Omar Sosa & NDR Bigband - es:sensual

Es:sensual presents a continuation of Cuban pianist-composer Omar Sosa’s collaboration with Hamburg’s NDR (North German Radio—Norddeutscher Rundfunk) Bigband and Brazilian cellist-composer-arranger Jaques Morelenbaum, whose inaugural effort can be heard on Omar Sosa-NDR Bigband CD Ceremony.

Recorded at NDR’s Hamburg studios under the direction of Sosa and Morelenbaum, Es:sensual features the latter’s vivid arrangements of selections from Omar’s CDs Free Roots (1997), Mulatos (2004), Live à FIP (2006), Promise (2007), Across the Divide (2009), and Ilé (2014). Sosa, Morelenbaum, and the NDR Bigband extend their many influences in a contemporary contribution to the expansive universe of world jazz, where Sosa resides as a generous, abundant, and ecstatically inspired creative spirit.

Omar possesses an incomparable capacity to bring the most diverse traditions into fruitful juxtaposition, moving through and far beyond his influences, from the folkloric to the classical, while sustaining a singular and joyous cosmopolitan voice. Omar is an artist who’s constantly seeking new combinations, and each of his projects is marked by a revelatory spirit of creative freedom.

Rooted in Afro-Cuban spiritual and percussive traditions, and intimately versed in a range of contemporary world musics, Omar’s finely textured compositions present Morelenbaum with the foundation to summon forth an expansive palette of sounds, inspiring the NDR Bidband’s brilliant soloists, maximizing the ensemble’s sonic potential, and providing ample latitude for Sosa’s own luminous keyboard improvisations.