Jazz Articles about Arturo O'Farrill

About Arturo O'Farrill

Multiple Reviews

3x3: Jazz Trios Playful and Pensive

by John Chacona
June 15, 2023

Can we finally retire the assertion that we are living in a Golden Age of the jazz piano trio? It seems like every month brings trio dates of such imagination and accomplishment as to render superlatives beside the point. These three recordings released in an eight-week period in Spring 2023 are a reminder that one of the most venerable formations in jazz continues to be a laboratory for innovation. Drawing from a kaleidoscope of tone and mood from playful to ...

Album Review

Alexis Parsons: Alexis

Read "Alexis" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
December 15, 2021

Alexis Parsons is an honest-to-goodness jazz singer. She has considerable vocal chops, a wide range and great time. She usually comes in right on or slightly behind the beat. Except when she does not. Which makes for considerable contrast and interest. Her sense of drama is apropos ("Organ Grinder" may be the sole exception, but de gustibus) and you often have the sense you are listening to an instrumentalist rather than a singer. Or to put it differently, Ms Parsons ...

Album Review

Alexis Parsons: Alexis

by Jack Bowers
October 19, 2021

The self-named Alexis is the third album by New York-based vocalist Alexis Parsons. To showcase her talents, she has chosen a medley of standards (half a dozen) and lesser-known but engaging originals, opening and closing with the Cole Porter classics “Easy to Love" and “In the Still of the Night." Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Kurt Weill, Astrud Gilberto and even Franz Schubert are also represented. For back-up, Parsons employs two trios—pianist David Berkman, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Matt ...

Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble: Dreaming In Lions

Read "Dreaming In Lions" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
October 8, 2021

Music for dance comes in a variety of forms. At one end of the spectrum are abstract soundscapes composed without reference to the choreography with which they share the stage; an example being John Cage's work with the choreographer Merce Cunningham. At the other end of the spectrum is music written in close collaboration with the choreographer; an example being Igor Stravinsky's work for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which reached its peak in 1910 with The Firebird, jointly realized by ...

Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill: Virtual Birdland

Read "Virtual Birdland" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 12, 2021

Whenever an obstacle presents itself--even one as devastating and disruptive as a global pandemic--it's a sure bet that musicians will find a way around it, a way to keep making music even in the most grievous circumstances. Jazz musicians have been especially creative during the Covid-19 scourge, using social media, the internet and any other means at their disposal to share their music with the world. True, the paychecks aren't as large or as regular as once they were, but ...

Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill: Four Questions

Read "Four Questions" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
September 2, 2020

Surprisingly this set marks the first time Arturo O'Farrill has recorded a set of solely his own compositions. It was worth the wait because this music, played by his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, really demonstrates the cinematic sweep and variety of his writing. The set is constructed around two topical extended works. The first, “Four Questions," is based on four questions about the struggle for human rights and personal dignity first posed by African-American author W.E.B. DuBois in ...

Radio & Podcasts

Arturo O'Farrill, Senri Oe, Chet Baker and More

by Joe Dimino
July 19, 2020

As the world continues to change, we start with a song from Arturo O'Farrill off his new CD Four Questions to keep the conversation on Black Lives Matter moving forward. We also focus on new music and conversations from jazz artists during the COVID-19 pandemic world of no live jazz with Senri Oe, Lara Driscoll, Aubrey Johnson and Alex Goodman. Stay safe out there and keep on enjoying the jazz during this surreal time on planet Earth. Playlist ...