mulatos Remix'' (Otá, 2005) * ''Live à FIP'' (Otá, 2006) * ''Promise'', with Paolo Fresu (Otá/ Skip e 2007) * ''D.O.: A Day Off'', with

Greg Landau Greg Landau is an American, San Francisco-based record and video producer, and an instructor of music and Latin American Studies focused on the social movements that produced revolutionary music and art. He has produced eight Grammy nominated recor ...

(Otá, 2007) * ''Afreecanos'' (Otá, 2008) * ''Tales from the Earth A Tale of Rhythm and Ancestry'', with Mark Weinstein (Otá, 2009) * ''Across the Divide'' (

Half Note Records Half Note Records is a jazz record label founded by the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1998. Although it began releasing live recordings from the club, the label expanded to produce studio albums. Half Note has received critical acclaim for many of its ...

, 2009) * ''Simb'', with Adam Rudolph (Otá/Meta Records, 2009) * ''Ceremony'', with NDR Bigband (Otá, 2010) * ''Calma'' (Otá, 2011) * ''Alma'', with Paolo Fresu (Otá, 2012) * ''Eggun: The Afri-Lectric Experience'' (Otá, 2013) * ''Senses'' (Otá, 2014) * ''ile'' (Otá, 2015) * ''Jog'', with :de:Joo Kraus and Gustavo Ovalles (Otá, 2016) * ''Eros'', with Paolo Fresu (2016) * ''Es:Sensual'', with NDR Big Band (Skip/Otá, 2017/2018) * ''Transparent Water'', with

(Otá, 2017) * ''Aguas'', with

Yilian Cañizares Yilian Cañizares is a Cuban-Swiss musician who has been described as one of the most incredible talents of the new generation of Cuban musicians. Biography Yilian Cañizares was born in Havana, Cuba, and studied violin there, following the Rus ...

(Otá, 2018) * ''An East African Journey'' (Otá, 2021) * ''SUBA'', with Sekou Keita (Otá, 2021)

References

External links

*
Melodia biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosa, Omar 1965 births Living people Latin jazz musicians Cuban pianists Cuban composers Male composers Cuban Santeríans 21st-century pianists Cuban male musicians