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Omar Sosa's new Cuban sound
leads off University Lecture Series

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The 2002-03 University Lecture Series begins on Sept. 12 with Omar Sosa, Cuban jazz composer, pianist and one of the leading ambassadors of the new Cuban sound.

Sosa mixes sounds from Cuba, Morocco, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and the United States. He juxtaposes folkloric melodies and rhythms with contemporary jazz harmonies to create a modern, urban sound with a Latin jazz heart.

Sosa's latest recording, "Sentir," was recently nominated for a Latin GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. The Washington Post wrote in March that "in Sosa's pan-African, pan-Latin approach, Orisha music, hip-hop, rumba, jazz, and Moroccan ritual music are just different expressions of the same culture. His is a music in which concepts of time (conveyed in various meters), grooves, instruments and textures from disparate traditions overlap, blend and collide. The results are both familiar and fresh ­ and always illuminating."

Sosa brings to Fresno a unique quartet, including Martha Galarraga, (from Cuba) on Yoruba vocals; Gustavo Ovalles (Venezuela) on percussion; and Hafez Modirzadeh (U.S.A./Iran) on saxophones.

A program of the Office of the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, the University Lecture Series is sponsored by the University Student Union, Associated Students, Inc., Coke and James Hallowell, KJWL, Borders and Piccadilly Inn Hotels. 

Advance tickets, available at the University Student Union Information Desk and Borders, are $10 general admission, $6 Fresno State faculty, staff and Alumni Association members, $2 Fresno State students and $5 elementary and secondary students. Ticket prices on the day of the event increase by $2 for general admission, faculty, staff and Alumni Association.

For further information contact the University Lecture Series office at 8-2431 or see www.csufresno.edu/universitylecture.

Back to University Journal, 09/03/02 Issue