| Claudia Acuña
08 Jul Bruce Barth 12 Aug Dave Bass 06 May Ray Brown 25 Feb John Calloway 28 Oct Ndugu Chancler 29 Jul Rana Farhan 30 Sep Marque Gilmore 04 Nov Scott Hamilton 18 Feb Charles Hamilton 24 Jun | Jimmy Heath
22 Jul Dave LeFebvre 08 Apr Ivan Lins 02 Sep Bruno Louchouarn 21 Oct Joe Lovano 05 Aug George Mesterhazy 11 Mar Jason Moran 04 Mar Bodil Niska 01 Apr Jeff Oster 21 Jan Eddie Palmieri 02 Dec | Kat Parra
26 Aug Gene Perla 03 Jun Rudy Ramirez 29 Apr Putter Smith 10 Jun Rory Snyder 25 Mar Zan Stewart 19 Aug Keith Terry 18 Nov Kenny Washington 09 Dec Bruce Williamson 18 Mar Deanna Witkowski 01 Jul |
| Omar Sosa (2019) | |
|---|---|
| Pianist, composer and bandleader Omar Sosa studied marimba and then piano at the Escuela National de Musica in his native Cuba. In 1993, he moved to Quito, Ecuador, in order to study the Afro-Ecuadoran marimba tradition of Esmeraldas.
Two years later, Omar moved here to San Francisco, where he became totally immersed in our Latin Jazz scene, thereby developing a long-standing friendship with John Santos. While here, he made a series of excellent recordings with producer Greg Landau, and also worked on some film scores. But in 1999 he was off again, this time to Barcelona, Spain. Along the way, Omar has received four Grammy and three Latin Grammy nominations. Omar's limitless musical curiosity has led to a nearly world-wide reach of collaborators: North-African percussionists, spoken-word and Hip-Hop artists, classical projects, and collaborations with Peruvian singer Susana Baca, Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, and Brazilian conductor and cellist Jacques Morelenbaum. Omar is both political and spiritual, and describes his music as an expression of humanism and Santería. |
| Pick | Artist | Album | Song | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # 1 | Herbie Hancock | Inventions and Dimensions | Jack Rabbit | Blue Note |
| # 2 | Weather Report | Heavy Weather | Birdland | Columbia |
| # 3 | Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson | Milt Jackson: Wizard of the Vibes | Evidence | Blue Note |
| # 4 | Omar Sosa | Badzimo | Nubia | not commercially available |
| # 5 | Pat Metheny | First Circle | The First Circle | ECM |
| # 6 | Andrew Hill | Black Fire | Black Fire | Blue Note |
| # 7 | Joe Zawinul and the Zawinul Syndicate | 75 | Café Andalusia | Heads Up |
| Book | "A [blank] book with no words. If you go to a desert island, your experience is a book by itself—you'd better write this book, because what you're going to live is already a book, so take advantage … and maybe other people will read your experience." | |||
| Luxury Item | Water! | |||