Results for "Chico O'Farrill"

Chico O'Farrill

For over half a century, he was one of a pantheon of innovators who fused the soul-wrenching rhythms of African Cuba with the sweet harmonies of American jazz. Longtime admirers of the Latin jazz genre know O’Farrill as a master of sweeping, symphonic compositions that embraced his love of Debussy, Stravinsky, and the mambo; and as a bandleader who keeps alive the roar of a full dance band, as conductor of the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band, which played New York’s Birdland every Sunday night. For much of his career he worked quietly in the background, crafting music that became a showcase for others: "Undercurrent Blues" for Benny Goodman; “Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite” for Charlie Parker and the Machito orchestra; “Trumpet Fantasy,” premiered at Lincoln Center in 1996 with soloist Wynton Marsalis; and more than 80 arrangements for Count Basie. His life began in Havana in 1921, where O’Farrill was born into a genteel Irish-German-Cuban family

Charlie Parker: Ten High Flying Albums Of Paradigm Shifting Genius

By CHRIS MAY

Born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1920, and brought up across the state line in anything-goes, jazz-friendly Kansas City, Missouri, controlled from the mid 1920s to the late 1930s by the spectacularly corrupt politician Tom Prendergast, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker lived fast and hard and passed in 1955, aged only 34 years. A founding father of ...

Impulse! Records: An Alternative Top 20 Zeitgeist Seizing Albums

By CHRIS MAY

There can be little argument that a jazz label ever captured a zeitgeist more completely than Impulse! did during its original 1960s incarnation. In the US, the fight back against white racism was cresting, opposition to the Vietnam war was growing, outrage over the assassinations of figures of hope such as President Kennedy, Martin Luther King ...

Alexa Tarantino: Passion For Playing And Teaching

By R.J. DELUKE

Alexa Tarantino was bitten by the jazz bug at a young age. She was fortunate to grow up in a community where jazz is an important part of the musical fabric—rare these days. She swiftly grabbed hold of the music and has developed into an in-demand alto saxophonist, earning a series of high-profile gigs that slowed ...

The Archive of Contemporary Music

By KARL ACKERMANN

In Lower Manhattan, sits a musical gold mine. It's the motherlode of recorded music though the small, brightly colored sign above a grey steel door provides only a cryptic clue. The dusty window display of rare 78 RPM records, broken into erratic pie charts serves as a vestige of the past and a cautionary tale about ...

John Bailey: Can You Imagine?

By JACK BOWERS

Letting his imagination roam free, trumpeter John Bailey envisions a world in which one of his musical touchstones, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, is president of the United States--one in which Gillespie's cabinet includes Duke Ellington (secretary of state), Louis Armstrong (secretary of agriculture) and Miles Davis (CIA director). The fact is, Gillespie did “run" for president in ...

John Bailey: Can You Imagine?

By DAN BILAWSKY

The world loves a good “what if..." story, so why not explore the idea of Dizzy Gillespie as president? The famed trumpeter actually ran for the highest office in the land in 1964. And though the move was largely in jest, he didn't shy away from the issues of the day while campaigning. Sadly, many of ...

The Stan Kenton Orchestra / Trinity College: Concert Impressions

By JACK BOWERS

Here's another splendid two-disc anthology from Tantara Productions showcasing music from the capacious Stan Kenton library, performed on Disc 1 by the Kenton Orchestra circa 1972-76 and on Disc 2 by the Trinity College Big Band, Alumni Band and Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and 2007. Tantara has now released more than twenty albums, all devoted to ...

Adam O'Farrill: El Maquech

By ANGELO LEONARDI

A due anni di distanza da Stranger Days, suo prodigioso debutto da leader con la Sunnyside, il 24enne Adam O'Farrill cambia l'etichetta ma non l'organico, confermando il quartetto col fratello Zack alla batteria, il sassofonista Chad Lewkowitz-Brown e il bassista Walter Stinson. Nipote del leggendario bandleader cubano Chico O'Farrill e figlio del pianista Arturo, ...

Thomas Marriott: Romance Language

By DAN MCCLENAGHAN

Trumpeter Thomas Marriott moved back to Seattle after the requisite New York stint, where he worked with Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau band, the Chico O'Farrill Orchestra, and vibraphonist Joe Locke. Back on west coast home ground, he connected with the Seattle-based Origin Records, where he released ten top-notch albums as a leader, including Individuation (2005), ...