OMAR SOSA QUARTETO AMERICANOS

The Story

A familiar face to Exit Zero Jazz Festival audiences, Cuban pianist-composer-conceptualist Omar Sosa makes his return to Cape May with his latest ensemble, Quarteto Americanos, featuring saxophonist-clarinetist-flutist Sheldon Brown, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, and drummer Josh Jones. One of the most vibrantly versatile and forward-looking jazz musicians of our times, Sosa’s life story — from humble beginnings in Camagüey, Cuba to the top of the world music scene — was revealed in recent documentary film, Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums, with accompanying soundtrack released in 2024.

With over 40 albums as a leader to his credit, Sosa’s impact on the world music/jazz has had a ripple effect since the release of his genre-bending Grammy-nominated album from 2002, Sentir. Since then, he has collaborated on multiple occasions with Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu (most recently on 2023’s Food) and twice was featured with the NDR Big Band (on 2010’s Ceremony and 2018’s Es: Sensual).

The Sound

Sosa is the latest in a long line of incredible Cuban pianists, from Bebo and Chucho Valdés to Emiliano Salvador and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. What separates him from those Cuban piano masters, who primarily play Latin jazz extensions of the mambo, cha-cha rumba and the danzón, is that Sosa incorporates African-derived music, dances and instruments of the Black Diaspora, dispersed throughout the infamous Middle Passage. By mixing genres, he creates what Downbeat writer Eugene Holley, Jr., described as “a true world music with black, brown and beige tinges.”