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Arturo “Chico” O’farrill  “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Architect” 

Arturo O’Farrill or better known as “Chico” O’Farrill was born in Havana (Cuba) on October 28, 1921. He was the son of a recognized Jewish family whose father was an eminent lawyer whom one day decided to immigrate to the United States. Arturo undertook his studies at the Riverside Military School in Gainesville, Georgia (interned by his father).

He began to love the jazz orchestras (big bands) and within that environment he fed musically, listening to recordings of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey, so much, that in a brief time he learned to plays the trumpet and became the trumpet player of the military band as well as the several dance groups.

Years later, Chico returned to Cuba. He studied law and at the same time developed his facet as a composer, receiving a composition and harmony study with the master, Félix Guerrero. Likewise, he was also Armando Romeu Bellamar Orchestra’s member and the Isidro Pérez Orchestra, when the Son and the Mambo prevailed in the Latin music.

TRAJECTORY

From 1943 to 1947 “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Architect” worked at the cabaret Montmartre. He was a member of Bellamar Orchestra, directed by Armando Romeu and integrated by Luis and Pucho Escalante, Gustavo Mas and Mario Romeu, among others. He traveled to Mexico and Europe as a trumpeter musician as well as he created the band, Los Raqueteros del Swing, being the director and trumpet.

Subsequently, he founded Los Beboppers (the first group of Cuban bop), which was presented at the Saratoga Hotel with Chico again as the director and the trumpet.

In the ‘50s decade began the successes for Chico as an arranger, working briefly for several orchestra directors, such as Gil Fuller, Noro Morales, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Benny Goodman.

In the same way, he composed his first great masterpiece “Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite” in five movements: Song, Mambo, 6/8, Jazz and Rumba Open. This masterpiece was made and recorded for the businessman Norman Granz’s label, using the Machito’s Orchestra as an accompanist and rhythmic base.

“Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite”, according to Luc Delannoy: “begins and ends with a hypnotic flute and conga duo that reflects the essence of Cuban treatment; the union of musical universes: the European (the flute) and the African (the conga).

To these two instruments is joined the oboe, followed by the trumpets, saxophones and the “Tumbao” of the double bass… After a return to swing and bebop in the fourth movement, Chico takes us to the origins of Latin jazz with a melody of clear Arabic accents, before sinking back into the universe of Afro-Cuban percussions”. Likewise, for Benny Carter, this Suite was: “The reason for the coherence of the rhythmic parts and their relationships with the solos that have their own life and independence, Masterpiece of a genius.”

In New York and following the success of “Afro Cuban Jazz Suite”, O’Farrill writes “Cuban Fantasy” for Stan Kenton, who later changes its name to “Cuban Episode”.

In 1953 he traveled to California, where he founded his orchestra that included renowned musicians such as Mario Bauzá, Doug Mettome, Jimmy Nottingham, Eddie Bert, Fred Zito, Lenny Hambro, Flip Phillips, and saxophonist Eddie Wasserman. The orchestra used the rhythm section of the Machito’s Afro-Cuban, harp and oboe. With this concept he recorded for Norman Granz, performed in Birdland (New York), and the Hat Ballroom located in Los Angeles. In this period he composed three new movements: “La Jungla”, “Contraste”, and “Rhumba Finale”, baptized as “Manteca Suite” recorded with the Jazz player Dizzy Gillespie and orchestra of 21 excellent musicians in 1954.

He returns to Cuba again in 1956 to be inspired and immediately began working for the best record companies on the island such as Panart and RCA Víctor, recording “Chico’s Cha-Cha-Cha”, adapting the Charanga rhythm to the big band format. This album is released, one more time, on compact disc by BMG during the last decade of the twentieth century. Chico also made a recording for the popular D’Aida Quartet and arrangements for Bola de Nieve and the famous Orchestra Director, Aldemaro Romero.

In 1958 the restless O’Farrill moved for Mexico, an essential platform for all Latin American musicians at that time. There he returned to create another special sound and appears on television as musical director of the Andy Russell singer, and there his life changed radically. He started a semi-retirement period, but never stopped creating music. At that moment, he composed his famous “Azteca Suite” for trumpeter Art Farmer, and he made history again!

In the 60s he returned to New York and makes arrangements for such important figures as La Lupe (They Call Me La Lupe); Cal Tjader (Along Comes Cal); Clark Terry (Spanish Rice); Count Basie (High Voltage); Gato Barbieri (Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata); Ringo Starr (Night and Day) and dabbled in the Rock music with David Bowie (I Know It’s Gonna Happen, Looking for Lester), and finally he was director of the Aldemaro Romero´s Orchestra.

This stage extends until the end of the 20th century, although already in the 70s, the big bands go down in history for several genres that would be manifested due to their novelty and immense popularity in the United States and around the world. The architects of the new fashion used new techniques, styles, and sounds, especially in the field of harmonization. Suddenly popular music stopped being exclusively for the ballroom and -of course- “new sound” icons appeared in the Jazz Music. For this reason, Chico O’Farrill begins working in the lucrative field of music for television commercials.

In the mid-1990s, “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Architect” was contacted by American producer and Jazz director Todd Barkan with Pure Emotion, a compiled of his musical career with which he got a nomination for the 37th edition of the Grammy awards.

O’Farrill toured Europe with his orchestra in 1996 and recorded his latest album titled “Heart Of A Legend”, which contains 14 tracks, a formidable orchestra of 18 masters and a staff of international artists. The arrangements of “Heart Of A Legend”, considered for many as the best album of his career, took care by himself and the musical direction was entrusted to his son, Arturo O’Farrill Jr., a formidable pianist and heir of his legacy.

Arturo “Chico” O’farrill died on June 29, 2001, in New York City at 80 years.

Undeniably, Chico for more than half a century was a great musical creator. He was at the forefront of an innovative style that many know as Latin Jazz nowadays, which was called at the beginning with many names, such as Cuban bop, Mambo Jazz and Afro-Cuban Jazz.

Our dear “AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ ARCHITECT” Until forever!

In memory of 18 years of his passing!

Balazo de Norteamérica:

Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill

“The Afro-Cuban Jazz Architect”

In memory of 18 years of his passing!