Omar Sosa

Artist Name: Omar Sosa
Genre: Afro-Cuban
Country: Cuba


Omar Sosa was born and raised in Camaguey, Cuba 's third largest city. He initially studied percussion at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Musica in Havana then began to focus on the piano. In the late 1980s, having studied everything from Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions to European classical music, Omar began working with two Cuban vocalists serving as musical director for their touring and recording ensembles. Moving to Quito, Ecuador, in 1993, Omar discovered the folkloric music of Esmeraldas, a pocket of African-rooted culture on the north-west coast of that country known especially for its use of the marimba. In 1995, he became a noted member of the local Latin jazz community of San Francisco. In 1997 he released a trilogy of recordings that mixed jazz piano with rhythms from across Latin America and Africa. Omar's world-jazz fusion has gone on to employ Moroccan Gnawa musicians while Arabic, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yoruba tongues can be heard on his recordings.