| Ravi Abcarian
24 Aug Nicolas Bearde 19 Oct Dee Bell 23 Mar Dave Bendigkeit 06 Jul Steven Bernstein 30 Mar Wil Blades 25 May Terence Blanchard 10 Aug Larry Coryell 22 Jun William Dement 14 Dec Pete Escovedo 21 Dec Kenny G 20 Apr | Sunna Gunnlaugs
29 Jun Lorca Hart 16 Mar Hiromi 06 Apr Veronica Klaus 17 Aug Julian Lage 27 Jul Hubert Laws 24 Feb Delfeayo Marsalis 12 Oct Roy McCurdy 13 Apr Nika Rejto 16 Nov Renee Rosnes 26 Oct Poncho Sanchez 09 Nov | Judi Silvano
13 Jul Lonnie Liston Smith 02 Nov Tyshawn Sorey 02 Mar Terell Stafford 03 Aug Victoria Theodore 07 Dec Emil Viklický 15 Jun Cedar Walton 27 Apr Peter Williams 01 Jun Victor Wooten 20 Jul Peter Zak 08 Jun |
| 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! | |||