Transparent Water
Omar Sosa and Seckou Keita
(World Village WWF4 79125)

WHY did I instinctively think of the name Cuito Cuanavale when I first heard this record? My memory went directly back to the brave victory of Cuban and Angolan forces over the apartheid army in 1987-88, one of the key moments of African and Caribbean history in our lifetimes. 

For here is a Cuban pianist, Omar Sosa, playing with the Senegalese Kora virtuoso Seckou Keita, in an inspiring album of tunes all written by the duo and recorded in June 2013 in Osnabruck, Germany. 

Not that this is an explicitly political album, but Transparent Water is a deeply reflective and spiritual record, full of devotion to the sounds, melodies and rhythms of both Africa and Latin America — particularly as the third man playing drums, claves, maracas ad other percussion is the Venezuelan Gustavo Ovalles. It is very much a powerful bonding of continents and their people’s music.