Cuban pianist Omar Sosa to release album with East African musicians

The musicians featured on the offering include singer and valiha (tube zither) player Rajery (Madagascar), singer and kodo (five-string lyre) instrumentalist Olith Ratego (Kenya), krar (six-stringed bowl-shaped lyre) player Seleshe Damessae (Ethiopia), bassist Steven Sogo (Burundi) and vocalist and percussionist Menwar (Mauritius).

The songs on the new album were recorded during the four-time Grammy nominee’s tour of East Africa in 2009, when he performed in Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Madagascar, Burundi, Zambia and Mauritius together with his group Afreecanos Trio. The band features singer Mola Sylla (Senegal) and bassist Childo Tomas (Mozambique).

While touring, Sosa was enthusiastic about meeting and recording traditional musicians in each country with the help of his sound engineer Patrick Destandeau and his mobile studio. Destandeau also recorded instruments like the marovany, a box zither, and the lokanga fiddle from Madagascar.

“When the tour was organised, the first thing to come to my mind was that now was the moment for me to do what I had hoped to do for years: go to Africa and record traditional music,” Sosa told KZSC radio in the US.

“My main dream was to make a record where we don’t play only drums but also melodic instruments, because most of the time, when we talk about Africa, the first thing that comes up is drums or dancing. Of course, this is a deep part of Africa. But the melodic aspect of Africa is also interesting.”

A decade after the tour, Sosa, 55, produced and arranged the recordings with finely crafted performances on piano, percussion, keyboard bass and harp. This final recording and mixing was done with British drummer and producer Steve Argüelles and French multi-instrumentalist Christophe ‘Disco’ Minck in Paris.

“We called it organic, natural music with no sulphite added,” Sosa said. “It was not overproduced. When we first put the tracks on the computer and listened in the studio, we said, 'This music by itself, without us, sounds good’.”

As a build-up to the album’s release, Sosa has released a documentary also titled An East African Journey, which details his musical encounters during the tour.

Friday’s album release will be succeeded by concerts in France and Switzerland from 27 March to 21 April. Meanwhile, Sosa will be releasing another album on 1 October titled Subu – a collaboration with Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita.