NEW YORK (Birdland Jazz Club announcement) - On Wednesday, June 29, 2005, the street corner of 88th St. and West End Ave. in New York City will be renamed "Arturo Chico' O'Farrill Place" in honor of the famed composer, arranger and bandleader. To celebrate the street corner naming, The
Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, directed by Arturo "
Chico" O'Farrill's son, Arturo O'Farrill, will perform a free concert for the people of the City of New York at 6:30pm in Riverside Park at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Riverside Drive between 88th and 89th Streets. Wynton Marsalis, Artistic
Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, will also participate. After the concert, the new "Arturo Chico' O'Farrill Place" sign will be unveiled at 88th St. and West End Ave.
"Chico O'Farrill is the intellect behind Afro Latin jazz," said Arturo O'Farril, son of
Chico and music director of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the
Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra. "His training in serial music, his profound understanding and skill in big band writing (he wrote 10 albums for Count Basie) and his deep roots in Afro Caribbean rhythms, make him unique in the history of all of these genres. In addition to being skillful he was also an inspired artist with the integrity to follow his inner vision. That Jazz at Lincoln Center is choosing to support the street corner renaming is a testament to their continued commitment to further and broaden all our understandings of jazz."
Arturo "
Chico" O'Farrill (1921 - 2001) was a composer, arranger, bandleader and a master architect of Afro Cuban jazz. He wrote classical, jazz and Afro Cuban music and was an arranger for some of the world's most well-known performers including Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton,
Dizzy Gillespie, among others. From the mid '60's until his passing in 2001,
Chico lived at 88th St.and West End Avenue in the city he loved: New York. He would often walk to Riverside Park where he would sit and compose his music.
Widely regarded as one of the master architects of Afro Cuban jazz, Arturo "
Chico" O'Farrill almost became a lawyer. Born into an Irish-German-Cuban family in the
Havana region of Cuba,
Chico was slated to follow in the family tradition and enter into law practice. Luckily as a teenager he was sent to study in the United States, where he heard the sounds that would change his life and revolutionize jazz, the trumpet and the big band. After studying at the
Havana Conservatory and performing in the nightclubs,
Chico decided to move to New York where he continued his musical studies with Stefan Wolpe of the Juilliard School and gradually integrated himself into the New York Jazz scene. It was there that Benny Goodman, who had trouble pronouncing his name, dubbed him "
Chico" and hired him almost immediately as a staff arranger. During his tenure with Goodman, O'Farrill penned one of Benny's biggest big band hits, "Undercurrent Blues."
The Forties and Fifties were a prolific and important era in Chico's career. It was during this period that he composed what is universally regarded by critics and fans throughout the world as the crown jewel of the Afro Cuban jazz genre, the extended, multi-movement work, "The Afro Cuban Jazz Suite", recorded with Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips and
Buddy Rich. He also wrote countless other works for Machito,
Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton, and for many others including his own orchestras.
With the advent of rock and roll and the decline of the big band throughout the sixties and seventies,
Chico turned his attention to commercial writing, including jingles, film scores and industrials. However, he maintained a creative presence contributing brilliant compositions and arrangements for the likes of Count Basie, Ringo Starr,
David Bowie, Gato Barbieri and countless others. He also wrote another important extended multi-movement work for Art Farmer, "The Aztec Suite", another critically acclaimed masterpiece.
In 1995, not having released a record as a leader for 30 years, O'Farrill came out with the Grammy-nominated "Pure Emotion" which was soon followed by the also Grammy-nominated "Heart of a Legend" and finally "Carambola" - all of which were hailed by Jazz critics and fans throughout the world as the renaissance of a true American Jazz genius.
His memorial in 2001 at the Saint Peter's Church (the jazz church) in New York City was filled to overflowing with lines around the block as musicians and fans celebrated the life and work of this quiet, dignified Cuban gentleman who adopted New York City as his new island home. His music is celebrated to this day, performed by his orchestra "The
Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra" which he conducted during his lifetime at New York's famed jazz nightclub Birdland at 315 West 44th
Streets between 8th and 9th Avenues in New York City. The Orchestra is in its eighth year of performing on Sunday nights at Birdland. Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra also includes
Chico O'Farrill's music in its repertoire. Both orchestras are directed by Chico's son, composer, arranger and pianist, Arturo O'Farrill.
