Omar 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.
Mr. 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, Omar has been nominated six times for a GRAMMY 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. In 2008, Omar Sosa was commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the Oakland East Bay Symphony to compose a major work for symphony orchestra (From Our Mother), supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2009, Omar was invited by the city of Girona, Spain and the Festival de Músicas Religiosas y del Mundo de Girona to write another work for symphony orchestra (Oda Africana). Also in 2009 the Barcelona Jazz Festival commissioned a tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue recording, featuring Afro-Cuban interpretations of the seminal Davis work on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The compositions from this Kind Of Blue tribute form the basis of Omar’s new CD, Eggun, released in February 2013, with his new band, The Afri-Lectric Experience, featuring Joo Kraus on trumpet, Peter Apfelbaum on tenor saxophone, and Leandro Saint-Hill on alto saxophone. Special guests include Lionel Loueke and Marvin Sewell on guitars, and Pedro Martinez, John Santos, and Gustavo Ovalles on percussion.
Mr. 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, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (including Chopin, Bartok, and Satie), Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés, and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere.
Josh Jones: Drums & Percussion
Josh Jones is recognized internationally from his touring and recording with such Jazz greats as Don Cherry, Steve Coleman, Omar Sosa, Yosvany Terry, and Jacqui Naylor. His recent recording projects include “Then and Now” with Blue Note recording artist Benny Green, as well as a project with Cuban royalty Chuchito Valdes. Other notable recordings include Yosvany Terry & Columna B, Peter Apfelbaum, Steve Bernstein, Chico Freeman, Arthur Blythe, Larry Coryell, Tupac Shakur, Goapele, Zion- I, Taj Mahal, Bob Weir, and AfroCuba de Matanzas.
Josh continues to perform with his various ensembles at clubs and festivals in the Bay Area and remains a major influence on the jazz community not only as a performer, but as a highly respected educator.
Sheldon Brown: saxophone, clarinet, piccolo, flute, alto sax
Composer and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown formed the Sheldon Brown Group in 1993, and in 1996 he released the jazz/fusion CD “Shifting Currents”. Brown tours internationally (most recently with pianist Omar Sosa) to world-renowned venues such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Moers Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Jazz d’Or, Toronto Jazz Festival and the Spoleto Festival. He is featured on Omar Sosa’s CDs “Prietos”, “Bembon”, “Spirit of the Roots” and “Free Roots” and on Ian Dogole’s CDs “Ionospheres” and “Night Harvest”.
Brown is a member of San Francisco’s Club Foot Orchestra, for whom he has composed scores for Film Roman’s cartoon series “The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat” and silent films such as Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”, Buster Keaton’s “Sherlock Jr.” and “Cops”, G. W. Pabst’s “Pandora’s Box” and Robert Wiene’s “Hands of Orlac”. Club Foot has performed at New York’s Knitting Factory, Walter Reade Theater, at Lincoln Center and the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Brown performed in Anthony Braxton’s “Composition No. 132″ at Grace Cathedral as part of the 1986 San Francisco Jazz Festival. He also performs regularly with the Realistic Orchestra.
Ernesto Mazar Kindelan: Bass
With the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba as his hometown, Ernesto's career came as second nature as he was submerged into the musical world. He began music studies at the age of eight and was always interested in the sound of “that big piece of wood with strings”. While excelling at the music conservatory level, he was one of two students from his class accepted into the country’s capital at the university level. In 2004, Ernesto moved to Havana, Cuba to attend the prestigious University Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), where he graduated with a degree in Classical Double Bass and Performance and Teaching. Ernesto taught music theory and ensemble at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA). In 2006, Ernesto became the bass player of the Grammy nominated and internationally popular salsa and timba group David Calzado y su Charanga Habanera. For over eight years, he traveled the world performing and recording on numerous albums. In August 2014, Ernesto moved with his wife to San Francisco, CA.