Solomeo Jazz Night

Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

A. O'FARRILL, Z. O'FARRILL Compay Doug

A. O'FARRILL Trumpet Fantasy

A. O'FARRILL Afro Cuban Jazz Suite

A. O'FARRILL Afro Latin Jazz Suite

C. P. DE LA LUZ, A. O'FARRILL Delirio

A. O'FARRILL El Maquech Yucatan Folk Song

A. O'FARRILL Vaca Frita

Arturo O’Farrill

Pianist, composer and trainer, Arturo O’Farrill was born in Mexico and raised in New York. Arturo's professional career began with the Carla Bley Band, before he developed as a solo artist who has worked with numerous artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Belafonte. In 2007 he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, a non-profit organisation focused on the performance, formation and conservation of afro-latin music. For further information on the ALJA go to http:// www.afrolatinjazz.org. In December 2010 Arturo travelled to Cuba with the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra in its original formation, accompanying the musicians who had performed with his father back to their homeland. He regularly travels to Cuba as a cultural ambassador, while also working with Cuban musicians, dancers and students and helping Cuban musicians to acquire experience in the United States and vice versa. Arturo has performed with orchestras and groups, including his very own Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Arturo O’Farrill Sextet, as well as with other orchestras and ensembles in the United States, Europe, Russia, Australia and South America. Arturo is a passionate supporter of all the arts. He has performed with Ballet Hispanico and with the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has composed three ballets. The repertoire of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company includes a ballet entitled“Open Door”, with choreographies by Ron Brown for numerous compositions and recordings of Arturo. Ron Brown's Evidence Dance Company entrusted Arturo with the composition of New Conversations, which was performed for the first time in 2018 at the Jacob’s Pillow centre, Becket, Massachusetts. Arturo has written tracks for various organisations and institutions, including Meet the Composer, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Philadelphia Music Project, The Apollo Theater, Symphony Space, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Young Peoples Chorus of New York, Columbia University and the New York State Council on the Arts.

The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

Aparticularly appreciated and well-reviewed suite by Arturo, from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma), won a Grammy in 2016 for best instrumental composition, in addition to the Latin Grammy Award 2016 for best latin jazz album. His exceptional track Three Revolutions from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo won a Grammy in 2018 (his sixth) for best instrumental composition. The album Four Questions (ZOHO) is the first ever to only include original compositions, including the album's title track with the participation of the brilliant orator Cornel West. The album won a Grammy in 2021. His album with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Fandango at the Wall in New York won another Grammy in 2023. Arturo was resident artist for The Greene Space in New York, performing in a series of four concerts entitled Radical Acts and Musical Deviancy, for which he created a new composition. In 2020 Arturo's weekly concerts with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, entitled Virtual Birdland topped the 10 Best Quarantine Concerts chart published in the New York Times. Arturo is professor of Global Jazz Studies and assistant dean for equality, diversity and inclusion at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been nominated a Steinway Artist several times and is currently the Recording Artist for Blue Note Records.