Omar Sosa: Ilé | Album review

Cuba’s musical diaspora is one of the most charismatic forces in music, carrying the island’s infectious rhythms out into the wider world, energising wherever it lands.

Pianist and mystic Omar Sosa has travelled far, from Ecuador to Barcelona to San Francisco, soaking up influences from jazz and soul to flamenco, electronica and hip hop, creating his own hybrid styles in the process.

Here, with his quartet of fellow exiles and a roll-call of distinguished guests, he delves back into his Cuban roots – Ilé is a Yoruba word meaning home or earth – re-examining the sounds and rhythms of his youth.

But those other influences will not be suppressed, making Ilé one of those prophetic recordings, the music of an imagined future when music will be one grand, Cuban-tinged fusion.

[ propermusic.com ]