Accomplished Afro-Cuban pianist Omar Sosa is widely described as a prominent ambassador of an invigorating, new free jazz sound. This is an evolving brand of music endowed with great virtuosity and innovation, drawing its influence from the enriching tradition of Latin jazz and European classical music.

Lovers of contemporary jazz in the city are in for a treat of Sosa’s Cuban rhythms rendered with intoxicating harmonies and improvisations. The pianist takes to the stage this evening at the Alliance Francaise Gardens on a stopover of his maiden African tour. He recently performed to houseful audiences in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Khartoum, Sudan. He is renowned for his adroit and legendary skillfulness on the keyboard, so much so that his improvisations are often closely identified with classical Cuban style credited to one of his mentors, Ruben Gonzalez.

Maestros

But the pianist also singles out the likes of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker as some of his other core influences.

"Each one of these jazz maestros is inimitable, unique — there’s no one like any one of them," Sosa is quoted saying.

Yet listening to some of his songs, one can easily pick out varied invocations, ranging from Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett to Frederic Chopin and Randy Weston.

Sosa on the piano. [PHOTO: COURTESY]

And while the pianist makes no direct references to the latter, a somewhat distinctive connection is obvious regard to his extensive work with Gnawa trance music since he left the US in the late 1960s for Morocco. Similar call-and-response chant elements are evident in Sosa’s songs. But more significantly, his influence by the monk are mirrored in the album, Spirit of the Roots, released in 1998, which features a tribute song, Remember Monk.

Sosa acknowledges inclination to classical romanticism, noting that he listened to Chopin for two years every single night before he went to sleep, and he feel very close to his music.

"He is one of the spirits that is around me," Sosa has often admitted.

The pianist’s big-band effort CD BembÛn (2000) is also manifest with classical inclinations, seamlessly combining a string quartet with jazz, Afro-Cuban, spoken word and diverse world-music elements.

While commenting about Africa’s broad ranging influence on world music, Sosa notes: "We talk about Africa but most people just think drums and black people. But what about North Africa? The African Diaspora means that whoever you are, you can have African spirit. I don’t talk about names of countries, but the spirit of the earth and the atmosphere in many different places."

Compositions

The pianist compositions are also known to borrow immensely from the Yoruba spirit-possession traditions traced to Nigeria. These aspects are widely prevalent in, for instance, Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and the Caribbean Islands.

In these far-flung African diaspora countries, divine communication is widely acceptable as a higher channel of expression.

"The spirits play through us instrumentalists, musical rhythms connect every community to the supreme spirit. Every culture has a tradition of contacting, calling the spirit. Maybe not all societies deal directly with the spirit, but they all have a way to pull people together," asserts Sosa.

For those not quite initiated to the genre, he notes: "Jazz is freedom. The spirit gives something to us in the music. Every music is inspired by something. We have to hear the music in political context, although people don’t want to think about politics. But the media often does not want people to have a choice."

Some of Sosa’s popular albums include Ayuguna, Sentir, Prietos, Bembon, Inside, Spirit of the Roots, Omar Omar and Free Roots.