Documentary Premieres About Cuban Pianist Omar Sosa at USA Film Festival in Dallas

April 29, 2022

The documentary "Omar Sosa's 88 Well-Tuned Drums" about the Cuban musician currently considered one of the best jazz pianists of the moment, premiered last Saturday at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, as part of the USA Film Festival.

The film directed by Soren Sorensen uses the Yoruba deity Elegua, who holds the keys to the past, present and future, to illustrate the winding path of the Cuban performer's trajectory, according to an article in Dallas News.

"Every time I go to perform I give thanks to my spirits and to Elegua, as channelers of energy," admits the musician. In the documentary, Sosa can be seen achieving an immediate connection with musicians whom he sometimes meets for the first time on stage.

Some of them already renowned, such as Manolo Barrena, who was a percussionist for Weather Report, or Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu. The audiovisual reveals various moments in the musician's life, including his participation in the Angolan War as a soldier in the Cuban army.

Also his time in Ecuador as a composer of commercial jingles, until his arrival in San Francisco where he finally breaks into the local jazz scene to achieve success. Currently, the artist lives between Barcelona and Washington, but also spends time on the island.

However, he says he hasn't performed in Cuba for more than 30 years. "Afro-Ecuadorian culture made me value my Afro-Cuban tradition more, it made me delve into my culture and appreciate it much more," he commented. "I want to die where I was born," he said later.

Born on April 10, 1965, composer, percussionist, producer and pianist Omar Sosa is from the city of Camagüey. At the age of eight he began studying percussion at the conservatory and later at the National School of Music and the Superior Institute of Art.

In the 1980s he founded the band Tributo, with which he recorded albums and toured. He worked with Cuban vocalist Xiomara Laugart and several Latin jazz bands. In the 1990s, he moved from Cuba to Quito, Ecuador; then to Palma de Mallorca, Spain; then to the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States; and later settled in Barcelona, Spain.

When he was in California, he recorded his first albums under his own name. He arrived in San Francisco in 1995, and became involved with local Latin jazz in collaboration with percussionist John Santos. He has several Grammy Award nominations. Sosa has released most of his recordings on his own label Otá.

Among his influences, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (such as Chopin, Bartok and Satie), Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere.

Sosa received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington in 2003 for his contribution to the development of Latin jazz in the United States. He has received two nominations for the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards in 2004 and 2006, both in the "Americas" category. In 2003, he was awarded the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Album of the Year Award from the New York Jazz Journalists Association for his recording Sentir; and a nomination from the Jazz Journalists Association for Latin Jazz Album of the Year in 2005 for his album Mulatos.