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Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra to conclude 10th anniversary season on May 10-11


According to a news release, Arturo O’Farrill’s Grammy Award-winning ensemble, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, will conclude its 10th Anniversary season with a celebration titled, “Música Nueva 5: Big Band Poetry Jam & Beyond” at Symphony Space in New York City. 

Performance times are at 8 p.m. Friday, May 11, 2012, and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12, 2012, at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street in New York City.
The program will celebrate the Nuyorican Poetry movement and the Latino community, and the artists will mix the classic sound of mambo, boogaloo, and salsa with hip-hop, acid jazz, and alternative improvisation. 

Additional guests for the evening include poet and curator Angel R. Rodríguez, Sr., as well as Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda and turntablist DJ Logic. Spoken word artists include Sandra María EstevesTato LavieraOdilia Rivera SantosCaridad “La Bruja” De La LuzCirca ’95 (PattyDukes & RephStar), and Christopher “Chilo” Cajigas. The arrangers for the two-night engagement include O’Farrill, Todd BashoreAdam KromelowJason LindnerAdam O’FarrillJay Rodríguez, and Bill Ware. 

Founded in 2002 by O’Farrill to perform the full repertory of big band Afro Latin jazz and commission new works to advance this culturally rich genre, the ALJO was a resident orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, the ALJO left Lincoln Center to pursue the twin goals of developing new audiences for big band Afro Latin jazz and of creating a robust educational program for young performers. O’Farrill founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance that same year to pursue both the performance and educational aspects of this uniquely pan-American art form.
The ALJO is currently in its fifth season in residence at Symphony Space, and it continues to tour nationally and internationally to critical acclaim, performing over the past several years at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston Symphony Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival, The Joyce Theater (with Ballet Hispanico), Megaron Concert Hall (Athens, Greece), and the Taichung Jazz Festival (Taichung, Taiwan), among countless other venues. The ALJO received a Grammy nomination for its 2005 album, Una Noche Inolvidable (Palmetto), and in 2009 earned a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for its release Song for Chico (Zoho). The Orchestra’s newest album, 40 Acres and a Burro (Zoho), was a 2012 Grammy nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.


 

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Afro Latin Jazz Alliance Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra jazz New York New York City United States

CBS to feature Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra this weekend

Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra 

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra will be featured on a CBS Evening News national broadcast at 6:30 p.m EST Saturday, Feb. 4 (alternate air-date is 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5). Check your local CBS listings here.
The network will broadcast an interview with O’Farrill, which was recently filmed at Birdland in New York City. Topics of discussion will include the O’Farrill family, nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance and its resident Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, educational outreach, Cuba, and the recent Grammy category cutbacks.  Performance footage of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s recent 10th anniversary benefit at Symphony Space and a recent performance at Birdland will also be broadcast.