"Dos Caminos"

Since moving from his longtime Oakland base to the effervescent seafront of Barcelona, Spain, Omar Sosa's horizons seemed to have further opened. Already ingeniously devoted to fusing cross-cultural disciplines into Afro-Cuban jazz, the pianist expands his group to a sextet for Mulatos. Since 2002's brilliant Sentir, he has released a solo recording (A New Life) and two duets (Ayaguna with Gustavo Ovalles and Pictures of Soul with Adam Rudolph). Whereas Sentir featured a minimalist soundscape referencing Morocco, Venezuela and Cuba, on Mulatos, Sosa dreams bigger - scouring a fuller palate of Middle Eastern, South Asian, European and Cuban sounds - and succeeds with his usual grace.

Sosa's soul-bound synthesis is the result of a dynamic business and artistic career. Releasing his entire catalog independently under the Otá name, he has had the freedom to produce music on uncompromised terms. Those who have witnessed Omar live know the man's mastery of his muse. Not only are piano skills obvious, but as his dynamic flexibility unfolds release after release, Sosa continually matures to rank within an elite class of musicians. Sentir, filled with hip-hop turntablism (which he returns to, with more subtlety, on Mulatos), laid bare Orisha (Yoruba deities) worship within a heavily percussive context. His following duet with percussionist Ovalles, mixed brilliantly live with polyphonic harmonics, made an orchestra of two men. The subsequent piano solo showed a softer side, and when uniting with Randolph - a multiform doppelganger in his own right - no abstraction went unexplored.

Mulatos features a stellar cast: young oud player Dhafter Youssef, who himself explored the electronification of Arabia on Electric Sufi, figures into a new generation tweaking traditional instrumentation into new soundscapes. He keeps it simple here, as does tabla player Philippe Foch, whose tasteful accentuation gives drummer Steve Argüelles a nice edge. Bassist Dieter Ilg and clarinet player Renaud Pion round out the foundation, but the hat is tipped as one of Sosa's influences, Paquito D'Rivera, joins on clarinet for three tracks.

D'Rivera's contributions on "Ternura," "Nuevo Manto" and "Dos Caminos" boast of supernal talent; the light piano finishes and tasteful rhythms of the first two add a certain levity, but it's the later, most interesting tabla-led track, where the Latin Jazz great has the most fun. In fact, a humorous edge retains itself throughout this seriously focused record; the son vocal snippet on "La Tra" reminds one of bass player Cachaito Lopez's foray into electronics on his self-titled solo recording. Buena Vista Social Club Mulatos is most certainly not, though brief flourishes of Cuba's folk roots find their way, sometimes obliquely, into much of what Sosa does. Then, in an instant, off he goes hunting down another city, another sound. And we keep listening for what's next.

Contributed by: Derek Beres for www.afropop.org