Travel Pick: Jazz in Spain
Orquestra Arab de Barcelona

Orquestra Arab de Barcelona

Omar Sosa, piano
Mohamed Soulimane, violin
Ayoub Bout, voice and lute
Yannis Papaioannou, lute
Jordi Gaig, keyboards
Joan Rectoret, electric bass
Mohammed el Ghazi, percussion and voice
Aziz Khodri, percussion and voice
José Garlito, percussion
Group Gnaoua d'Almedina

This is a concert to present the record of this emerging musical group, which mixes different musical styles with which the members have been in contact —classical Arab, spiritual chants, flamenco, gnaoua, andalusian, chaâbí and traditional Moroccan— from the Near East and North Africa.

Omar Sosa roots being in the Cuban culture, he explores the most extreme parts of those roots. He explores his African roots e.g. through the Gnawas or the Yoruba, returning to Cuban, Brazilian and American music. He does it again on his latest CD "Mulatos", where he combines drums, electronics and double-bass with tabla, clarinet, piano and marimba. The result is a finely wrought, and wholly delightful mélange of Cuban jazz, Latin dance grooves, French chanson, North African trance music, and European folk.