GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Omar Sosa’s body of work as a composer, bandleader, and recording artist is a rich tapestry of styles and cultures, from solo piano to big band, from Mother Africa to Cuba – and the descendant communities of the Diaspora – and from jazz, Afro-Cuban, and an array of folkloric traditions to Western classical music.

What’s more, Sosa often performs and records with synthesizers, samplers, and electronic effects, making it challenging to categorize his music, but providing so much of its originality and allure.

Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums, the documentary directed by Soren Sorensen, captures much of Sosa’s oeuvre and the accompanying soundtrack LP of the same name reflects the artist’s chameleon-like sensibilities.

Featuring artists born across five continents in conversation and performance, the film is a frenetic and nonlinear narrative that follows Sosa’s sinuous trajectory from his birth and upbringing in Camagüey, Cuba’s third-largest city, his education at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música in Havana, military service in Angola during that country’s long civil war, and eventual relocation to Ecuador where, for a time, he wrote, arranged, and performed commercial jingles.

Sosa’s solo career began with a fortunate move to San Francisco in 1995 where he met manager Scott Price, who co-produced the film and its soundtrack. Sosa and Price forged a partnership that continues to this day. “For fans and newcomers alike,” Price said, “the film and soundtrack LP are a great way to enjoy Omar’s music and better appreciate the artist and his creative process.”

The soundtrack features music from eight Sosa albums, including three GRAMMY nominees — Sentir (2002), Across the Divide (2009), and Eggūn (2013) – and will be released by Price’s Oakland-based label, Otá Records.

1. Sunrise [3:48] Calma (2011)
2. Toridanzón [4:26] Sentir (2002)
3. Portrait [4:03] Pictures of Soul (2004)
4. Promised Land [7:03] Across the Divide (2009)
5. Cha Cha du Nord [6:09] Es:sensual (2018)
6. So All Freddie [8:24] Eggun (2013)
7. Angustia With Tumbao [3:17] Omar Omar (1996)
8. Para Ella [5:18] Spirit of the Roots (1999)

This dutifully sculpted, delightful new collection opens on the veritably translucent elegance of Sunrise and the magnificently uplifting, sprightly and heartwarmingly sculpted Toridanzón and then brings us the stoically ethereal Portrait and the atmospherically-charged Promised Land.

Along next is the dutifully-honed, enigmatic liveliness of Cha Cha du Nord and the organic, all-encompassing, highly impassioned So All Freddie, the album rounding out on the tuneful, magnetically strident Angustia With Tumbao, closing on the ornate gossamer that threads throughout Para Ella.

For Sosa, whose prolific career began nearly 30 years ago, looking back at his own life has been a profound – if unusual – experience. “Whatever I did before, it’s already in the past,” Sosa says. “Personally, I’m always paying attention to what I’m working on in the moment and looking for what comes next. I’m always so focused on what I’m doing now, trying to create. Sometimes I don’t even listen to what I do. So it’s gratifying to hear how other people feel about my music.”

“Jazz as a philosophy is freedom. Jazz has no borders,” Sosa continues. “If you look at jazz as a style of music, you have bebop, you have hard bop, you have free jazz, you have avant garde jazz, you have Latin jazz, but in the end what is the bottom line; freedom. You can do whatever comes to you.”

www.omarsosa.com