1. Arturo O'Farrill is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
15 Facts About Arturo O'Farrill
1. 2.
Arturo O'Farrill was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Lupe Valero and Chico O'Farrill on June 22,1960.
3.
Arturo O'Farrill's mother Lupe was a singer from Mexico, and his father Chico was a jazz trumpeter and composer originally from Havana, Cuba.
4.
At the age of six Arturo O'Farrill began taking piano lessons at the behest of his parents, initially disliking them very strongly before warming up to the instrument and deciding around the age of 12 that he wanted to be a career musician.
5.
Arturo O'Farrill began to receive a formal musical education around this time, graduating from LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and then studying at the Manhattan School of Music, the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
6.
In 1979, Arturo O'Farrill was playing in an upstate New York bar when he was noticed by jazz pianist, organist, and composer Carla Bley.
7.
Arturo O'Farrill remained with her band for three years afterwards.
8.
In 1987 Arturo O'Farrill found long-term employment as Harry Belafonte's music director.
9.
Not long after his stint with Andy and Jerry Gonzalez's Fort Apache Band, Arturo O'Farrill joined his father Chico O'Farrill to aid in the latter's late-career musical revival.
10.
Arturo O'Farrill named the new band the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and opted for traditional jazz big band instrumentation with the addition of a three-piece Cuban percussion section.
11.
In 2005 Arturo O'Farrill released his first album with the ALJO, Una Noche Inolvidable, for which he received a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album".
12.
In 2008 Arturo O'Farrill released his second album with the ALJO, the Grammy-winning Song for Chico, and took up residency as an assistant professor at State University of New York at Purchase.
13.
In December 2010 Arturo O'Farrill travelled to Cuba with his mother, sons, and the Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Orchestra in order to bring his father's music back to the island.
14.
In 2011, once he had returned from Cuba, Arturo O'Farrill directed the Chico Arturo O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra's final show at Birdland, capping 15 straight years of regular performances.
15.
Unlike his father, whose music was undeniably Afro-Cuban in nature, Arturo O'Farrill incorporates sounds from throughout Latin America.