Es:sensual (2016)

"This is the second album the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa has made with the Hamburg radio band – its predecessor was called Ceremony and came out in 2010 – and as before the arranger is the Brazilian Jacques Morelenbaum. I haven’t heard Ceremony but if it’s as good as es:sensual, I must seek it out immediately. The NDR bigband is a dream of a band for, it seems, any soloist or arranger. Sosa has shown with his own releases a great versatility, incorporating different music styles. Sosa’s solos are as propulsive and melodic as one would expect, whether at the grand or going electric, but the real icing on the cake is Morelenbaum’s arrangements. The other bonus is that Sosa has brought with him his own drummer. Add NDR’s Argentine super-percussionist Marcio Doctor and the music’s base becomes a seething sea of the unexpected over a bed of rhthmically rippling sand. Omar Sosa has made some albums that are dear to my heart, but this might be the one that tops them all." (Londonjazznews.com)