Image: Oma Sosa via PIAF.
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The virtuosic piano player Oma Sosa starts out as he ends – it’s pretty much all piano here at the Perth International Arts Festival’s Chevron Gardens performance. Sosa was last in Perth 11 years ago playing his unique blend of world music, electronica, spoken word, North African percussion and jazz fusion. He studied jazz in Havana and left Cuba in 1993 and is a seven times Grammy nominated composer and pianist. He now lives in Spain also working on film scores. In 2011 he won the 10th annual Independent Music Award in the Jazz Album category for Ceremony.
Having performed at Carnegie Hall, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Getty Centre, this might seem like a small stage at Perth Elizabeth Quay but the audience is rapt. Sosa’s playing is compelling. From the start, Sosa’s beautiful lyrical playing creates an atmosphere that is evocatively supported by blue smokey light. His white outfit of tunic, loose pants, long scarf, snug turban cap and African necklace are to the fore, especially when he leaps energetically out of his piano seat during more passionate moments to allow for the loud, clanging driving force of the music. This is jazz inspired but it’s also world music in the scope that it presents, or later in the concert when we hear a type of new age dreamy fusion. Sosa is expert at fast runs and loud dynamic playing and other times incorporates the keyboard for softer more meditative music styles. He also incorporates some electronic recording playing back sections of what he just played to create a hypnotic effect.
There’s a return to his Afro Cuban roots in this concert with Quarteto Afrocubano made up of Ernesto Simpson on drums, Leandro Saint-Hill doing multi instrumental performances on alto saxophone, flute and clarinet and Childo Tomas on electric bass. His bass had 5 strings so the occasional very low note echoed around contributing to a greater depth to the sound, and some fret noise was evident but it was good to have some sections where the bass and drums were highlighted. These three players are integral to the overall sound but are frequently more secondary to the virtuosic displays from Sosa, but present a seamless understanding in what often seem quite improvised playing.
Despite not knowing the names of the individual pieces, Sosa references his 2015 album Ile which means homeland in the Yoruba language of West Africa. The works segue into a complete planned composition ranging from the crowd pleasing and melodic, to piano improvisation meditative, free jazz to the more avant-garde which is what we start with – really the highlight of the evening.
We hear contemporary interpretations of some classic Cuban musical styles including an audience pleasing (and participating) singalong of ‘Guantanamera’. The salsa rhythm starts referencing the typical chord structure and then atonal crashes as it goes awry from its Cuban roots. The quartet moves into this familiar territory and becomes more pedestrian compared to their avant-garde beginnings.
Saint-Hill uses the Brazilian whirly creating percussive effect with the hand plucked thumb piano. There are percussive effect with echoes between the instruments and the inter-relationships bouncing back to each other. Segues between each piece are smooth and structured. This is world music inspired by the tradition of Miles Davis’ famous ‘Bitches Brew’ album as well as pieces with lots of Latin rhythms and folkloric traditions. Sosa creates these loud clanging chords with a driving force, interspersed with saxophone solos and driving rhythm leading to a climax. The slower ballad style with more saxophone merges into a meditative piano solo and the red curtains billow behind with light playing up and down like a fire. The smoke takes off. There’s a guiro playing. They move into a more soulful piece. With both free and Latin jazz evident, there were some reminders of ‘Weather Report’, the American jazz fusion band of late 70s and early 80s and also Herbie Hancock’s pianistic labyrinth of playing around and over the existing chordal scheme so that chord progressions segue into each other. Lighting projects onto the black curtains of jagged mathematical shapes that cleverly echo the music.
There was great beauty and subtlety in much of the playing with each piece going through a structure of light and dark with pieces sometimes starting more slowly or with a rhythmic flourish. The quartet also hit some great funk moments with excellent bass and drum rhythms maintaining the structure. There was a sense of the music enveloping the stage and thrumming sounds waving over the stage. The backdrop in the Chevron Gardens is mesmerising with the tall skyscrapers lit up behind the stage and the atmosphere created by stunning lighting effects – this was truly an immersive experience of fantastic music by the Omar Sosa Quarteto Afrocubano.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Omar Sosa Quarteto Afrocubano
Omar Sosa on piano and keyboard and composer
Quartet – Ernesto Simpson, Drums, Leandro Saint-Hill, alto saxophone, flute, clarinet and Childo Tomas, electric bassist.
Chevron Festival Gardens, Elizabeth Quay, Perth, PIAF 2017 at 8.00pm. 15th February 2017.
