Omar Sosa: D'Son

Omar Sosa carries on with his attempt at blending his native Cuban musical breeding (which included both piano and percussion) with the rest of the Black Diaspora's culture in an all-embracing syncretic perspective. In the process he has borrowed from Northern and Black Africa as well as from the whole of South America, and from jazz improvisation as well as from European classical music. This tune is based on the Cuban danzon tradition, but is treated more in a composer's way than in a performer's. Sosa refrains from extrovert Latin licks, and confronts the poised soloing of the flute, then the flugelhorn, with the intricate rhythmic maze of the percussionists. Then his own piano soars and slowly builds a climax with few but beautifully phrased notes. Indeed, Sosa is a searching musician who will get trapped in neither his own multi-instrumental virtuosity nor the clichés of his Cuban origins.