Arturo O’Farrill – Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra – His Latin Beat Goes On, in a New Home

“Arturo O’Farrill, the burly pianist who leads the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, sat cross-legged and discoursed about the meaning of Latin jazz recently in the top-floor study of his brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “Listen,” he said. “To me, it’s natural, because this music is about who we are: New York, jazz, Latin music, America. So it’s either a cultural mainstay or it’s not. If it’s not, I’ve made a huge mistake, and I’ll move on.”

These are the words of a gambler, and Mr. O’Farrill, 47, is in the middle of an optimistic gamble. At Symphony Space next week, his 18-piece Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra will perform for the first time since its genesis without the powerful name recognition of Jazz at Lincoln Center, where it started and where it had its institutional base.”*

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