Ilé Omar Sosa

• 1A Love Lost05:32
• 2Momento I02:30
• 34U04:00
• 4Mentiras Enemigas04:56
• 5Momento II04:05
• 6D Vuelta03:18
• 7Old Afro A Baba07:40
• 8Dame La Luz05:25
• 9Momento III03:11
• 10Sad Meeting05:44
• 11Momento IV03:20
• 12La Tarde04:25
• 13Mi Conga05:52
• 14A Love Lost Reprise04:17
• Total Runtime01:04:15

Info for Ilé

Since he left Cuba in 1993, Omar Sosa has forged a distinctive musical path, fusing an array of world music, hip-hop and electronic elements with his Afro-Cuban roots. Sosa's newest recording, Ilé, marks a homecoming for the pianist and composer to the Latin Jazz influences of his formative years in late '80s and early '90s Havana. Ilé means homeland in the Yoruba language of West Africa, and it is to the Latin Jazz roots of his native Cuba that Sosa returns for inspiration on this new studio recording.

Ilé offers contemporary interpretations of some of the classic Cuban musical styles the world has come to admire. Listeners will enjoy this album's mix of ballads and sophisticated mid and up-tempo arrangements.

Omar Sosa, vocals, grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano, programming
Leandro Saint-Hill, vocals, flute, clarinet, soprano and alto saxophone
Childo Tomas, vocals, electric bass, kalimba
Ernesto Simpson, vocals, drums, kalimba

Omar Sosa
Composer-pianist-bandleader Omar Sosa was born in 1965 in Camagüey, Cuba's largest inland city. At age eight, Omar began studying percussion and marimba at the music conservatory in Camagüey; in Havana, as a teenager, he took up piano at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música, and completed his formal education at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Among his influences, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (including Chopin, Bartok, and Satie), Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés, and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere. Moving in 1993 to Ecuador, Omar immersed himself in the folkloric traditions of Esmeraldas, the northwest coast region whose African heritage includes the distinctive marimba tradition. He relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995, and soon invigorated the Latin jazz scene with his adventurous writing and percussive style.

Annually performing upwards of 100 concerts on six continents, Omar has appeared in venues as diverse as the Blue Note (New York, Milan, and Tokyo), Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Getty Center, London's Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, and Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt; festivals including Monterey Jazz, JVC Jazz, Montreal Jazz, Marciac Jazz, North Sea Jazz, Helsinki, Grenoble Jazz, Montreux Jazz, Naples Jazz, Ravenna Jazz, Roma Jazz, Spoletto, WOMAD, and Cape Town International Jazz; and universities on several continents, including a visiting artist fellowship at Princeton University in March 2008, and a visiting artist residency at Dartmouth College in April 2008. Omar will return to Dartmouth College for a second artist residency in February 2011.

Mr. Sosa received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC in 2003 for his contribution to the development of Latin jazz in the United States. He has received two nominations from the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, in 2004 and 2006, both in the 'Americas' category. In 2003 Omar Sosa received the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Album of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association in NYC for his recording Sentir; and a nomination from the Jazz Journalists Association for Latin Jazz Album of the Year in 2005 for his recording Mulatos. More info at www.omarsosa.com

Booklet for Ilé