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Arturo O’farrill And The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Presents
FANDANGO AT THE WALL
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE VILLALOBOS BROTHERS AND THE CONGA PATRIA SON JAROCHO COLLECTIVE
Sunday, October 17, 2021 7:30 p.m.
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Virginia G. Piper Theater
ARTURO O’FARRILL
Arturo O’Farrill Piano and Artistic Director Saxophones Roman Filiu, alto sax Adison Evans, alto sax Iván Renta, tenor sax Jasper Dutz, tenor sax Larry Bustamante, baritone sax Trombones Rafi Malkiel, Mariel Bildsten, Abdulrahman “Rocky” Amer Jennifer Wharton, bass trombone Trumpets Seneca Black, Jim Seeley, Bryan Davis , Rachel Therrien Rhythm Vince Cherico, drums and timbales Carlos Maldonado, percussion Keisel Jiménez, percussion Bam Rodríguez, bass
PROGRAM Program to be announced from the stage ARTURO O’FARRILL, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He received his formal musical education at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. O’Farrill’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music. In December 2010, O’Farrill traveled with the original Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra to Cuba, returning his father’s musicians to his homeland. He continues to travel to Cuba regularly as an informal Cultural Ambassador, working with Cuban musicians, dancers, and students and bringing local musicians from Cuba to the United States and American musicians to Cuba. O’Farrill has performed with orchestras and bands that include his own Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill Sextet, as well as other orchestras and intimate ensembles in the United States, Europe, Russia, Australia, and South America. An avid supporter of all the arts, O’Farrill has performed with Ballet Hispanico and the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has written three ballets. In addition, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company is touring a ballet titled Open Door, choreographed by Ron Brown to several of Arturo’s compositions and recordings. Brown’s own Evidence Dance Company has commissioned O’Farrill to compose New Conversations, which premiered in the Summer of 2018 at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts. O’Farrill
has received commissions from 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. O’Farrill’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma) took the 2016 Grammy® for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin Grammy® for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebow was the 2018 Grammy® (his sixth) winner for Best Instrumental Composition. O’Farrill’s current album Four Questions (ZOHO) is the first to embody all original compositions, including the title track, which features the brilliant orator Dr. Cornel West. In 2019, O’Farrill was Artist in Residence for The Greene Space in New York City, for which he created a four-concert series, including a newly commissioned composition. The series title was “Radical Acts and Musical Deviancy.” In 2020, O’Farrill’s weekly concerts with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, dubbed “Virtual Birdland,” topped the list of 10 Best Quarantine Concerts in The New York Times. O’Farrill is professor of global jazz studies and assistant dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at University of California, Los Angeles, and has been honored as a Steinway Artist for many years. THE VILLALOBOS BROTHERS The Villalobos Brothers have been acclaimed as one of today’s leading contemporary Mexican ensembles. Their original compositions and arrangements masterfully fuse and celebrate the richness of Mexican folk music with the intricate harmonies of jazz and classical music. The ensemble’s virtuosic performances have delighted audiences throughout Latin America, India, Russia, and Canada, and in more than 30 states across the United States. They have performed in historic venues and events, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Latin Grammy Awards®, Davies Symphony Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, the Ford Theatre in Hollywood, the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations, the New Victory Theatre on Broadway, San Jose Jazz Fest, Celebrate Brooklyn, the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico City, the Blue Note Jazz Festival, and the Apollo Theatre. In 2018, they joined forces with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for the Fandango at the Wall project. This ambitious undertaking, produced by Kabir Sehgal, united legendary international musicians for a live concert at the Tijuana-San Diego border wall, which resulted in a live album and documentary film. The Villalobos Brothers recently premiered their Symphonic Project, performing sold-out concerts with both the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Walla Walla Symphony. The ensemble has collaborated with legendary musicians, including Grammy® winners Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Antonio Sánchez, Regina Carter, Eduardo Magallanes, Dan Zanes, Sierra Hull, and Ana Tijoux. The Villalobos Brothers are actively touring the United States, delivering a powerful message of love, brotherhood and social justice with brilliance, cadence, and virtuosity.
ARTURO O’FARRILL
AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ALJO) The Grammy®-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O’Farrill, brings together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of 18 of the world’s most accomplished solo musicians. Eighteen years of critically acclaimed performances internationally, have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats like Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O’Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music’s most talented composers and arrangers. The ALJO has thrilled audiences at Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston Symphony Hall, Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, The Newport Festival, Litchfield Jazz Festival (Kent, Connecticut), Joyce Theater with Ballet Hispánico, Rialto Center for the Performing Arts (Atlanta, Georgia), Mahalia Jackson Theater with Ballet Hispánico (New Orleans, Lousiana), Megaron Concert Hall (Athens, Greece), and the Taichung Jazz Festival (Taichung, Taiwan), among countless other venues around the world. Presenting programs that range from the very best in dance music to repertoire that pushes the genre forward, the ALJO commissions and performs innovative compositions and big band arrangements by Antonio Sánchez, Miguel Zenón, Dafnis Prieto, Guillermo Klein, Pablo Mayor, Michele Rosewoman, Emilio Solla, Papo Vázquez, Vijay Iyer, Arturo himself, and many others. THE CONGA PATRIA SON JAROCHO COLLECTIVE The Conga Patria Son Jarocho Collective is composed of masters of the Mexican Son Jarocho tradition from Vera Cruz and Tijuana who participated in the original gathering, performances, and recordings of the Fandango at the Wall project and are featured in the HBO documentary of the same name.
Keyboard Conversations® with JEFFREY SIEGEL
concerts with lively commentary
Presenting Sponsor: Dr. David and Joan Goldfarb Trust Tickets start at $25
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