Omar Sosa – An East African Journey (Otá Records, 2021)
An East African journey highlights a series of extraordinary musical encounters between Cuban pianist and composer Omar Sosa and some of the most significant musicians in East Africa. It is a highly expressive and beautiful combination of various ancient traditions with exquisite jazz and Western classical music influences.
Sosa visited and toured East Africa in 2009 with the support of booking agency 3D Family and Alliance Française. While touring, Omar Sosa was enthusiastic to meet and record traditional musicians in each of the concert locations on the tour. Omar’s sound engineer on the tour, Patrick Destandeau, transported his mobile recording equipment to make these sessions happen.
The first session took place in Antananarivo, Madagascar where Omar recorded three songs with Rajery, a well-known valiha player and singer who is also a member of famed world music act 3MA. Also in Madagascar, Omar collaborated with Monja Mahafay, a traditional music artist from southern Madagascar. Monja plays the marovany, a box zither with 24 steel strings.
The next set of recordings took place in Lusaka, Zambia, where Omar recorded with traditional singer and elder Abel Ntalasha who sings in Lenje, a Bantu language found in central Zambia.
Omar’s wonderful voyage took him afterwards to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he encountered Seleshe Damessae, a celebrated master of the krar, a traditional 5-string bowl-shaped lyre. Seleshe sings in the native Oromo language.
Omar and his band flew thereafter to Khartoum, Sudan where he visited the home and studio of Dafaalla Elhag Ali, crossing police checkpoints and with restrictions on the use of cameras. The band had an opportunity to play various traditional tambur instruments, including the adingo, a boat-shaped harp from southern Sudan, known in Uganda as adungu. Ultimately, Omar was not able to make a new recording in Khartoum, but received digital files of two songs recorded by Dafaalla.
The East African journey continued in Bujumbura, Burundi, where Omar met with singer-songwriter and virtuoso umuduri player Steven Sogo. The umuduri is a musical bow with an affixed gourd for resonance.
Onwards to Nairobi, Kenya. There, Omar met with singer and nyatiti (traditional lyre) instrumentalist Olith Ratego. Olith is from the Luo region in northwestern Kenya.
The last recording on the tour was made on the island of Mauritius with percussionist and vocalist Menwar, a forerunner of traditional Sega music featuring the ravanne, a large frame drum made of goat skin and warmed up before playing.
A decade after the sessions, Omar produced and arranged the East African recordings with finely-crafted performances on acoustic piano, percussion, keyboard-bass, and harp. This final recording and mixing creation was done in Paris, with the participation of producer and drummer Steve Argüelles and multi-instrumentalist Christophe ‘Disco’ Minck.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
Beautiful – I can’t wait to listen to the album in its entirety. Thank you for this gorgeous expression of love.