Arturo O'Farrill

Arturo O'Farrill (born June 22, 1960) is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz (more specifically Afro-Cuban jazz), having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.

Early life and education Arturo O'Farrill was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Lupe Valero and Chico O'Farrill on June 22, 1960. His mother Lupe was a singer from Mexico, and his father Chico was a jazz trumpeter and composer originally from Havana, Cuba. His father's family was of Irish and German descent. The family lived in Mexico until 1965, when they moved to New York City. At the age of six O'Farrill began taking piano lessons at the behest of his parents, initially disliking them very strongly before warming up to the instrument and deciding around the age of 12 that he wanted to be a career musician.

He received a formal musical education, graduating from LaGuardia High School for Music and Art

Career

As a sideman In 1979, O'Farrill was playing in an upstate New York bar when he was noticed by jazz pianist, organist, and composer Carla Bley. Impressed with his talent, Bley recruited the then 19-year-old O'Farrill to play with her band in Carnegie Hall even though she was uncertain whether or not he could read music. He remained with her band for three years afterwards. In 1987 O'Farrill found long-term employment as Harry Belafonte's music director.

In the early 1990s, O'Farrill slowly began to return to his Latin roots. While struggling to record a "Latin jingle", O'Farrill contacted bassist Andy Gonzalez, who, according to O'Farrill, "took me through the history of Latin piano." Seeing this, Arturo O'Farrill stepped in on his father's behalf and assembled what became known as the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. and when his father died in 2001 Arturo became bandleader.

In 2001, Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program and musical director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, sought O'Farrill's help for an upcoming themed concert titled "The Spirit of Tito Puente". Despite O'Farrill's best efforts, though, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra was simply not equipped to play Latin jazz:

Following this concert, Marsalis offered O'Farrill the opportunity to form and lead an Afro-Cuban jazz band that would perform regularly at Lincoln Center, which O'Farrill accepted. He named the new band the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), and opted for traditional jazz big band instrumentation with the addition of a three-piece Cuban percussion section.

In 2007, O'Farrill and the ALJO left Jazz at Lincoln Center "to pursue its own educational and performance opportunities," That same year, he was appointed assistant professor of jazz at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, There, the band headlined the 26th Havana International Jazz Plaza Festival.

In 2015, O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for The Offense of the Drum. On August 21, 2015, Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra released Cuba: The Conversation Continues, which was recorded in Havana 48 hours after President Obama announced his plan to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

O'Farrill won a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for "Three Revolutions," a song from the 2017 album Familia: Tribute to Bebo+Chico.

Virtual Birdland, a 2021 album featuring Malika Zarra, Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi, Paquito D’Rivera, and many other musicians, developed and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2021. A track from the album, "Dreaming in Lions," was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition.

Fandango at the Wall

Fandango at the Wall is the title of a 2020 HBO film directed by Varda Bar-Kar, centred on the annual Fandango Fronterizo music festival that takes place on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border between Mexico and the United States. Festival founder Jorge Francisco Castillo hosts O'Farrill along with producer Kabir Sehgal on a trip to the Mexican state of Veracruz, where they meet the master musicians of the 300-year-old traditional music style known as "son jarocho", which combines indigenous, Spanish, and African elements. Musicians are recruited to join the festival. The film features son jarocho masters Andrés Vega Delfín, Martha Vega, Ramón Gutiérrez, Wendy Cao Romero, Tacho Utrera, Fernando Guadarrama, and Patricio Hidalgo, and includes special appearances by American jazz violinist Regina Carter; American historian Douglas Brinkley; American actress Mandy Gonzalez; Mexican musical trio the Villalobos Brothers; Iraqi-American oud master Rahim AlHaj; and Sahba Motallebi.

There is also an album of the same name and another titled Fandango at the Wall in New York by O'Farrill, and a book by Kabir Sehgal that examines the relationship between the US and Mexico.

Casa Belongó Casa Belongó is the future and first permanent home of O'Farrill's ALJO, now known as Belongó. It is expected to open in 2027.

Musical style Unlike his father, whose music was undeniably Afro-Cuban in nature, Arturo O'Farrill incorporates sounds from throughout Latin America. Reflective of big band traditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and elsewhere, his music is described as stylistically "pan-Latin" by critic Dan Bilawsky. Philip Booth of JazzTimes writes that the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's 2011 record 40 Acres and a Burro "has the big-band digging deeper into the textures and rhythms of South America and the Caribbean" than ever before.

Personal life As of 2014 O'Farrill was living in New York City with his wife Alison Deane, a trained classical pianist,

On August 14, 2015, O'Farrill was among those who were invited to witness the moment the U.S. flag was raised over a reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba for the first time in 54 years. (Motéma) (Motéma) with Chuco Valdez (Motéma) 2018 Fandango at the Wall (Resilience) 2023 Legacies (Blue Note)

As sideman With Ray Barretto, Michael Philip Mossman, and Patato Valdez 2001 The Orisha Suite (Connector)

With Carla Bley 1982 Live! (ECM) 1983 Mortelle Randonnee (Mercury) 1984 I Hate to Sing (ECM)

With Chico O'Farrill 1995 Pure Emotion (Milestone) 1999 Heart of a Legend (Milestone) 2000 Carambola (Milestone)

With Bebo Valdés 2011 Chico & Rita (Calle 54)