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Dizzy, Chano And Chico - The Original Influencers: 75 Years Later At Town Hall
Arts and Entertainment
November 30, 2022
The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance & The Town Hall Present
Dizzy, Chano and Chico — The Original Influencers: 75 Years Later at Town Hall
Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 8pm
With Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Featuring Pedrito Martinez, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jon Faddis and Daymé Arocena
With Adam O’Farrill, Zack O’Farrill, Jacquelene Acevedo and Melvis Santa
All-Star Event Celebrates Joint Centennials for Town Hall and Chico O'Farrill
It's a peculiar paradox that the success of a great innovator is often measured by how commonplace their revolutionary ideas become. Today, nobody thinks twice about the presence of a conga drum in a jazz, pop, or rock band, and Afro-Latin rhythms are another accent in our music.
But when in the 1940s and 50s, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Cuban conga master Chano Pozo, and Cuban arranger Chico O'Farrill blurred the lines between jazz, Afro-Cuban music, and European classical music, they changed the sound of American culture.
On January 14, 2023, The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance and The Town Hall join together for a special concert linking the centennials of both Chico O’Farrill and Town Hall, Dizzy, Chano, and Chico -- The Original Influencers — 75 Years Later at Town Hall.
Under the artistic direction of multi-Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and arranger Arturo O'Farrill, son of Arturo “Chico” O'Farrill, the concert will revisit classic works while featuring artists and new compositions that have continued to nurture these traditions. O'Farrill will lead the powerful 18-piece Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, augmented by a sterling multi-generational lineup of guests, including Cuban percussionist and singer Pedrito Martinez; jazz legends trumpeter Jon Faddis and NEA Master saxophonist Big Chief Donald Harrison; and top talents from a younger generation including Cuban singer Daymé Arocena, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and drummer/percussionist Zack O’Farrill, (Arturo's sons and Chico's grandsons), percussionist Jacquelene Acevedo (from David Byrne’s American Utopia), and singer and composer Melvis Santa.
"Chico, Dizzy, and Chano were the original influencers," says O'Farrill. "These people defined a vision, and they certainly defined everything I do today as a musician, composer, and in every single way. It's about taking chances and mixing cultures and musical genres."
Conga master Luciano "Chano" Pozo González was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie by the trumpeter’s life-long friend Mario Bauzá, musical director of Machito and his Afro-Cubans and Dizzy’s former bandmate in Cab Calloway's orchestra. Pozo fit naturally in Gillespie's audacious explorations mixing hi-flying bebop and earthy Afro-Cuban rhythms. The conguero has been famously quoted saying that, yes, Dizzy didn't speak Spanish and he didn't speak English — "but we both speak Africa.”
The extraordinary Pedrito Martinez, a worthy music heir of Chano Pozo, calls him “an inspiration,” adding that he was “honored to have been asked by Arturo, one of my favorite bandleaders, composers, and arrangers, to be part of such an important event in one of the most beautiful and historic theaters in New York City.”
Two concerts, late in 1947, including a decisive December 25 performance at The Town Hall, proved turning points in the evolution of the music. Says O'Farrill. "Jazz is an African inheritance, an inheritance of a cataclysm called the slave trade in which these enslaved people brought this incredible, mystical practice with them. That's why I say that without hand drums, it's not jazz."
Dizzy, Chano, and Chico -- The Original Influencers — 75 Years Later at Town Hall also celebrates the decisive contributions of Chico O'Farrill (1921-2001). The conservatory-trained O'Farrill dressed Afro-Latin jazz in black tie, creating extended compositions that applied some of the tools and strategies in European classical music. Works such as “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite” — which featured Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, and Buddy Rich and expanded the language of big band jazz, or his “Manteca Suite”, in which he elaborated on the original 1947 Chano/Dizzy collaboration -- opened fresh paths for the music.
“ ‘The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite’ was an example of taking an artistic chance, putting it all on the line just as he was starting in his career," notes O'Farrill. "When Chico wrote his masterpiece, state-of-the-art in jazz was Charlie Parker. The discovery of Cuba was the only acknowledgment of Latin influence in jazz, and only Duke Ellington was writing extended multi-movement suites with any success. Chico connected Europe, Africa, Cuba, and the Americas, and changed the face of modern music."
It might be hard to grasp now, when so much of what they started is part of our standard, daily vocabulary, but "Chico, Dizzy, and Chano were hellraisers, revolutionaries who were changing the world," pointedly notes O'Farrill. "And that's what we want to pay attention to in this concert. This concert is not about nostalgia. It's about looking back at revolutionaries who changed the game for all of us – and looking forward."
About Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
GRAMMY Award-winning pianist, composer, and educator Arturo O'Farrill—leader of the "first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz" (New York Times)—was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Son of the late, great composer Chico O'Farrill, Arturo played piano in Carla Bley's Big Band from 1979 through 1983 and earned a reputation as a soloist in groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. The founder and Artistic Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, he established the GRAMMY Award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) to bring the vital musical traditions of Afro Latin jazz to a wider general audience. O'Farrill and the ALJO have won seven GRAMMY Awards for their acclaimed albums. In 2019, O'Farrill was appointed Professor at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in the Global Jazz Studies department and is currently the Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. O'Farrill is a Steinway Artist and records for Blue Note Records.
About The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance
The non-profit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (ALJA) was established by Arturo O'Farrill in 2007 to promote Afro Latin Jazz through a comprehensive array of performance and education programs. ALJA's mission is to perform, educate about, and preserve the music of all of the Americas, emanating from African and indigenous roots, through the entry point of jazz. ALJA embraces its mission with a commitment to social justice, equity, inclusion, and the equality of all cultures worldwide. afrolatinjazz.org
About The Town Hall:
Inaugurated on January 12, 1921, The Town Hall has celebrated the diversity of New York with programs for all audiences through its own eclectic programming and by opening its doors to an unparalleled roster of independent producers. The 1,500 seat hall, with its grand feel and impeccable acoustics, has been a showcase for music from around the world and new artistic collaborations as well as a stage for public affairs and education, social progress and political discourse. Some of the figures that have appeared at Town Hall include Paul Robeson, Sergei Rachmaninov, Pablo Casals, Andres Segovia, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, Thelonious Monk, Igor Stravinsky and Bob Dylan. www.thetownhall.org
Dizzy, Chano and Chico — The Original Influencers: 75 Years Later at Town Hall
Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 8pm
EVENT LINK:
THE TOWN HALL
123 West 43rd Street (between 6th Avenue and Broadway), New York, NY 10036
TICKETS at The Town Hall Box Office 212-997-6661 or TICKETMASTER http://www.ticketmaster.com/
Twitter: @TownHallNYC #TownHallPresents #TownHallNYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/townhallnyc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/townhallnyc/
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Town Hall: Cindy Byram, Cindy Byram PR 201-400-4104 [email protected]
ALJA: Jesse P. Cutler, JP Cutler Media, 925.253.3163, [email protected]