Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita - SUBA Trio

Seven-time Grammy-nominated Cuban born jazz pianist Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora maestro, Seckou Keita, who has been described as “a modern global citizen and the most influential and inspiring Kora players of his generation,” are joined by Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles in a concert featuring music from their October 2021 release, SUBA. The album, which was written and recorded in 2020 during the global lockdown, is described as “a hymn to hope, to a new dawn of compassion and real change in a post-pandemic world – a visceral reiteration of humanity’s perennial prayer for peace and unity,” and is the follow-up to Sosa and Keita’s 2017 debut album, Transparent Water, which also featured Ovalles and received enormous critical acclaim. SUBA translates as ‘sunrise’ in Mandinka – Keita’s native language. “Sunrise is a time of freshness and hope. Even if you’re facing certain difficulties, you reset your brain back to normal. You see the sunrise as a new day, a new peace, a new something, good or bad. That was the feeling I had when I was writing with Omar,” notes Keita. Sosa addss, “The concept of the record is peace, hope and unity. In this moment we’re living, when everything’s falling apart little by little, the one thing we have inside ourselves is a divine connection with our inner voice, with our spirit and light and with our ancestors.” Separated by the Atlantic Ocean (Sosa from Cuba and Keita from Senegal) but brought together by their shared ancestral connection to Africa, the pair met in 2012 when they were invited to perform together in London. “Seckou and I clicked like we had been playing together all our lives,” remembers Sosa. In the press release for SUBA, it is described as such, “The sound of two musicians from disparate continents and traditions, coming together. . . It offers a rare type of magic…The kora scatters handfuls of light on the waves, the piano ploughs its furrow. Here, there, the dignity of a mellow, unhurried grace. Eyes shielded in a new morning. A new dawn. A new day.”  Omar Sosa has been passionately interested in exploring African musical cultures and their connections with his Afro-Cuban roots over a career that has spanned four decades. He has recorded and released more than thirty albums including nominations for seven Grammy or Latin Grammy awards. Seckou Keita comes from a centuries long line of griots and kora players. His father was a descendant of the great Sunjata Keita, founder of the medieval empire of Mali and his heritage is deeply expressed through his music. In a career spanning almost thirty years, he has collaborated with many, including Francis Fuster, Baka Beyond, Mamady Keita and The Lost Words project and he is a multi-award winner. He most recently received the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year Award (2019) in the same year, he produced the world’s first-ever anthology of kora music notations.