Omar Sosa is a Cuban Jazz pianist with multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations.
Seckou Keita is a Senegalese Kora master in the Malian Griot tradition of African court musicians. He is a Keita, a descendant of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire which was the richest the world has ever seen.
Gustavo Ovalles is a Venezuelan Jazz percussionist based in Austria.
“Suba” (October, 2021) is the second album from this collaboration after their critically acclaimed “
Transparent Water” (2017).
These artists come from very different backgrounds, but together blend into one. The music they make is hard to define because at different moments you may be transported to Asia, Mother Africa, Europe, or the Americas.
This is truly Global Music, but more than anything else, it is the sound of the human spirit. As a Caribbean, you hear the call of Mother Africa and Arabia which are both part of who we are. As an African, you hear the bright voices of the children of the sea (los hijos del mar), the African Diaspora in the Americas. We both say, this is our music – because it is.
Earth is a water planet. The land divides us, but water has always brought us together. “Suba” is the sound of water: raindrops and tears of joy, waterfalls, steamy nights, and heartbeats. A night with this music and someone you love, would be a very special night.
This music is love. When you get to the end of the album, you want to play it again. “Suba” takes you to a still place that’s been hard to find during the pandemic. Like a great love, you hope the feeling never ends.
The artists recorded the album on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Menorca during the COVID lockdown that shook the entire world. As we move through this moment in time, many of us have realized how fragile life is, and are choosing to walk a different path.
“‘Suba’ is a hymn to hope, to a new dawn of tolerance and change in a post-pandemic world, a visceral reiteration of humanity’s perennial prayer for peace, hope and unity.”
In Mandinka, the language of the legendary Mali Empire of West Africa (1235-1670), “Suba” means sunrise. In Spanish, it also means “get up” or “rise.” How did that happen?
We are one, and being still, I rise…Àṣẹ
