The UCLA Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by renowned jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, celebrates the holidays with the music of Tito Puente, Graciela, Machito, and the great creators of Afro Latin Jazz. Get your best dancing shoes on and join the Fowler to mambo your way through Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and even Festivus.
Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He is currently Professor of Global Jazz Studies and Assistant Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCLA. O’Farrill has received commissions from Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, and has been honored as a Steinway Artist for many years.
In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music.
In 2020, O’Farrill’s weekly concerts with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, dubbed “Virtual Birdland,” topped the list of 10 Best Quarantine Concerts in the New York Times.
This program is presented in partnership with the Fowler Museum at UCLA.