MANOS (Live) Omar Sosa & Marialy Pacheco

• 1El Bola (Live)12:48
• 2Low Tides (Live)12:36
• 3Angustiado Intro (Live)03:46
• 4Angustiado 4 Hands (Live)10:22
• 5Metro (Live)13:20
• 6Cambodian Smiles (Live)12:32
• 7El Manisero (Live)08:27
• Total Runtime01:13:51

Info for MANOS (Live)

A musical homage to Cuba: After more than 15 productions for SKIP, does Omar Sosa still have surprises in store? He does, and how! This time in a newly found format where the performing presented on two concert grands brings him on an equal footing with one of the most talented pianists on the jazz scene, the Cuban virtuoso Marialy Pacheco.

Journalist Thomas Kölsch described their concert held and recorded live at Beethovenhaus Bonn in striking words: "Fingers whir across keys, give birth to darting notes, phrasings that vie with one another, entwining melodies - music that dances.

"It's the dialog between two highly gifted artists, two kindred spirits who feint and parry, join forces to sound out the instruments' possibilities, at times ecstatic, then reassembled to let the flow of emotions run free. While one rides with keyboard runs that pearl from the wrist, the other sets the harmonic foundation. In turn, while he uses frugally placed electronic effects to generate an almost hypnotic atmosphere, she's the one who employs subtle impulses to find the way out into the next phonic space. The newspaper Bonner Generalanzeiger concludes it's concert review with the words:

"It is a revelation what two exceptional pianists are able to achieve when they can simply let themselves go. "The sound is extraordinary, authentic and one-of-a-kind. It stokes anticipation for their upcoming concerts this year. Among the readily confirmed dates are festivals with a wealth of tradition like Jazz Baltica way up north or the Jazzfestival Aalen, yet also venues such as the Alte Sendesaal Bremen or the large Freilichtbühne open-air stage in Würselen. Eagerly awaited are the concert dates still to be added when Marialy Pacheco and Omar Sosa set their dialog forth on two concert grand pianos.

Marialy Pacheco, piano
Omar Sosa, piano, keyboards, percussion
Hamilton de Holanda, mandolin
Miguel Zenon, alto saxophone, flute
Max Mutzke, vocals
Rhani Kirja, percussion
Joo Kraus, trumpet

Marialy Pacheco
The biggest appreciation so far of Marialy Pacheco’s qualities has been the winning of the Montreux Solo Piano Competition 2012. She is the first woman to win this prize in 15 years history of the competition. In the explanation of the decision Jury president Leszek Mozdzer said: “Deciding between the three contenders was tough. In the end, the contestants’ joy in performing and her authenticity guided our decision making.”

Born in Havana 1983, Marialy Pacheco was raised in a musical family and began piano studies from an early age at the Conservatorio Alejandro García Caturla. At 15 she attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes, followed by three years of composition studies under Tulio Peramo at the Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana.

In 2002 she won the Cuban competition Jo-Jazz, with Grammy award-winner Chucho Valdes presiding over the jury. Two years later she recorded her first album “Bendiciones”. The pianist moved to Germany, toured through Europe – both solo and with her trio – and built international reputation. On the occasion of the 185-year-old jubilee of Bösendorfer, Marialy Pacheco guested in 2013 as the only Jazz-Act, beside classical stars like Valentina Lisitsa and Maria Mazo in the Musikverein Wien. In 2014, Marialy was announced as first female jazz pianist worldwide to be an official „Bösendorfer Artist“.

In spring 2014, her new album "Introducing" (Neuklang/Edel:Kultur) was released. After several solo albums, it is a trio album, with Juan Camilo Villa Robles on bass and Miguel Altamar de la Torre (both from colombia) on drums. As "special guests" she got the honor to get german trumpet player and Echo Jazz Winner Joo Kraus and moroccan Rhani Krija, Percussionist of STING.

In August 2014, she gave her debut as classical pianist and showed her musical variety, when she performed Bach’s g-moll concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane/Australia, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno

Marialy Pacheco has performed at national and international festivals like Montreux Jazz Festival, Aalener Jazzfest, Enter Music Festival (Poland), St. Moritz Art Masters (Switzerland),Rheingau-Musik-Festival, ZMF Freiburg, Jazzfestival Oloron (France) Audi Jazzfestival, Ingolstädter Jazztage, Piano City Milano, Havana Jazzfestival, Beethovenfestival Bonn and the International Trio Festival in Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.

In January 2016, Marialy Pacheco released her limited 180g vinyl “ Live Studio Album”, recorded in audiophile fully analogue Direct-To-2-Track Version.

In June 2016, she presented the project “Danzon Cubano” together with WDR Funkhaus Orchestra on Live-Stream at ARTE TV concerts and at the Beethovenfest in Bonn. The project was presented again in september 2017 at the Philharmonie Köln and at the Viersen International Jazz Festival.

In April 2017 Marialy released her new album "DUETS" – an intimate and many-faceted album to which Marialy invited her favourite musicians and friends like Hamilton de Holanda, Omar Sosa, Joo Kraus, Rhani Krija, Miguel Zenon and Max Mutzke.

In January 2018, Marialy was invited by the German Ambassador to perform 2 concerts in Cuba and afterwards, she played at the International Jazzfestival in Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

In February 2018 she presented her first Italy-Tour together with trumpet player Joo Kraus with concerts in Milan, Naples, Catania and Palermo, followed by summer concerts in Bari, Fiesole and Sardinia.

During summer and fall 2018, Marialy played in various line ups presentig "DUETS" with Omar Sosa at the „Woman in Jazz“ Festival, with Rhani Krija at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and with Joo Kraus at the Luxembourg Philharmonic.

In December 2018, Marialy signed with Ellora Managament in the US for worldwide management and representation among artists like HIROMI and Ahmad Jamal.

In March 2019 she performed together with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonie Konstanz.

In May 2019 the new album "Danzon Cubano - Live in Viersen" was released. A live recording of the concert with the Marialy Pacheco Trio and the WDR Funkhausorchester and conductor Gordon Hamilton at the International Jazz Festival in Viersen.

In the summer of 2019, Marialy performed at well-known festivals in Europe such as the 9Hills Festival in Poland, the Rheingau-Musik-Festival, the Stuttgarter Jazztagen and the festival at Schloss Ettersburg. In August and September of the same year, she debuted for the first time in the US with concerts in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, the legendary jazz club Birdland in New York and the renowned Detroit Jazz Festival.

Marialy Pacheco is the only female pianist among current Cuban star pianists such as Chucho Valdes, Roberto Fonseca, Omar Sosa or Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

Omar Sosa
Composer-pianist-bandleader Omar Sosa was born in 1965 in Camagüey, Cuba’s largest inland city. At age eight, Omar began studying percussion and marimba at the music conservatory in Camagüey; in Havana, as a teenager, he took up piano at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música, and completed his formal education at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Among his influences, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (including Chopin, Bartok, and Satie), Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés, and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere. Moving in 1993 to Ecuador, Omar immersed himself in the folkloric traditions of Esmeraldas, the northwest coast region whose African heritage includes the distinctive marimba tradition. He relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995, and soon invigorated the Latin jazz scene with his adventurous writing and percussive style.

Annually performing upwards of 100 concerts on six continents, Omar has appeared in venues as diverse as the Blue Note (New York, Milan, and Tokyo), Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Getty Center, London’s Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, and Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt; festivals including Monterey Jazz, JVC Jazz, Montreal Jazz, Marciac Jazz, North Sea Jazz, Helsinki, Grenoble Jazz, Montreux Jazz, Naples Jazz, Ravenna Jazz, Roma Jazz, Spoletto, WOMAD, and Cape Town International Jazz; and universities on several continents, including a visiting artist fellowship at Princeton University in March 2008, and a visiting artist residency at Dartmouth College in April 2008. Omar will return to Dartmouth College for a second artist residency in February 2011.

Mr. Sosa received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Associates in Washington, DC in 2003 for his contribution to the development of Latin jazz in the United States. He has received two nominations from the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, in 2004 and 2006, both in the ‘Americas’ category. In 2003 Omar Sosa received the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Album of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association in NYC for his recording Sentir; and a nomination from the Jazz Journalists Association for Latin Jazz Album of the Year in 2005 for his recording Mulatos.

This album contains no booklet.