Saturday night, July 26, one of the leading lights of modern jazz piano appears with his band for the first time in New Orleans at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. Show times are at 8 and 10 PM.
Sosa is a native of Cuba and was trained in two of the island nation’s rigorous music academies, the Escuela Nacional de Musica and the Instituto Superior de Arte. Both institutions are located in Havana and have produced countless numbers of talented musicians.
Given the close affinity between the music of New Orleans and Cuba, it comes as a surprise that this is Sosa’s first time in New Orleans.
According to an interview with my colleague Geraldine Wyckoff, he is extremely excited to be in playing in New Orleans and is totally aware of the connections between the two musical places as well as the role that New Orleans music has played in the development of jazz. Click the link to read her informative column.
The New AfroCuban Quartet features two musicians Sosa grew up with, drummer Ernesto Simpson and saxophonist/flautist Leandro Saint-Hill, as well bassist Childo Tomas. Tomas is from Mozambique and adds African accents and influences to the band’s sound.
Music lovers in New Orleans will delight in Sosa’s unique approach to jazz. While his sound is thoroughly modern, it is permeated with traditional elements including the call and response vocals and hand drumming of Santeria, the syncretic Afrocentric religion of Cuba.
