A major new project bears the fruit of Omar’s first big-band collaboration, working with composer Jacques Morelenbaum and Hamburg’s North German Radio (NDR) Big Band. Recorded in January 2008, it features arrangements from Omar’s Spirit Of The Roots (1999) and Bembón (2000), growing out of a conversation with Hamburg producer Stefan Gerdes, who facilitated the connection. Morelenbaum has arranged for Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Cesária Evora, and Mariza, among many others.
Other notable ventures include Omar’s Oda Africana, a composition for orchestra and jazz ensemble, which premiered in July 2009 at the Festival de Musicas Religiosas y del Mundo de Girona, Spain, featuring the Omar Sosa Quintet and the Jove Orquesta Athenea, conducted by Lluis Caballería. In addition, Omar was commissioned to compose From Our Mother for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. He also has been a visiting artist at Dartmouth College and Princeton University.
New pursuits include work with Italy’s Solis String Quartet, the Sardinian Isolanos project, and a new trio with Paolo Fresu and Trilok Gurtu. Notable video productions include Light In The Sky (from the 2008 Tudo é Jazz Festival in Ouro Preto, Brazil, directed by Aitor Echeverria), and an upcoming DVD of Omar’s 2007 Java Jazz Festival performance.
Exemplifying Duke Ellington’s highest accolade as a creator of music beyond category—manifest in some 20 recordings as a leader—Omar Sosa is a planetary musician in the most all-embracing connotation of world music. Sonic curiosity, a generous musical spirit, a commitment to the ensemble as the fundamental creative mode, and an openness to new sounds and their unusual combination, animate all that Omar does.