Afreecanos - Omar Sosa | Jazzbo Notes

Feb

19

Afreecanos - Omar Sosa

≡ Category: 2000s, Afro Cuban Jazz, Highly Recommended, Reviews, World Fusion |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

On Afreecanos, the phenomenal pianist and musicologist Omar Sosa is still reminding us that most, if not all music, originates from the continent of Africa.

For example, on Oliu, at first the music sounds almost like a blues, until the vocalist joins in. I’m not sure what language he’s singing (I also don’t know who the singer is — the disk I have doesn’t list the credits by song), but it sounds to me like Yoruba, a language originating in West Africa, but then again, a lot of Yoruban speakers ended up in Cuba late in the slave trade. Omar Sosa cleverly arranges the tune so that we see the connections between the blues and Yoruban music. The lineage is undeniable.

Sosa does a similar thing on Iyade, but this time with the a Latin rhythm similar to the one employed by Santanta on the well-known tune Guajira, but slowed down to a crawl. Instead of guitar, Sosa uses the 21-string kora of Ali Boulo Santo.

In his arrangements, Omar Sosa utilizes an enormous complement of musicians and instruments from different parts of the globe and seamlessly weaves them together into light and buoyant tapestries. Among other instruments, he has included kalimba, trumpet, flugelhorn, ngoni, kamalengoni, xalam, kongoman, calebasse, talking drum, and timbales.

On Afreecanos, Omar Sosa continues his trend of deemphasizing virtuosity in favor of a more spiritual approach.

It won’t be a problem for most people, but I find it frustrating that the solos by Leandro Saint-Hill on flute and Stephane Belmondo on trumpet are integrated so thoroughly into the arrangements that if you aren’t really paying attention, you would hardly know you are listening to a jazz date.

There are all also too few opportunities to savor Sosa’s touch on the keyboard. Whenever Sosa gives himself a opportunity to showcase his talent as a pianist, he reveals himself to be one of our most cogent stylists. His tone and touch are pristine. He never wastes a note. His melodic phrases are sculpted in marble. In that way, he reminds me of another stunning pianist, Jim Beard. But most of the time on Afreecanos, he withholds his power, which I think is a shame. Sosa is as brilliant a bebop pianist as anyone playing today. He is one of the small handful of jazz pianists who have fully absorbed the lessons of Thelonious Monk, as you can tell from his piano solo on Tumborum.

It’s all very well and good that Omar Sosa wants to concentrate on composing and arranging, but he won’t always be able to play with the power that he’s capable of now. When Vladimir Horowitz, the classical pianist, was in his 70s, he was forced to approach the piano differently, to explore the subtleties of the classical repertoire, rather than revel in their power because he simply wasn’t up to the physical demands of some of the pieces anymore. The same thing is going to happen to Omar Sosa eventually. He’s one of our greatest jazz pianists. It would be a shame if he didn’t leave behind a large body of virtuosic piano solos as part of his legacy. There will be plenty of time for him to explore the nuances of the various musics of the African diaspora.

This is not to disparage in any way what Sosa has accomplished on Afreecanos. His compositions and arrangments are at once beautiful, rigorous, and accessible. Omar Sosa has calmed down a lot since his wild man days back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He no longer feels the need to jam every aspect of the African diaspora into every composition, which I kind of miss actually. These days, his arrangements systematically explore a few musical ideas in a fashion in which passion is tempered by logic.

On the one hand, it is possible to put on Afreecanos and have a conversation. You can listen to it casually if you want to or you pay close attention and be rewarded with the breathtaking sophistication of Sosa’s arrangements. But neither does Afreecanos have the mindblowing energy and unfettered creativity of something like his 2001 date, Prietos.

There is no disputing the quality of Afreecanos. Really, it’s a matter of preference whether you prefer the more languid and measured music Omar Sosa is making these days or the fire-breathing stuff from the past. Personally, I enjoy both.