New album: Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita are back with a beautiful, rhapsodic album
Simon Broughton1 September 2017
Cuban pianist and Seckou Keita a Senegalese kora player, and this duo album is a beautiful, rhapsodic and sometimes spiritual thing.
It begins with the sound of water. Sosa is a devotee of the Afro-Cuban santeria religion and every ceremony starts with water.
There is a purity and clarity in the music, with silence and space. It’s mostly instrumental, although both musicians sing as well.
They are joined by Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles, who mostly plays Afro-American drums, but more surprisingly by Chinese, Japanese and Korean instrumentalists adding very refreshing flavours of oriental zithers and Chinese mouth organ on Black Dream and Another Prayer.
They will play at the EFG London Jazz Festival on November 19.
