(AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA) - Celebrating a GRAMMY nomination for their debut album, Una Noche Inolvidable (An Unforgettable Night) in the Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album category, Jazz at Lincoln Center's AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA with ARTURO O'FARRILL will explore different styles of Latin bass and perform selections by the genre's legendary Latin bassists in Rose Theater in Frederick P. Rose Hall on January 27 & 28, 2006 at 8pm.
Tickets are $30, $50, $75, $100, $130 and available at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall box office on Broadway at 60th Street, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721.6500 or via www.jalc.org.
The concerts, entitled Bajo! - The Great Latin Tradition of the Latin Bass, will represent the unique crossover of yesterday's Latin rhythm and today's Latin beat, featuring special guest artists ISRAEL "CACHAO" LOPEZ, ANDY GONZALEZ, RUBEN RODRIGUEZ and CHARNETT MOFFETT. Exclusively for these concerts, New York muralist and chalk artist, DE LA VEGA, will be creating new artwork live in The
Atrium on January 28 beginning at 7:00pm. The
Atrium will be open to the public and free for this pre-concert event. De La Vega is "a hybrid between a street kid and an Ivy League guerrilla performance artist. He surfs among the personas of mayor of the block, eccentric artist and entrepreneur with relative ease," said the New York Times.
On these two special nights, the critically-acclaimed Latin jazz orchestra and Latin bass virtuosos will expose audience to the rich traditions and evolution of Latin jazz bass by performing the different styles of Latin repertoire, from the root of the Latin rhythm, charanga, mambo, salsa to contemporary Latin jazz.
In the late 19th century, musical traditions from the Caribbean and the United States migrated and mixed, resulting in the emergence of complex new sounds. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, musicians such as Mario Bauza, Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Machito began to fuse jazz with Afro-Cuban music.
The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra exemplifies the best that Latin jazz culture offers: rich tradition through music and timeless appeal around the world.
The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra is composed of 18 soloists who play classics of the Afro-Latin tradition. The members are: Arturo O'Farrill, Music Director and Piano; Michael Philip Mossman, Trumpet; John Walsh, Trumpet; Jim Seeley, Trumpet; Mike Rodriguez, Trumpet; Luis Bonilla, Trombone; Gary Valente, Trombone; Reynaldo Jorge, Trombone; Earl McIntyre, Bass Trombone; Erica vonKleist, Alto Saxophone; Bobby Porcelli, Alto Saxophone; Mario Rivera, Tenor Saxophone; Ivan Renta, Tenor Saxophone; Pablo Calogero, Baritone Saxophone; Ruben Rodriguez, Bass; Vince Cherico, Drums; Jimmy Delgado, Percussion; and Tony Rosa, Percussion.
Mr. O'Farrill also directs the band that preserves much of his father's music, the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Fort Apache Band, Carla Bley, Lester Bowie, Harry Belafonte, Freddy Cole and Wynton Marsalis. The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra became a resident orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2002 and has toured internationally, bringing the rhythms and heat of Latin jazz to places as far away as China. Performing the very best of traditional compositions in the canon of the Afro-Latin genre, the large ensemble commissions new work and leads education events when on the road and at Frederick P. Rose Hall. Ultimately, it seeks to provide an opportunity for a new generation of composers, arrangers and instrumentalists to further explore and define the music.
