Mulatos (Omar Sosa)

Album review

In various interviews, salsa/Latin jazz master Ray Barretto has complained about hard bop artists who employ Afro-Cuban rhythms in a very obvious way -- artists who will take a familiar Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown, or Bud Powell standard and "Latinize" it by adding a son, cha cha, mambo, danzon, or guaguancó groove. There is nothing wrong with that approach (which can be quite enjoyable), but there is also something to be said for using Afro-Cuban/salsa elements in a less obvious fashion -- which is what Omar Sosa does on Mulatos. This post-bop release doesn't beat listeners over the head with Afro-Cuban rhythms, but they're present nonetheless. They enrich Sosa's material in their own subtle way, and the Cuban pianist/keyboardist (who employs Paquito D'Rivera as a clarinetist on three selections) demonstrates that Afro-Cuban jazz doesn't have to be something as overt as playing Monk's "Well, You Needn't" as a descarga (Latin jam) or approaching George Gershwin's "I Can't Get Started" as a bolero (Latin ballad). Afro-Cuban music isn't the only type of world music that inspires Sosa on Mulatos, which was recorded in Paris in early 2004; Sosa also brings elements of Middle Eastern, North African, and Indian music to his post-bop. Dhafer Youssef (one of the sidemen) is featured on the oud, a traditional Arabic lute that is quite legendary in Middle Eastern music -- and Philippe Foch, another participant, appears on Indian tabla drums. Of course, the oud and the tablas aren't exactly prominent instruments in Afro-Cuban jazz or salsa, but they're major assets on Mulatos -- an album that paints a consistently attractive picture of Sosa's multicultural outlook. Mulatos is yet another broad-minded project that Sosa can be proud to have in his catalog.
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