NEW YORK (JALC announcement) - Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill celebrates
National Hispanic Heritage Month with concert performances on
September 30 and October 1, 2005 at 8pm in Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall. The concerts, entitled Jazz con Salsa, feature the big band performing the best of Latin jazz with salsa flair. Jazz con Salsa is the band's first concert series of Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2005-2006 season.
On the heels of the successful release of Una Noche Inolvidable, the band's debut CD, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra brings together the styles of salsa and jazz in an eclectic mixture of rhythm and groove. Guest artists Joe Lovano (saxophone), Lew Soloff (trumpet) and Greg Osby (saxophone) join the critically acclaimed big band to showcase the finest in Latin and straight-ahead jazz rhythm, new and old.
Tickets for Jazz con Salsa are $30, $50, $75, $100, $130 and available at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office on Broadway at 60th St., by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 or via www.jalc.org.
The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra exemplifies the best that Latin jazz culture offers: rich tradition through music and timeless appeal around the world. Latin jazz is a general term given to music that combines rhythms from African and Latin American countries with jazz harmonies from the United States. Afro-Cuban Latin jazz includes salsa, merengue, songo, son, mambo, bolero, charanga and cha cha cha. Originated in the 1940s, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton began to combine the rhythm section and structure of Afro-Cuban music. Latin jazz employs straight rhythm, not swung rhythm and the conga, timbale, gƒiro and claves are used in this unique music.
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.
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.
