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Adam O'Farrill

Adam O'Farrill was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Born to a deep musical legacy- his grandfather, the legendary Afro-Cuban composer/arranger, Chico O'Farrill, his father, the GRAMMY award-winning pianist/composer/activist Arturo O'Farrill, and his mother, pianist and educator Alison Deane- O'Farrill has been surrounded by music since he was very young. He began studying piano at age 6, and trumpet at age 8, while starting to compose around the same time. Since then, O'Farrill has made numerous artistic accomplishments.

With his brother, Zack, a drummer/composer, they released two well-received albums under the O'Farrill Brothers Band: Giant Peach (2011) and Sensing Flight (2013), both on ZOHO Music. They primarily featured Adam's original compositions. In 2016, he released his first album under his own name, called Stranger Days (Sunnyside Records), which features Zack on drums, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown on tenor sax, and Walter Stinson on bass. The album has been critically acclaimed with Nate Chinen of the NY Times writing “Marshaling a sharp band of his peers — Chad Lefkowitz-Brown on tenor saxophone; Walter Stinson on bass; and Zack O’Farrill, his older brother, on drums — Mr. O’Farrill establishes both a firm identity and a willful urge to stretch and adapt.” In early 2018, Adam will be releasing his second album with Stranger Days, tapping into an eclectic range of influences, including traditional Mexican music, and covers of Gabriel Garzon-Montano and Irving Berlin.

​In 2015, O'Farrill was featured on two of the year's most acclaimed albums. He was featured on Rudresh Mahthappa's Bird Calls, which won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Jazz Album, and was named one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2015 by NPR, New York Times, Observer Chicago Tribune, and more. Later that year, O'Farrill was featured (along with Mahanthappa, and Zack O'Farrill) on Arturo O'Farrill's Cuba: The Conversation Continues, was was nominated for the GRAMMY Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, and won the Latin GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. In 2016, Adam was featured on several new releases. He was featured on Stephan Crump's Rhombal, along with Ellery Eskelin and Tyshawn Sorey, which also released to critical acclaim. O'Farrill was also featured on Evergreen (Canceled World), from rising composer-pianist Gabriel Zucker and his large ensemble, The Delegation, as well as Kadawa, the debut album from the Israel-born experimental trio of the same name, and New Helsinki, the debut album from Finnish guitarist Olli Hirvonen. In addition to these, Adam has also performed with established artists such as Vijay Iyer, Mulatu Astatke, Steve Lehman, Christian McBride, Jason Lindner, in addition to rising artists such as Samora Pinderhughes, Onyx Collective, Maria Grand, JIL, and more.

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7
Album Review

Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince

Read "Shimmer Wince" reviewed by John Sharpe


There is often an underlying rigor to the work of Canadian saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber, be that inspiration from the digital world on Binary (Skirl, 2016), her investigation of multiphonic intervals on Idiom (Pi, 2021) or contemporary classical percussion repertoire on Clockwise (Pi, 2020). On Shimmer Wince, she derives her compositions from her study of Just Intonation, a system which many believe offers a more “pure" way of tuning and allows greater timbral and sonic possibilities ...

15
Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Cloudward

Read "Cloudward" reviewed by Doug Collette


The title of guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's Cloudward alludes to the sense of optimism she has stated she felt when writing the bulk of the material in fall of 2022. And while this palpable sense of faith in the future is in marked contrast to the tangible air of eerie foreboding that surfaced so often on this LP's predecessors, the presence of largely the same personnel lineup--the Amaryllis Sextet-- provides a stable link of continuity. The reappearance of prior collaborators recording ...

11
Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Cloudward

Read "Cloudward" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Guitarist, composer & raconteur Mary Halvorson could very comfortably (and rightfully) wear the sobriquet of “The Charles Mingus of Guitar" if she wanted to. But even that open-ended comparison would limit her as she outdoes herself again on Cloudward. Though it must surely be getting harder to top herself given the string of releases--the deliberately articulate schizophrenia Amaryllis and Belladonna (Nonesuch, 2022), the unbridled trio synergy Multicolored Midnight (Cunneiform, 2018), the crackling mad invention propelling 2018's Code Girl (Firehouse 12 ...

7
Album Review

Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince

Read "Shimmer Wince" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Some mechanical wristwatches have clear faces which allow the owner to observe the inner workings of the marvelous object. It is a wonder just how the timepiece utilizes its mainspring and gear train to drive the harmonic oscillator which keeps near perfect time. The same can be said of composer, saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber's investigation into unique tunings using the overtone series known as Just Intonation (JI). It is an ancient system based on the natural vibration of physical ...

4
Album Review

Kevin Sun: The Depth of Memory

Read "The Depth of Memory" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist/composer Kevin Sun's 2 CD set, The Depths Of Memory, is said to be more suited to focused listening than to the “convivial distractions of a jazz club." That rings true. From CD 1's opener, “All This Stillness," subdivided into seven sections, the album finds the saxophonist and his bandmates sounding as if they have slipped into a flow. Sun says he wanted the feeling of “being swept along in a current of musical thought over a period of time." ...

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Album Review

Lesley Mok: The Living Collection

Read "The Living Collection" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Percussionist and composer Lesley Mok is a restless explorer who has also been called a sound artist. However, that designation does not give a full picture of her creative vision. Mok deftly maintains the singular balance between the notated and the improvised as well as abstraction and accessibility, thus breaking out of narrow genreist designations, to make music which is urgently relevant. All this and more is clearly demonstrated on her debut as a leader, the provocative The Living Collection. ...

Album Review

Adam O' Farrill: Visions of Your Other

Read "Visions of Your Other" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Nella famiglia la musica è di casa: ritroviamo il padre, Arturo O'Farrill, pianista e compositore vincitore di Grammy, il nonno, Chico O'Farrill, leggendario bandleader cubano, Allison Deane, la mamma, pianista classica, Zack O'Farrill, il fratello maggiore, batterista. Non stupisce che anche il “piccolo" Adam (classe 1994) abbia iniziato a percorrere giovanissimo quei sentieri frequentando e registrando con maestri del calibro di Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mary Halvorson, Mulatu Astatke, Stephan Crump etc... fino a mettere in piedi un quartetto denominato Stranger Days ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Shimmer Wince

Intakt Records
2024

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Cloudward

Self Produced
2024

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Cloudward

Nonesuch Records
2024

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Visions of Your Other

Biophilia Records
2023

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The Living Collection

American Dreams
2023

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The Depth of Memory

Endectomorph Records
2023

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Frozen in Profile

From: The Depths of Memory
By Adam O'Farrill

Greenlit

From: <3 Bird
By Adam O'Farrill

Walls and Roses

From: Artlessly Falling
By Adam O'Farrill

The Middle of Tensions I

From: The Sustain of Memory
By Adam O'Farrill

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