“I basically live on the plane because every other day, I’m taking a plane,” Sosa said. “Sometimes I spend more time in the airports than one place. Well this is the job. Going from one place to another spreading the message and bring the energy of the love for music with the people. I consider myself a world citizen. At this point in my life, I need to say that I don’t have any preference for any particular place. I love the planet. I love every single place. Yesterday, I was I don’t know where, but it was a different hotel. And today I am here. And tomorrow, I will be in another hotel in the same city. It is the spirit of being a nomad. I talk to my girlfriend a lot because she says, ‘You are trying to convert me to be a nomad.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to convert you. This is the life that I have for myself.’ Some people say, ‘I go with the flow.’ And the flow is basically being open to what comes to me and enjoy every single minute. I have my phone in front of me talking to you and I don’t see you.”

While Sosa may be a nomad, he has firmly grounded roots in Latin jazz from his days growing up in Camaguey, Cuba.

“Camaguey is one of the most interesting places in Cuba for music,” Sosa said. “We have a lot of great teachers there. And the music school is really powerful. We have a musician like Adalberto Álvarez. He passed away last year. He was one of the most prominent composers of the popular dance music. And he was my teacher. Actually we have a great, great pool of saxophone players.  A lot of the top saxophone players in Cuba come from Camaguey. I am really proud. Yosvany Terry comes from Camaguey. It’s a really good musical area in Cuba. And I come from the school of my father. My father used to play music every single Sunday. I discovered jazz in my own house when I didn’t know what jazz was. Every Sunday, my dad would put some Count Basie, Nat King Cole and others on. And I didn’t know this music was called jazz. I was enjoying this music. I really enjoyed it. I grew up with Nat King Cole’s song ‘Mona Lisa.’ I grew up with Glenn Miller, listening to his music. But we didn’t have a clue that music was called jazz. We would call it music. I told my dad, ‘What is it going to be today?’ ‘Today we’re going to listen to these musicians.’ I would see the names. For me, it was even kind of complex to even read the names. Duke Ellington. At that time, I tried to figure out a way to remember. Of course, we also had our traditional music, Afro-Cuban music. There was Latin Cuban jazz. Camaguey was always filled with interesting people who loved interesting music.”

While many people are sticks in the mud, content to see the same surroundings day in and day out, Sosa is sustained in his nomadic life by his music and the people he meets.

“To be honest, it’s a wonderful life,” Sosa said. “Why do I think it is a wonderful life? Even sometimes you might be tired of moving from one place to another. Every single place has its own energy. We are energy. You need to renew your energy every single minute or every single day. Ten days ago, I was in Bucharest. I played in a club in the middle of nowhere. I picked out a place, a luxury hotel and now I am in another hotel. It’s not luxury, but it is a hotel. It’s really good. So every place gives you energy and you give energy to the place. What I always say is, ‘You need to be open to receive and to share your energy and to charge your energy because a lot of people can’t do it. They cannot live in a different place today. They cannot drink different water every day. They cannot eat different foods every day. They cannot live with a different kind of language. I speak a little bit of English, French, Italian and a little, little bit of German to figure out a way to survive. One of the things that this life gives to you is you must be always ready to try to find a way to communicate and integrate yourself. And I say again, it’s beautiful because you learn a lot. You learn how similar we are and how different we are at the same time.”

Next issue: Music is philosophy