![]() “We sat at two pianos, and played, and talked, and played sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee talked and played some more,” O’Farrill said. Towards that end, O’Farrill and Valdés spent several days at Valdés’ Miami home, brainstorming repertoire and co-writing the album’s opening track, “BeboChicoChuchoTuro,” a Haitano merengue upon which both pianists stretch out. Later, I’d see Chucho at one thing or another, and we’d remind each other of the idea, until we started talking concretely about the music and the concept-we’d write a piece together, I’d write a few pieces, we’d do a piece by Chucho, re-record a piece by Bebo and by Chico, and then turn over the baton to the young people.” “We talked about how lovely it would be to work together, to do something that extended the idea of family and legacy and our fathers and our kids. “We were hanging out, and then went to lunch,” O’Farrill recalled. In September 2014, Valdés came to town for a Jazz at Lincoln Center collaboration with Pedrito Martinez and Wynton Marsalis titled “Ochas,” an eight-part suite dedicated to eight Yoruban orishas. O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, featured on the first disk of Familia, has occupied the slot since 2011. In 1997, after a protracted Oedipal journey that that saw him shun and then embrace his father’s distinguished corpus, O’Farrill launched a 14-year Sunday night sinecure at Birdland helming the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra of Chico O’Farrill. Now 57, O’Farrill arrived in New York in 1965, when his parents relocated from Mexico City, where his father-who spent 1948 to 1952 in the Apple-had moved from Havana in 1957. I developed a powerful obsession to perform my father’s music in his native land.” As I’ve spent more time in Cuba, I’ve realized how much the sounds and sights my father grew up with, his cultural roots, shaped his aesthetic. “The director of this hotel, which they said was an old O’Farrill house, opened the car door and said, “Welcome home, Mr. ![]() Instead, they brought O’Farrill to “a beautiful building, all stone and chrome and wood, called ‘Palacio O’Farrill.’” Outside, a line of people awaited his arrival. I’m thinking: maybe I’m going to die these guys are either CIA or Cuban secret police.” The organizer responded, “Please come-we have a special surprise for you.” O’Farrill continued: “I get to Cuba, and men with suits and a badge meet me at the airport. I wondered what could possibly be so special about your land of birth that would cause you such agony.”Īfter receiving Valdés’ invitation, O’Farrill received no initial confirmation of venue or accommodations, and wrote the festival organizer that he wouldn’t make the trip. He rejected an opportunity to return to Cuba when Miami’s Cuban-American community stated it would boycott him. “I was traumatized by the idea of betraying my father, who was bitter about the revolution for many years, but softened late in life. “I was ambivalent about going,” O’Farrill said. Speaking at his Brooklyn studio, O’Farrill traced the gestation moment to 2002, when Chucho Valdés invited him to perform at Havana’s Plaza Jazz Festival. ![]() Their talented grandchildren-New Yorkers Adam (23) and Zack O’Farrill (26) on trumpet and drums, and Habaneros Jessie (31) and Leyanis Valdés (36) on drums and piano-refract ancestral spirits through a decidedly 21st century prism. The title references Bebo Valdés (1918-2013) and Chico O’Farrill (1921-2001), both seminal figures in the evolution and global dissemination of Cuban music, whose respective musical legacies receive a sprawling interpretation from their eminent pianist-composer-bandleader sons, themselves separated by a generation. For the occasion, I’ve put together an omnibus post containing - in order of presentation - Downbeat feature articles from 20, an edited Blindfold Test from 2016, and an unedited conversation between Arturo and Eddie Palmieri (with some input from Brian Lynch) in 2003 conversation at Birdland that became a Downbeat article.Īrturo O’Farrill-Chucho Valdes-Familia Project (DownBeat Article) – (2017):Īt its core, the new Arturo O’Farrill-Chucho Valdés collaboration, Familia: Tribute to Bebo and Chico (Motéma), is a meditation on the eternal subject of patriarchy, the complex relations of fathers, sons and daughters. Pianist-composer-bandleader Arturo O’Farrill turned 60 yesterday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |