Hispanic

Julio-agosto 2001
p.l02 (cultura)

'Chico' O'Farrill, Bandleader, Arranger,

Leaves Indelible Imprint on Latin jazz

BY MARK HOLSTON

C
aracteristic of the sense of purpose
that defined his life, composer and
arranger Arturo "Chico" O' Farrill
refused to Jet his advanced age and failing
health dampen his creative instincts and appetite for work. Up to the
time the famed Cuban musician passed away June 27 at the age of
79 in his adoptive home of New York City, he remained focused on
perpetuating the dynamic style of Afro-Cuban Latín jazz he played a
central role in developing over half a century ago. Writing a music
score for a Broadway adaptation of The M ambo Kings and
overseeing weekly performances of his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra
at Birdland, Manhattan 's fabled jazz club, kept O' Farrill's concepts
of music theory and practice keen to the end.
"In working with Chico extensively over the past seven years," his
record producer, Todd Barkan, remarks, "one of the most remarkable
things I noticed was his ability to work with supreme grace under all
kinds of pressure. He was a man with a unique vision, and he knew
exactly what he wanted musically and how to get it with an absolute
mínimum of muss and fuss."
Sensing that the Cuban maestro's talents had been sadly over-
looked in the 1980s and '90s, Barkan lobbied to obtain a recording
contract for him. The deal with
Milestone Records resulted in three
much-discussed albums of considerable
historie significance and popular appeal
-Pure Emotion in 1995, which was
nominated for a Grammy Award, Heart
of a Legend, and Carambola, his final
release in 2000.
Bom October 28, 1921 , in Havana
into a family of Irish and German
descent, O'Farrill was expected to
follow in his father's footsteps and
/ become an attomey. But his tenure
1 as a student at a military school in
/ Georgia changed all that when the
teenager discovered the big-band
music of Benny Goodman, Stan
Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, and Artie Shaw
and fell in ]ove with this style of North
American jazz. He began playing the
trumpet and joined the school band. By
the time he returned to Havana, his
course in life had been set.
While playing trumpet with
Orquesta Bellamar and other Havana
 groups, he expanded his
knowledge of music
theory, studying compo-
sition with noted Cuban
composer Félix Guerrero.
He also learned to
arrange music for large

P UR E EMOTION

ensembles, a demanding craft

that would become his entrée into
the world of jazz in the United
States and cement his legacy
as a twentieth-century music
innovator of global stature.
Seeking more rewarding
professional challenges, he
moved to New York City in
1>948, where he was soon writing
big-band arrangements for a
number of orchestras, including
one led by a personal idol, clar-
inetist Goodman. The proverbial In the 40s, a young Chico wrote
arrangements for Benny Goodman.
"right man in the right place at
the right time," O'Farrill was on hand when an arranger was need-
ed for a recording featuring the orchestra of Cuban bandleader
Machito and guest saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, the
renowned pioneer of bebop jazz. Their recording in 1950 of
O' Farrill's ambitious, trend-defining "Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite" is
widely recognized as the spark that lit the Latin jazz tire. Four
years later, he arranged the "Manteca Suite" for trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie's big band, and the exhilarating new idiom was firmly
established as an indispensable part of the American music scene. 1
O'Farrill moved back to Havana for a brief spell in the late
1950s and then settled in Mexico City, where he leda popular
dance band and debuted his first symphonic work. He returned to
New York in 1965, where he lived with his Mexican wife Lupe in
the same Upper West Side apartment until the time of his death. In
the interim, he recorded severa! small-combo and big-band albums
and wrote arrangements for releases by Gillespie and Argentine
saxophonist Gato Barbieri.
The rebirth of his career as a bandleader at 72, after a1most three
decades without an album released under his own name, was some-
thing he took in stride. "Thirty years ago, 1 didn't have instant stand-
ing ovations," he joked while on a late-1990s tour of West Coast
cities. "I'm astounded to see audiences of all ages following each
and every note."
Fans of O'Farrill and the sophisticated, fiery music he created can
enjoy his final recorded performance, a reprise of his classic "Afro-
Cuban Jazz Suite," captured in an exquisitely filmed sequence in the
Miramax motion picture Calle 54. On the horizon is a documentary
by Cuban filmmaker Jorge Ulla on O'Farrill 's life, Heart of a
Legend, being prepared for release in late 2002.
"The term 'innovator' is much overused and abused in our
cultural writings," Barkan notes, "but Chico O' Farrill was one of the
primary music alchemists who naturally blended Latin American and
African rhythms with bebop jazz in a compelling way that actually
influenced many kinds of modern music."
O' Farrill's artistry lives on through the talents of his pianist son
Arturo, Jr., who conducts performances by the orchestra his father
started and is completing work on what was fittingly Chico's final
project, more music for The Mambo Kings . H