Omar Sosa to Bring Quarteto Americanos to Overture This Fall

Seven-time Grammy Award nominee Omar Sosa is a Cuban-born pianist and composer who has developed an earthy and graceful Signature Sound that blends elements of jazz, world, hip hop, electronica and classical music with his Afro-Cuban roots and is a joy to see in concert. Experience Omar Sosa's spirited vision of uncompromising artistic generosity in Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Capitol Theater. Tickets go on sale this Friday, June 24 at 11 a.m. at http://overture.org.

Quarteto Americanos is Sosa's first U.S.-based jazz ensemble since the 1990s! It features drummer Josh Jones, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán and saxophone/clarinet/flute player Sheldon Brown. The group came together in February 2021 when Omar was in the Bay Area for several livestreams. Connecting with Josh and Sheldon was a gratifying reunion for Omar, as he played extensively with them during his early days in San Francisco and Oakland in the late 1990s. Josh Jones' Trio at the time, including Omar and bassist Geoff Brennan, played frequently at Bay Area clubs. Josh remains one of Omar's favorite drummers - a versatile musician and educator equally at home in Latin, jazz, hip-hop and fusion styles. Sheldon Brown was a member of Omar's first Septet ensembles in the Bay Area, performing in San Francisco and Oakland and around the world in support of Omar's earliest recording projects, "Free Roots," "Spirit of the Roots" and "Bembón," also known as the Roots Trilogy. Sheldon is a talented composer, arranger and producer whose first recording, "Shifting Currents," caught Omar's ear when he first moved to San Francisco in 1995. Ernesto Mazar Kindelán is a dynamic Cuban musician who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 following a 10-year stint with Charanga Habanera, the celebrated Cuban timba band from Havana.

Omar's Quarteto Americanos plays a number of arrangements of Omar's signature compositions from his early career, including "My Three Notes," "Angustia" and "Toridanzón" as well as new songs written by Omar in Barcelona during the lockdown in 2020. Like Omar's oeuvre, Quarteto Americanos' repertoire is eclectic and energizing.

Presented by Overture Center and The Sessions at McPike Park.

Omar Sosa, biography

Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa is one of the most versatile jazz artists on the scene today. He fuses a wide range of jazz, world music and electronic elements with his native Afro-Cuban roots to create a fresh and original urban sound - all with a Latin jazz heart. Sosa's musical trajectory has taken him from Camagüey and Havana to touring in Angola, the Congo, Ethiopia and Nicaragua in the 1980s; to a sojourn in the African-descent communities of Ecuador in the early 1990s; to an extended presence on the San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz scene; to his current engagement with artists from France, Cuba, Brazil and several North, West and East African nations. His career embodies the expansive outlook of a visionary artist who has taken Monk's uncompromising spirit to heart, while working ceaselessly to craft and project a unique, cosmopolitan voice.

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. Over the years, Sosa has been nominated seven times for GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY awards, and twice for the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. In 2003, he 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," featuring Paquito D'Rivera.

Sosa has released over 30 recordings as a leader, and his touring schedule includes upwards of 100 concerts each year on five continents.

Sosa was born in Camagüey, Cuba, in 1965. He moved to Havana in 1980 to continue his music studies at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música, finishing his formal training at the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1983. Among his influences, Sosa cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (including Chopin, Bartok and Satie), jazz masters Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere.

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