Photo © by David Sproule, courtesy of Otá Records

The Global Cuba Fest is an annual event by two Miami-based non-profit arts presenters, Fundarte and the Miami Light Project, and celebrates the Cuban diaspora’s rhythms, music, and culture. Cuban pianist and composer Omar Sosa, the headliner at the opening night at the Miami Beach Bandshell on Saturday, March 2, embodies the spirit and ambition of the event. (Two other exceptional Cuban pianists, Ernán López Nussa and Rolando Luna, headline the second night of Global Cuba Fest on Saturday, March 9 )

For Sosa, who will appear with his new Quarteto Americanos, his identity as a Cuban of African descent remains a starting point for exploring a pan-African culture without borders.

His career spans 30 years, has been documented in 35 releases thus far, and his work has been recognized with four GRAMMYs and three Latin GRAMMYs nominations. He continues collaborating with an impressive list of North American, African, Arabic, European, Indian, and Latin musicians, treating post-bop jazz and cha-cha-chá, hip hop, rhythms of the Moroccan Gnawa tradition, or ritual music of the Orisha religion as different expressions of shared African roots. By connecting seemingly disparate sources and exploring old traditions with a contemporary approach, he often suggests conversations among long-lost relatives.

The results then are not just surprising but illuminating.

Omar Sosa´s SUBA trio featuring Seckou Keita, kora, and Gustavo Ovalles, percussion, at NPR´s Tiny Desk

“Every project has different music, and every project gives me something,” said the pianist in a conversation in Spanish from his home in Barcelona. “And being on the move keeps me awake, alert — and a lot of times a little bit scared too. If we expect that what happened yesterday will happen today, well, forget it,” he said before breaking into a laugh.

But for Sosa, who will be 59 in April, “the concept remains the same. What has changed sometimes over the years is the form. But the idea of the unity of culture and sharing remains. And when I say ‘sharing,’ I don’t mean it only from the musical point of view but also from a human point of view. You give me something of yours, I give you something of mine, and together, we will create something that perhaps will have two words from you and one from me, and perhaps it will be positive for everyone.”

Born in Camaguey, after finishing his studies at the National School of Music and the Higher Institute of Art in Havana, he traveled with his first group to Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. In 1993, he moved to Quito, Ecuador, and two years later, to the Bay Area in California. He has since settled in Barcelona, Spain.

For his appearance at Global Cuba Fest, his first in Miami since 2018, Sosa will lead a quartet featuring multi-reed player Sheldon Brown, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, and drummer Josh Jones.

Quarteto Americanos, left to right, Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, Omar Sosa, Josh Jones, & Sheldon Brown. Photo courtesy of Otá Records.

While he has consistently said that he does not consider himself a jazz pianist, he calls himself a jazzman.

“Jazz, for me, is a philosophy of life, and that philosophy allows you to feel free to express yourself,” he said. “That openness is why jazz works with all kinds of music. That’s why it’s a global music. I don’t play bebop, and maybe I know one jazz standard, that’s it, nothing more. But for me, jazz is freedom, and in those terms, I consider myself a jazzman.”

He is an expressive, imaginative pianist with a rich vocabulary, capable of remarkably lyrical flights and forceful grooves. But Sosa trained initially as a percussionist and still approaches the piano as “88 well-tuned drums.” The idea serves as the title of the documentary on Sosa’s music and life, directed by Soren Sorensen. Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums will be released on Video On Demand platforms such as Amazon, GooglePlay, and Tubi in the U.S. on March 15, 2024, with Blu-ray to Follow in April 2024.

As it turns out, Sorensen met Sosa at one of his shows in New York. He “found the work interesting, a bit different from what it was being played at the time, but he didn’t know anything about what I had been doing,” Sosa notes. “So he started to search and listen, and we connected on this message of pluriculturality.”

“Living with other cultures makes me more open-minded. This is what I’ve been expressing in my work all these years, and, at this point in my life, it’s what I’ll die doing,” said Sosa. “It’s what gives me pleasure — and makes me grow as a person.”

An edited version of this story was published by Artburst Miami

© 2024 Fernando Gonzalez