The Conservatory of Music is pleased and proud to announce that pianist, composer, bandleader and faculty member Arturo O’Farrill and his Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra have won a Latin Grammy Award for their 2013 Zoho release Final Night at Birdland. Of the recording, which captured a seminal performance of the band at one of New York City’s premier jazz clubs, Arturo has written: “…on a beautiful, early summer night in 2011, after fifteen years in the finest jazz nightclub in New York and ten years after the passing of my father, The Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra gave its final performance. . . This did [sic] not mean the end of Chico’s music, The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra continues to perform his works to this day. But the primary motive in Chico’s aesthetic was to keep the art moving forward. And that is what I am all about.” Congratulations to Arturo and his band on this momentous news! We further wish him and his band congratulations and luck as his latest CD, The Offense of the Drum, has now been nominated by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for a 2014 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Recording.
