Piano versatility of Fernando Otero and Omar Sosa

Many years ago, the late pianist Hilton Ruiz opened my eyes about his instrument when he pointed to the opening in his piano. The piano is a percussive instrument, he said, reminding me of how the sound is produced when felt hammers attached to the keys strike steel strings. But while the rhythmic tendency of the piano in Latin music often predominates, its function is often to paint the mood, to narrate the story implied by the rhythm.

Two separate, but somehow aligned trajectories in Latin piano can be found in new releases by Fernando Otero and Omar Sosa. Otero, a native of Argentina who lives in New York, took off as an artist when as a young student he was encouraged to incorporate the tango into his classical/jazz orientation. His album, “Página de Buenos Aires” (Nonesuch), is shadowed by the tango the way one would be shadowed when strolling the streets of the city’s San Telmo district.”*

*From: www.newsday.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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