Omar Alexander & Soulare

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Omar Alexander

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Soulare: .
GROOVE:
Omar Alexander is a new generation U.S. Latin music artist virtuoso - a singer, songwriter, composer and musician with a Latin gypsy funk rock sound. Born to a Colombian mother and East Indian father, Omar Alexander is a fierce Bohemian warrior-poet representing a bilingual, multicultural U.S. Latino generation optimistically defining itself on its own terms. Omar Alexander falls within the recent powerful wave of U.S. Latin and first generation immigrant artists, who grew up influenced by Latin, American and world music.

Omar Alexander, with SOULARE, is a secret weapon: a talented multinational crew who’s experiences and backgrounds are as diverse as New York itself. Albert Leusink (trumpet) brings European cool straight from the Netherlands, and Israeli virtuosi Shlomo Cohen (saxophone/ flute/clarinet/backing vocals) and Eran Asias (drums) blend technical mastery with Middle Eastern soul. While New York City’s own Oscar Bautista (guitar) and Antonio Rodriguez (percussion/tabla/backing vocals) keep the uptown Latin flavor authentic, Rich Chapple (bass) and Pablo Vergara's (keyboards/ backing vocals) add just the right mix of jazz and R&B to keep things interesting. Omar Alexander’s soulful, bilingual vocals pack a punch in both Spanish and English. Individually, members of SOULARE have shared stages and studios with a host of salsa, rock, jazz, Latin and R&B greats, including: Maceo Parker, Bruce Springsteen, Slash, Jose Alberto ‘El Canario’, Norah Jones, Jorge Moreno, Groove Collective, Alejandro Fernandez, DLG, Will Lee, Frankie Negron, Bobby Sanabria, Gerardo Velez (Chic, Spyro Gyra, The Band of Gypsies), Victor Manuelle, Tito Rojas, La India, Gloria Estefan and Antibalas.

Omar Alexander’s powerful, rough, melodic gypsy-like voice developed from his lifelong exposure to his grandmother’s and father’s Sufi and Hindu devotional music (notably Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Hari Om Sharan), not a coincidence given that Spain’s gypsies trace part of their roots back to India. His mother’s musica llanera Colombiana - a type of Colombian folk music from the countryside where she was born - exposed him to its own brand of poignant poetry. From his much older siblings, Omar Alexander grew up with 70’s sounds, from soul and funk music, to rock anthems, to the early fathers of salsa and nuevo flamenco. Artists of conscience and heart are the ones that continue to influence him to this day: Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, Santana, Eddie Palmieri, Hector Lavoe, Joe Arroyo, Oscar d’León, Arturo Sandoval, Jose Alberto “El Canario”, Paco de Lucía, El Camarón de la Isla and later, Prince, Seal and U2. Pull every single one of these diverse influences together, and you have the explosive sound that is Omar Alexander y Soulare.

Raw, energetic, captivating – SOULARE