This article appeared in the April 23, 2003 Cambridge Chronicle.

A little island fusion to heat up the night

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Grammy-nominated composer and pianist Omar Sosa has made a musical career out of bending genres. His contemporary, urban music, powered by a distinct Latin jazz pulse, spans Afro-Cuban, Latin jazz, and varied world music styles. Tomorrow night, April 24, at 8 and 10 p.m., he will make his first appearance in the greater Boston area at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center.

Afro-Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles and Cuban vocalist Martha Galarraga will accompany Sosa; they appeared on his recent CD, Sentir, which was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album, and received the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Album of the Year award from the Jazz Journalists Association in New York.

A Camaguey, Cuba, native, Sosa studied percussion for many years at Havana’s Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte. While eventually forsaking the hard-to-find marimba for the piano, his focus spanned Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions to European classical music, and everything in between. His first group, Tributo, toured Angola, the Congo, Ethiopia and Nicaragua in 1986. Following a position as touring musical director for Cuban vocalists Vicente Feliu and Xiomara Laugart, Sosa indulged his first love in the folkloric music of the Esmeraldas, a marimba-infused, African-rooted scene found in the north-west coastal town of Quito, Ecuador, formed the jazz fusion group Entrenoz and produced Andarele, a recording by the group Koral y Esmarelda.

In Palma Mallorca, Spain and later the San Francisco Bay area, Sosa continued to immerse himself in Latin jazz. His 1997 U.S. recording debut on Otá Records with Omar Omar was followed by the trilogy Free Roots (1997), Spirit of the Roots (1998) and Bembon (2000). 1998’s Nfumbe followed a collaborative period with Bay Area percussionist John Santos; the duo appeared at that year’s San Francisco Jazz Festival. Inside, Sosa’s solo piano recording, was a Top-20-selling CD in France; his Bembon was recorded in Ecuador. 2001’s Prietos and 2002’s Sentir feature vocal and instrumental embellishment from North Africa’s Gnawa culture. Arabic, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yoruba tongues are reflected in this effort, along with esoteric native instruments including the guembri, oud, djembi, balafon, and marimba. Sosa currently resides in Barcelona, Spain, from which he appears at an estimated 150 international concert and festivals per year.

“For me, nothing is avant garde,” he said, explaining his penchant for sensory diversity. “Everything is already on the table. Garlic, onions and rice can go together in so many different ways. The fire, the spirit people put into the food when they cook, is always unique from one place to the next.”

The message is also intrinsic. "We have to hear the music in political context, although people don't want to think about politics,” he continued in a thoughtful vein. “So, let them see it. They don't try to avoid politics just because of terrorism. More basically, everyone is just trying to survive. But the media don't want people to have a choice."

Caracas native Gustavo Ovalles, who has performed with Omar Sosa since 1999, lives in Marseille. His repertoire of traditional Venezuelan percussion instruments include quitiplas and culo’e puya and the more commonly-known congas, bongo, maracas, guiro, snare and cymbals.

Singer Galarraga, a Havana native living in Paris, has toured with Sosa for the past three years. She takes her song and dance tradition from the West Africa’s Yoruba culture. The daughter of prominent Cuban singer/percussionist Lázaro Galarraga, she remains a member of his renowned Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba and has toured through Korea, China, Mexico, Spain and the United States. Her workshops cover traditional Afro-Cuban forms which include Conga, Tumba, Rumba, Son, Chachacha, and Mambo.

"The media interpret Africa as energetic, rhythmic peoples,” said Sosa. “But rhythm connects every people with the supreme spirit. Every country has a tradition of contacting the spirit, calling the spirit. Maybe not all societies deal directly with the spirit, but they all have a way to pull people together."

The spirits play through us."

Tickets are $15/$13 CMAC members, students & seniors. The box office will be open from 9:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. on the day of the show. The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center is located at 41 Second St. in East Cambridge and is wheelchair accessible. For information, please call 617-577-1400, or visit www.cmacusa.org.