The Jazzcat

Afreecanos Quintet

Omar Sosa

Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Getty Center
Showtime: 7:30 PM

1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles

Showtime: 7:30 PM
Tickets: $20, $15 students/seniors
For tickets, please visit www.getty.edu, or call 310-440-7300

Five-time GRAMMY-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa brings his unique style of Afro-
Cuban jazz to The Getty Center on Saturday, May 14. Omar Sosa continues to explore the African roots
of traditional music throughout the Diaspora, using modern jazz harmonies and the latest audio technology.
Sosa’s new Afreecanos ensemble features noted percussionist and educator, John Santos, drum-&-bass
pioneer, Marque Gilmore, Mozambican electric bassist and vocalist, Childo Tomas, and New York-based
saxophonist and flute player, Peter Apfelbaum. The ensemble fuses the folkloric with the contemporary, the
ancestral with the urban – all with a Latin jazz heart.

featuring percussionist John Santos and saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum

Omar Sosa’s musical trajectory has taken him from Camagüey and Havana to touring in Angola, the
Congo, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua in the 1980s; to a sojourn in the African-descent communities of Ecuador
in the early 1990s; to an extended presence on the San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz scene; to his current
engagement with artists from Spain, France, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, and several North, West, and
East African nations. His career embodies the expansive outlook of a visionary artist who has taken Monk’s
uncompromising spirit to heart, while working ceaselessly to craft and project a unique cosmopolitan voice.

Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune has commented that “Cuban pianists often tower over their peers.
But within this elite class of pianists, few have been more stylistically adventurous than Omar Sosa.
Though deeply schooled in jazz improvisation techniques, Sosa always has pushed beyond jazz orthodoxy.
At his best, his art encompasses a remarkable range of influences: European symphonic repertoire,
religious music of Gnawa, traditional sounds of Senegal and other far-flung idioms have coursed through
his work. All of which piques one’s interest in his newest ensemble, Afreecanos.”

Four-time GRAMMY nominee, John Santos, is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the

world today. He is known for his innovative use of traditional forms and instruments in combination with
contemporary music, and has earned much respect and recognition as a record and event producer. He
has performed, recorded and studied with acknowledged masters of the Afro-Latin and Jazz idioms such
as Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Lazaro Ros, Armando Peraza, Eddie Palmieri, Patato Valdés,
Francisco Aguabella, Orestes Vilató, Rene López, Max Roach, Batacumbele, Steve Turre, John Faddis and
Chocolate Armenteros. This experience has provided a solid foundation for Mr. Santos' current ground-
breaking work in bringing together styles, rhythms, concepts and artists from different generations.

Originally from Berkeley, CA, multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum has been an influential figure in
new jazz for over two decades. While still in high school in 1977 he formed the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, a
14-piece big band which helped launch the careers of Joshua Redman, Benny Green, and Steven Bernstein,
and often featured legendary trumpeter Don Cherry, whose Multikulti group Apfelbaum toured with
extensively in the late '80's and early '90's. Now living in Brooklyn, NY, Apfelbaum formed the New York
Hieroglyphics in 2003. He has also worked with Cecil Taylor, Harry Belafonte, Nana Vasconcelos, Phish,
Dafnis Prieto, Josh Roseman, and the Kronos Quartet.

Drummer Marque Gilmore is a founding member of New York City’s Black Rock Coalition, and pioneer of the
New York and London live drum-&-bass scenes. He has worked with an international array of artists, including
Joe Zawinul, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and innovative musician-historian Cheick Tidiane Seck.
Marque is acclaimed for his multimedia performance project, DRUM-FM, and his recent remixes of tracks from
Omar Sosa’s CD Mulatos are featured on the new Mulatos Remix CD.

In addition to the electric bass, Childo Tomas sings in his native Mozambican language of Ronga, and
plays m’bira.

New Omar Sosa solo piano CD, Calma:

Released in March 2011, Calma is Omar Sosa’s fifth solo piano recording, a work of singular artistry,
featuring Omar’s unique and original approach to the genre. The CD is comprised of 13 solo piano
improvisations, fusing stylistic elements of jazz, classical new music, ambient, and electronica. As the title
implies, the overall feeling is relaxed and introspective, without any attempt to impress technically. Rather,
the intent is to evoke a mood of reflection and contemplation.

As Omar describes: “Each song is an inspiration for the next, and improvisation is the basis of the musical
expression. I wanted to play from beginning to end without thinking – just feeling where each note would
take me, following the voice of my soul. It’s possible that silence, yearning, hope, optimism, and sadness
all travel hand-in-hand in many of the songs”.

Omar’s unorthodox harmonic sensibilities are evident throughout Calma. We hear surprising harmonic
turns, with sonorities blending and resolving in unpredictable ways. And Omar’s subtle and integral use of
the electronic elements lends a layer of sonic richness and depth to many of the tracks.

Rhythmically, the feeling of the CD is unhurried and meditative. Sensations of floating and suspension of
time prevail. And melodically, the thematic material on Calma is quiet and restrained. We can imagine the
melodic sensibilities of Erik Satie meeting those of Pierre Boulez.

To schedule an interview with Omar Sosa, or for CDs, photos, press package,
posters, or additional information, please call Scott Price at 510-339-3389, or email
scott@melodia.com, or visit www.melodia.com.

Click Picture above to listen to older archived show!

The Jazzcat will be back on RISE with 3 Hours of non-stop creative cerebral jazz menagerie for your dome!!   The music will be bangin' as I will paint and splash the canvas with potent fragrant sonic sensations. We will have 3 wonderful hours to stretch so stay up with me!

Tonight
 Sunday January 23rd
 @ 12am – 3am
 on 90.7 FM KPFK and KPFK.ORG.

Click Rise below to visit Rise on MySpace

Mark Maxwell, the humble facilitator of the sounds of the creator will be taking a night off for the weekend and has been grateful enough to bequeath the controls of the mothership in the worthy hands of The Jazzcat!

If you want to discover the best in jazz that the rest of the radio world has not figured out, tune in to Mark Maxwell every week for a 3 hour excursion into the Deep! I do not have the opportunity to spin jazz on the air that often so please stop by and have some fun with me!

See you there!

LeRoy Downs

Holiday Afternoon Jazz Love!

and The Jazzcat

LeRoy Downs hangs out at JAZZ FOR THE HOLIDAYS from artsBrookfield on Vimeo.

Presents

The Series was incredible!

Watch a video of the afternoon fun!!

Don’t miss the next Jazz for the Holidays concert, Dec. 14 at noon from artsBrookfield on Vimeo.

All we want do is spread the love, the music and the Holiday Cheer so come on down and Hang!!!!!!!



click the pics and read about the series
Have a Wonderful Holiday Season!!!

“Icons Among Us” is one of the most preeminent jazz documentaries of our times!

This Film Screens in Los Angeles on

Dec 7th at 7pm
The

Barnsdall Arts Gallery

Jazz is

undergoing changes of monumental magnitude and importance.  Icons

Among Us:  jazz in the present

tense, is a documentary film series that captures the metamorphosis of jazz

by showcasing the words, music, and spirit of the artists that are paving the

way for an unprecedented musical revolution.

 

Through

interviews and live performance footage, we explore the thoughts and lives of

the musicians spearheading today's jazz front lines.  This diverse group of musicians, who have committed their

lives to their art, is being missed out on by mainstream media and popular

culture.  They continue to record,

play live jazz, and exist in a world that has been distracted from their

brilliance.

 

Never before has

jazz music meant so many different things to so many different people.  From hip-hop to bee-bop, from jam-band

to free-form, the music continues to grow and shape itself in ways as varied as

the musicians who play it.  Icons Among Us is not a historical look

at what has been called “America's Music,” but rather a timely,

vibrant trip through the clubs, festivals, international scene, and lives of

the new generation of jazz musicians.           

 

Jazz is

pulsing.  In fact, its heart beats

more soundly than ever.  Our film

will realign deep pockets of jazz listeners and introduce new audiences to a

varsity level playfield in music. 

We wish to show jazz as it is today: an art form that is alive, is

vivacious and is constantly exchanging breath with other genres.

 

The filmmakers

believe that Icons Among Us is

hitting its stride at a critical moment in music history.  Icons’

unique appeal will engage a largely untapped and growing audience of both the

culturally creative and the multi-generational music lovers.  The market is ripe, and the musicians

are ready.

 

Jazz, like the

world we live in, is at a crossroads: continue to look in the rearview mirror,

ponder whether to turn left or right, or move ahead into uncharted territory by

way of innovation and passion.  Icons Among Us tackles issues

head-on.  It allows the musicians

to comment on their art form in a truly candid manor, and also allows the

viewer an opportunity to realize that the future of jazz is now.

 

Lots of great music once again for the 32nd Anniversary of the Playboy Jazz Festival!

The festival takes place on
Saturday June 12, 2010 2:30pm – 11:00 pm and
Sunday   June 13, 2010 2:00pm – 10:30 pm

Playboy also has its normal Free Community Concert Series in May and June

On Sunday May 2nd @ 3:00pm
Playboy Jazz in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills Civic Center Plaza

Bill Cunliffe Septet: Celebrating Oliver Nelson; The Blues and The Abstract Truth
and
Johnny Crawford and His Orchestra

Sunday June 6th @ 4:00pm
Playboy Jazz at Warner Center Park

Warner Center Park, Lou Bredlow Pavilion, Woodland Hills

Lao Tizer and his band
Sal Marquez and his Trio
Calabasas High School Band

Thursday, June 10th @ 7:30pm
Jazz on Film with Ebony Repertory Theater at the

Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles

The Playboy Jazz Festival,

Hollywood Bowl

Saturday June 12th 2:00pm – 11:00pm

Chick Corea Freedom Band

with Roy Haynes, Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett

Sax for Stax
featuring Gerald Albright, Jeff Lorber and Kirk Whalum

Kurt Elling

Los Van Van

Marcus Miller Band
featured guest Christian Scott

The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
saluting Louie Bellson

Javon Jackson Band
with special guest Les McCann

Naturally 7

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue

El Dorado High School
direction Richard Watson

Sunday, June 13, 2010 2:00pm – 10:30pm

George Benson

Manhattan Transfer

Bobby Hutcherson and Cedar Walton Quartet

Salif Keita

Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Esperanza Spalding

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

Tiempo Libre

Cos of Good Music

with Dwayne Burno, Ndugu Chancler, Mark Gross, Jay Hoggard, D.D. Jackson, Ingrid Jensen

Jazz Mafia's Brass Bows and Beats

and the

L.A. District High School Jazz Band
direction Tony White and J.B. Dyas

 Eric Person and Meta Four West

 Come join in a celebration of superior jazz music with

Eric Person and Meta Four West

Featuring Dwight Trible

at

Santa Monica College
The Edye Second Space • SMC Performing Arts Center
For Friday Night Jazz

$10

or at the door

Santa Monica College
1900 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, California 90405, USA
click picture for map

View Larger Map

7pm & 9pm

With your Host

 LeRoy Downs

The Jackie Robinson Foundation is providing wonderful opportunities for our youth to expand their knowledge, dreams and future! Click below and get the detailss to purchase your tickets and support the event that gives bright students the ability to have brilliant tomorrows! 

Jazz at the Bowl (JZ1)

Buddy Guy – Dr. John – James Cotton – James Moody – Roy Hargrove – Gordon Goodwin Big Band

Jazz at the Bowl (JZ2)

Christian McBride – Natalie Cole – Chick Corea 
Stanley Clark – Lenny White – Pattie Labelle 
Terence Blanchard – Jimmy Cobb – Chaka Khan
  Jean Luc Ponte