Chico (Artuto) O’Farrill, a composer, arranger, bandleader, and trumpeter, was one of the leaders in the emergence of Afro-Cuban Jazz in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He arrived in New York City from Cuba when Machito and Dizzy Gillespie were blending bebop and Cuban music. O’Farrill quickly became a key figure in the movement. He preferred jazz over the Cuban music he had experienced before arriving in the U.S. and exposure to the new sounds helped him shape his musical ideas.

He worked as an arranger with Benny Goodman, and also wrote the popular “Undercurrent Blues” for the band. He also worked with other arrangers including Quincy Jones.

His first major contribution to Afro-Cuban Jazz was a recording session for Machito in 1950. O’Farrill’s The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite is regarded as an important transition in adapting Cuban music to a modern jazz big band. It featured Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, and Buddy Rich. He described Afro-Cuban Jazz as “a very delicate marriage,” in which each aspect of the music had to be held in proper balance.

Chico’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite

As well as leading his own band, he composed The Manteca Suite for Dizzy Gillespie in 1955, expanding the trumpeter’s famous 1947 hit “Manteca.” O’Farrill also arranged for Stan Kenton and Stan Getz.

He left the USA in 1955. He returned to Cuba, then moved to Mexico in 1957, where he remained until 1965, recording and working with local bands. His compositions from this period include The Aztec Suite for trumpeter Art Farmer.

He reunited with Machito and Gillespie in 1975 for an album, Afro- Cuban Jazz Moods. In 1995, he wrote a commissioned piece for Lincoln Center, featuring Wynton Marsalis, and led his own big band in a weekly residence at NYC’s Birdland, with his son, pianist Arturo O’Farrill, who has taken over conducting the band.

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

In 2002, Arturo created The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center. I went to see Arturo and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra last year at Birdland and I was very impressed. The band was comprised of both young and seasoned musicians. Arturo’s teenage sons are also quite talented and performed on one song a piece. Arturo has continued where his father left off. As an educator, he has certainly inspired many young musicians and turned them on to the music that perhaps their grandparents grew up with. His latest release Song For Chico won a Gammy for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2008.

Interview with Arturo O’Farrill

Mareya’s Music

Sunday, May 17th, 2009
8:00 PM to 11:00 PM

WorldBeat Jam Session and Women’s Showcase
In May 2009 Hermann’s Jazz Club will begin an ongoing Sunday night WorldBeat Jam Session In May and June the first hour of every Sunday will be a Women’s Jazz Showcase hosted by Pianist Turiya Mareya featuring some of of Victoria’s Women Jazz artists,including vocalists and instrumentalists, performing in the WorldBeat and Latin Jazz genres.

Cost $10 (Jam Session Participants Free)

This provides an opportunity for the Youth and world music communities of Victoria to have an opportunity to experience playing with a Latin band as well as experimenting with African and world music influences.

Jazz has been influenced greatly by the cultures of Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean all reflecting the African diaspora. Jazz has been one of the major sources of global unity and there is a continuous exciting fusion of world cultures keeping the music alive and constantly growing.

Saturday, February 21st, 2009
8:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Adonis Puentes is a key personality in the ever expanding Latin music scene. He opens up the marvelous world of Cuban music to his audiences the second they hear his rich voice.
Adonis has shared stages with illustrious Latin music legends like Celia Cruz, Oscar De Leon, Juan De Marcos and The Afro Cuban All Stars, Orlando Valle ‘Maraca,’ Cuban Timba All Stars, Pianist Hilario Duran, Jane Bunnett and Pancho Quinto.

Gilberto, or “Gilbertónn,” has performed as a drummer/timbaleros with nearly every major group in Cuba in virtually every musical genre: from straight ahead jazz to traditional Cuban styles; from funk to rock, to Latin fusion. He is best known internationally for the “funk-in-clave” style of Afro-Cuban ‘Salsa’ known as Timba.

Pianist Turiya Mareya has performed internationally in Festivals and Venues in Canada, Europe, Mexico and the US. Her Compositions and playing reflects her deep love of Cuban music.

Take some infectious percussion (1 teaspoon powdered sugar), add a crisp, tart horn section (Juice from 1 lime), blend in soulful vocals (4 mint leaves and 1 sprig of mint), pad the bottom with some bass (2 ounces Havana Club white Rum) and feel the whole thing make your feet start to bubble (2 ounces club soda) – Now that’s Cuba! (Now that’s a Mojito)

Cuba aqui venimos!

Latin Sizzle

Posted By: Rick Gibbs Monday Magazine 01/07/2009 8:00 AM

Pianist Turiya Mareya melts what’s left of the snow

The way Mexican jazz pianist Turiya Mareya tells the story, Victoria saxophonist Noah Becker wasn’t too keen to play with her when she first tried to hire him for a gig last year. “He was so mean and awful and just gave me the freeze,” says Mareya, laughing. Later, when she telephoned him to try again, the reason for the cold reception emerged: he thought she was a singer. Learning that she was a pianist, Becker suddenly warmed up. “Ever since then he’s been my best friend . . . I guess he just doesn’t like singers,” she says, with obvious delight and affection.

Becker can be forgiven for his false assumption, since female Latin jazz pianists are a rare breed. So rare, in fact, that the Tijuana-based Mareya first came to Canada in 2005 to find another one-Vancouver’s Kathy Kidd-who, unbeknownst to her, had died five years earlier. She did manage to meet Kidd’s husband, who connected her with other Canadian players, and she ended up living here for a time, working out of Toronto and Vancouver with a number of top Cuban musicians.

Mareya eventually returned to Mexico, and in the past year has been playing various festivals and jazz venues throughout the country, but she’s back on the Island for two months (she first came here about 18 months ago “on a whim”) and is looking forward to kicking off 2009 with a gig at Hermann’s, featuring not only Becker on saxophone but also Humberto Mendoza on congas, Sean Drabitt on bass and special guest Adonis Puentes on vocals and percussion.

She’s particularly pleased to be sharing the stage with Puentes and is delighted by his recent success in Los Angeles, where he has been appearing with his own band and the Los Angeles Latin Jazz All Stars. “I’m really proud of him-he’s just done great,” says Mareya, who has fond memories of playing here with the whole Puentes family.

Becker, who got his Cuban music chops working with Adonis and his brother Alexis (now performing as Alex Cuba), clearly thinks very highly of Mareya. “She’s a very spiritual, very focused musician . . . very much involved in Cuban music,” he says. “That’s her interest, that’s her dedication, so her music is specifically written with those kinds of musicians in mind.”

The Hermann’s gig will feature a lot of that original writing and will be “really Latin,” according to Mareya, because they won’t have a jazz drummer backing them as originally planned. But for those of us still thawing out after our recent Siberian holiday, that’s a good thing. In fact, turn it up-that Latin heat can’t come soon enough.

—————–
Turiya Mareya Latin Jazz Ensemble
(with special guest Adonis Puentes)
8:30 pm Friday, January 9
Hermann’s Jazz Club, 753 View
Tickets $10 • 250-388-9166

Roots Propaganda, the newest album by the Paul Carlon Octet, is strong and smooth from beginning to end. Carlon – a saxophonist, bandleader, and composer – has assembled a powerful group of multi-cultural musicians, and created a dynamic jazz set, with elements of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban rhythms. The trombones, saxophones, percussion, tribal chants, flutes, and the vocal talents of Christine Durandy all contribute to the wonderful sound and spirit of Roots Propaganda.

“Backstory” is full of Latin rhythm and flavor. The horns, percussion, and boom-boom beat, along with Ms. Durandy’s words and humming vocals, make this a strong opener. “Ochun,” with its joyous saxophone, tribal chant, and flute, is Afro-Latin music at its best. The next song, “Moro Omin Ma” has a similar feel to it, with a dash of Brazil. Here, Durandy is doing the chanting. “Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out” and the title track are swinging and the most upbeat songs on the album; the former, with its toe tapping rhythm, and the later, with the horns battling each other.

Other standout songs on this album are “The Limiter,” “Mammo Pa’ Kanoa,” and “Hard Times Killin’ Floor Blues,” a superb tune that fuses genres, and captures the essence of Roots Propaganda.

Roots Propaganda goes back to the roots of classic American jazz and Afro-Latin music, along with some swing and funk. Roots Propaganda is a great collection that will please the jazz aficionado as well as the fans of Latin rhythms.

“Chan Chan” is an original song by the late Cuban artist Compay Segundo. It’s the opening track on the soundtrack to Buena Vista Social Club, a fascinating movie that documents the story of several Cuban jazz musicians. Buena Vista Social Club is available on NetFlix and is highly recommended. You’ll love it, and if it doesn’t work out for you, put your hand out like the rest of the country in hopes the government will bail you out of your situation.

Eliades Ochoa, Cuban guitarist (Buena Vista Social Club)

 THE TURIYA MAREYA LATIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE at Anthology in San Diego 

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JAZZIN´ MERIDA PRESENTS

TURIYA MAREYA JAZZ LATIN ENSEMBLE EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT

JAZZIN MERIDA

CALLE 56 NO. 465 ENTRE 53 Y 55

924 5628

(Abrindo o baú)

Houve um tempo em que os negros norte-americanos dominavam um estilo musical de tal forma, que chegavam a ser preconceituosos. Preconceituosos a ponto de não admitirem (ou só admitirem a muito custo) brancos¹ fazendo música nesse estilo, e isso só depois que ficasse mais do que provado a genialidade ou no mínimo um talento inquestionável do músico em questão. Preconceitos ianques à parte, não, não estou falando do Hip Hop. Falo sim do Jazz, a música da recessão, da pobreza e também do glamour e do cinema nos Estados Unidos na primeira metade do século passado (mesmo quando o cinema ainda era mudo, era indispensável a presença de um pianista ao lado do telão, que tocava standards² durante todo o filme).

Mas vou dar um pulo já para a década de 40, quando os músicos já não aguentavam mais tocar o estilo até então dominante nos salões de bailes: o swing. O swing exigia muito dos músicos com suas bandas de formações gigantescas, as chamadas big bands (15 pessoas na média), e na verdade, essa forma de se fazer jazz já estava um tanto quanto exaurida, então, um trompetista muito talentoso (Dizzy Gillespie) e seu companheiro de composições, o saxofonista Charlie Parker, (dois rapazes reconhecidamente bons naquilo que faziam, e que se tornariam maiores ainda com o tempo) decidiram revolucionar e criaram a forma mais quente e viajada de se fazer jazz até então: o Bebop.

O Bebop fez com o que os metais das bandas (que agora já eram com mais frequência grupos menores, como quintetos ou sextetos) ardesse como nunca se tinha ouvido: o som era acelerado, mas também viajado. Convidava para a dança mas impedia que a dança se realizasse, pois seus compassos no geral eram quebrados e seus andamentos imprevisíveis.

Gillespie se contentou em ser uma das pedras fundadoras do que veio a se chamar Jazz moderno? Não. continuou inovando e em 1975 soltou aquele que eu considero o disco maior do bebop: Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods. Disco que funde o jazz com a música cubana com tal sofisticação e peso, que nem a percusssão (fenomenal e infernal) de macumba tocada por Machito tira o caráter classudo da obra.

Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods é composto por quatro canções : “oro incienso y mirra”, “calidoscopio”, “pensativo” e “exuberante”. São só quatro, mas todas ótimas. Diria que é um disco curto e grosso (nem tão curto, seu tempo total de duração é de aproximadamente 32 minutos)

O estilo Bebop continuou encantando o mundo além de Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods, e para quem quiser conhecê-lo, é possível iniciar através da versão mais light (mas não pior) do anime japonês Cowboy Bebop, com ótima trilha sonora, feita por Yoko kanno & The Seatbelts.

NOTA 1: Com o tempo, o Jazz aprendeu que etnias e nacionalidades diversas só tinham a acrescentar: O grande exemplo foi Chet Baker, um dos maiores trompetistas que já existiu, além de disseminador do cool jazz, e que por sinal era branco. Além disso, as subdivisões de jazz permitiram fusões com os mais variados estilos: blues, bossa nova (!), música cubana, rock n’ roll (com a música fusion do mais que genial Miles Davis), entre outros estilos.

NOTA 2: Standards são temas clássicos do jazz, a partir dos quais os músicos criam coisas novas, geralmente na base da improvisação. Músicas como “what a woderful world” de Louis Armstrong e “love for sale” de Cole Poter são exemplos de standards.

Foto retirada do site: www.jazzvisionsphotos.com