Jazz Plaza Festival Underway in Havana
Some 20 foreign groups along with bands from the island will perform in this year’s festival that returns to its traditional December timeslot. Among the highlights is the traditional Sunday evening closing extravaganza that features Arturo O’ Farril directing the orchestra that used to be led by his father Chico O’Farril together with Cuban maestro Chucho Valdes at the Mella on Sunday, December 19. Other highlights include the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra and Swizz pianist Michael Fleiner and his septet
2010-12-17 | 09:10:14 EST
Cuban pianist Harold Lopez Nussa was one of those responsible for giving life to the inaugural concert of the 26 International Festival Jazz Plaza 2010 Photo: Roberto SuárezZoomSome 20 foreign groups along with bands from the island will perform in this year’s festival that returns to its traditional December timeslot.
Among the highlights is the traditional Sunday evening closing extravaganza that features
Arturo O’ Farril directing the orchestra that used to be led by his father Chico O’Farril together with Cuban maestro Chucho Valdes at the Mella on Sunday, December 19.
Chucho Valdés Chucho was born in Quivicán, Cuba, October 9, 1941. He is a pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the famous group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands, in great part responsible for the resurgence of Latin Jazz in the 1970s. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists. His father is the famed Cuban pianist and former director of Havana's famous "Tropicana" night club band Bebo Valdés.
Chucho has won three Grammy awards: one in 1978 for the album Live at Newport by Irakere, a second in 1998 for his contribution to the CD Havana by his band Crisol (formed in 1997), with two songs Mr. Bruce and Mambo para Roy written by Chucho, and the third in 2003 for his album Live at the Village Vanguard. He has also won several Latin Grammys. On 16 October 2006, Chucho Valdés was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Chico O'Farrill (October 28, 1921, in Havana - June 27, 2001, in New York City) was a composer-arranger best known for his work in the Latin idiom, although he also composed straight-ahead jazz pieces and even symphonic works.
The son of an Irish father and a German mother, he played the trumpet early in his career. He composed works for Machito (Afro-Cuban suite with Charlie Parker, 1950) and Benny Goodman's Bebop Orchestra (Undercurrent Blues) and arranged for Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton, among others.
In the 1990s O'Farrill led a big band that took up residence at New York's famous Birdland nightclub. Chico's son, a pianist who is named Arturo O'Farrill (he formerly worked with Carla Bley), eventually took over the band.
Arturo went on to form the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, which played at Lincoln Center. Under his direction the group recorded the Grammy-nominated album Noche Involvidable in 2005, and Song for Chico in 2008. He was also a professor of jazz at The University of Massachusetts Amherst. Arturo O'Farrill won a Grammy for "Best Latin Jazz Album" at the 2009 Grammy Awards.
Other highlights include the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra and Swizz pianist Michael Fleiner and his septet.
The Cuban lineup includes Bobby Carcassés and Afrojazz, Havana Ensemble, Roberto Fonseca and Temperamento, and pianists Hernán López-Nussa, Harold López-Nussa and Rolando Luna.
The venues include the Cultural Center in Plaza, the National Theater and the Mella Theater, along with jazz clubs such as La zorra y el cuervo.
This year’s Jazz Plaza Festival focuses on percussion which will be discussed during the International Symposium and in spaces such as Rumba Jazz at the Palacio de la Rumba.
