Omar Sosa & Paolo Fresu

PAOLO FRESU 

He began studying the instrument at the age of 11 in the Musical Band of his hometown and after various  experiences in pop music he discovered jazz in 1980 and began his professional activity in 1982 recording for  RAI under the direction of Maestro Bruno Tommaso and attending the Siena jazz seminars. In 1984 he  graduated in trumpet from the Cagliari Conservatory and in the same year won the „RadioUno jazz”, „Musica  jazz” and „RadioCorriere TV” awards as the best Italian jazz talent. In 1990 he won the „Top jazz” award given  by Musica jazz magazine as the best Italian musician, best group (Paolo Fresu Quintet) and best record („Arrigo  Polillo” award for the record ‘Live in Montpellier’), in 1996 the best European musician award through one of  his works from the Académie du jazz in Paris and the prestigious „Django d’Or” as best European jazz musician  and in the year 2000 the nomination as best international musician. Only the first ones in a long series of  awards that continue in the musical present among which are the honorary citizenships of Nuoro, Junas  (France) and Sogliano Cavour and the “Laurea Honoris Causa” from La Bicocca University in Milan. 

A lecturer and head of several important national and international teaching institutions, he has played on  every continent and with the most important names in Afro-American music of the last 30 years. He has  recorded nearly four hundred records of which almost a hundred are under his own name or in leadership and  others with international collaborations, often working with ‘mixed’ projects such as Jazz-Ethnic Music, World  Music, Contemporary Music, Light Music, Early Music, etc. and collaborating with immense names in  contemporary music. 

Many of his record productions have won prestigious awards both in Italy and abroad. In 2010 he opened his  own record label Tŭk Music. He directs the „Time in jazz” festival in Berchidda (Sardinia) which celebrated 35  editions in 2021. 

He has also coordinated numerous multimedia projects collaborating with actors, dancers, painters, sculptors,  poets, etc. and writing music for films, documentaries, videos or for Ballet or Theater. Today he is active with a myriad of projects that see him engaged in more than two hundred concerts a year,  in almost every part of the globe. 

He lives between Paris, Bologna and Sardinia.

OMAR SOSA 

The winning mix of jazz, Cuban music and world music with strong African roots makes Omar Sosa an  extraordinary new ambassador of contemporary pianism and one of the most innovative and inspiring figures  in early 20th century jazz. Starting from a classical background, the artist has broadened his musical horizons  by taking inspiration not only from the music of his native Cuba but also from African ethnic musics and the  many syntheses born in Central and South America. Many typical jazz styles, especially the spirit of research,  are nevertheless a central component of his style. In Promise, the premiere of which was presented in Sacile  (PN) in late 2008, Sosa hosts Paolo Fresu, lyrical more than ever and perfectly in tune with the Cuban pianist’s  multifaceted musical universe. It was not difficult to foresee that a sensibility as „ethnic” in its own way as that  of the Sardinian trumpeter would find common ground with Sosa, without the slightest sacrifice of identity on  anyone’s part.