New JAZZ RELEASES for the Week of 3/8/2011

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Jazz, John Coltrane, Luis Conte, New Releases, Omar Sosa, Vijay Iyer

New JAZZ Releases (3/8/2011)

Greeting’s jazz enthusiasts, as always it’s a pleasure to return with more new music releases. With each visit, you’ll discover a montage of new jazz recordings featured at Amazon.com that encompasses a generous diet of nuances which includes a wealth of complex and distinctive styles, textures, melodies, and rhythms exalted by a host of definitive and creative voices in the world of jazz.

For more details, please visit Amazon.com for a complete list of this week latest jazz releases!

..:: SOURCE: Amazon.com ::..

Omar Sosa -][- CALMA [Ota Records]

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Jazz, Omar Sosa, Piano

“Sosa s pianisms evoke distant echoes of McCoy Tyner’s power, Keith Jarrett s improvisational flights of fancy, and Thelonious Monk’s angular harmonies, transforming the piano into 88 well-tuned drums.” —The Village Voice

Omar Sosa - CALMA

Omar Sosa -][- CALMA – [Ota Records, 2011]

Calma is Omar Sosa’s fifth solo piano recording. It is a work of singular artistry, featuring Omar s unique and original approach to the genre. The CD is comprised of 13 solo piano improvisations, fusing stylistic elements of jazz, classical new music, ambient and electronica. As the title implies, the overall feeling is relaxed and introspective, the intent being to evoke a mood of reflection and contemplation. The recording features a rarely heard combination of acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano and various electronic effects and sampled sounds.

All of these instruments were recorded live together in the studio, without overdubs the artist interacting spontaneously, in real-time, with the various sonic elements. Rhythmically, the feeling of the CD is unhurried and meditative. Sensations of floating and suspension of time prevail. We can imagine the melodic sensibilities of Erik Satie meeting those of Pierre Boulez. –Product Description | Amazon

Scheduled Release: 3/8/2011

..:: SOURCE: Amazon.com ::..

Omar Sosa | Ceremony

Tags

Jazz, Omar Sosa, Percussion, Piano

Omar Sosa | Ceremony – [Ota Records – 2010]

Omar Sosa - Ceremony

Ceremony is a major new project, the fruit of pianist-composer Omar Sosa’s first big-band collaboration with composer-arranger-cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, Hamburg’s 18-piece NDR Bigband (North German Radio/Norddeutscher Rundfunk), and the Omar Sosa Quartet, featuring Julio Barreto (drums), Childo Tomas (electric bass0, and Marcos Ilukan (Afro-Cuban percussion). Sosa himself plays piano and marimba. Recorded in two sessions (2007 & 2008) at NDR’s Hamburg studios under the direction of Morelenbaum and Sosa, Ceremony features Morelenbaum’s brilliant arrangements of selections from Omar’s Spirit of the Roots (1999), Bembon (2000), and Afreecanos (2009). It also acknowledges the majesty of the legendary Afro-Cuban big bands of Frank ‘Machito’ Grillo, Chico O’Farrill and Dizzy Gillespie, while extending those revered traditions in a contemporary salute to the expansive universe of world jazz, wherein Sosa himself continues to reign as a joyous, generous, abundant, and essential creative spirit.

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..

Omar Sosa | Mulatos

Tags

Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Omar Sosa, Piano

Back in 2004, the phenomenal Afro-Cuban pianist Omar Sosa rocked the music world by winning a Grammy award in the “Latin Jazz” category for his fascinating masterpiece “Mulatos”.

Omar Sosa | Mulatos – [Otá Records, 2004]

Omar Sosa - Mulatos

This is Omar Sosa’s breakthrough cd. I have heard Sosa in several less satisfying formats[solo, duo’s, etc] and in his dabbling in hip hop and I am thrilled to write that he has reached his pinnacle in this expanded setting. First of all Sosa’s music warrants additional colors and shades that a larger supporting cast gives it. Secondly the hip hop segments in previous cd’s like Sentir and Prietos were badly out of place and just succeeded in having me “skip” them on otherwise decent cd’s.

Apparently Sosa received similar advice because the rap crap is nowhere to be found on Mulato’s. What is left is interesting, catchy world jazz music. Sosa’s playing is “Monk like” and percussive but it is his compositions and arrangements that are the stars. The supporting musicians while completely able are more of an ensemble preaching Sosa’s wonderful compositional “message“.

To describe the content of the cd is as complex as some of the music. Think Latin, African, Caribbean with a little dixieland. A real gumbo like Sosa himself. —M. Murphy

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::