Omar Sosa's musical journey has taken him from Cuba to the African continent, Nicaragua, Ecuador's African-descent communities, and the Bay Area Latin jazz scene, to his present home in Barcelona. A unique and cosmopolitan voice, Sosa's is the expansive artistry of a visionary who embraces the uncompromising spirit of Thelonius Monk, a spirit palpably manifest in Omar's live performances.

"Afreecanos translates a message from the spiritual dimension. It is essential to be open to the spirit, to be able to receive what comes to you. Randy Weston says the spirit comes from Africa-not particular countries, but a certain spiritual presence in many different places. The Diaspora means that whoever you are, if you are open, the spirit can play through you."

"Afreecanos is an ode to Africa, something one, two, three, four, or all the musicians who participated can perform. It returns to the roots, seeking parallels between traditions of Cuba, Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and Mozambique. Afreecanos suggests that we are all children of the same Mother-our sounds come from many places, but we are close in essence, conception, and origins. Uniting the many artists and their individual expressions of the grand and living Africa was simply a matter of speaking with their own voices, expressing their roots."

The result is a thoroughly contemporary jazz idiom that celebrates the diversity of African voices on the continent and far beyond. Says Omar, "Africa and the Diaspora represent an unequaled musical source. I have tried to express the continent's melodic contour, and its great rhythmic strength. Rhythm connects every people with the supreme spirit. Every land has ways of calling the spirit, to pull people together. Philosophically, through jazz-perhaps the Diaspora's freest genre-we have sought to combine the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa in an expression of freedom, a celebration of the Diaspora, alive in our times." - Michael Stone

CD available from cdRoots