Latin jazz star Arturo O'Farrill recently returned from an historic trip to Cuba. He set out to fulfill his father, Chico O'Farrill's dying wish – to return to his homeland of Cuba.

Chico died in 2001 before realizing that dream.

And, after years of planning, Arturo traveled there in December with Chico's big band and his own sons for an historic concert of Chico's music.

“It was more than life changing,” says Arturo O’Farrill. “It was just an amazing experience for all of us.”

The concert, nearly a decade in the making, will be the subject of an upcoming documentary "Oye Cuba."

But along the way Arturo also found a much larger mission.

“Of thanking an entire nation and entire culture for the gift they gave jazz, which wasn't just Chico, but all of Cuban music has impacted jazz in ways we don’t even understand,” O’Farrill says.

Arturo was especially inspired to come across an orchestra dedicated solely to his father’s music, even though the orchestra does not have real sheet music for his Afro-Cuban masterpieces.

“The guys who's the director of the orchestra is Mastro Pachardo, and he went and got some Chico O'Farrill records and wrote out all the instruments and then wrote out the individual parts for the musicians,” explains O’Farrill.
The U.S. Smithsonian was also impressed and is sending the orchestra some scores of Chico's music. Arturo says Cuban musicians often play on spirit, love, and little else.

“It's heartbreaking,” says O’Farrill. “The incredible need of Cuban musicians is reeds, ligature, valves, mouthpieces, valve oil. They’re in need of things musicians take for granted every day.”

Arturo wrote a new composition for the trip called “Fathers and Sons.” It got a great reception in Cuba, but more like mixed reviews from his own sons.

“It’s very funny because the piece is kind of a trumpet feature with some piano credenzas,” says Arturo’s son Zack O’Farrill, a drummer. “So I said to him on the bus one afternoon, there's not much in the way of drum features in this piece. It's almost like it could have been called fathers and son.”

“It was catchy,” says O’Farrill’s son Adam, a trumpet player. “It was catchy, but it was also a fitting tune majestically. It kind of has a majestic intro that kind of explains the significance of the trip and then the family jam session in the middle felt right.”

Perhaps that's because no matter which O'Farill is playing, the spirit of the entire lineage is always with them.

Arturo O'Farrill and the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra at Birdland
315 West 44th Street
Sundays at 9 and 11 p.m.
birdlandjazz.com

Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra at Symphony Space
Broadway and 95th Street
February 26th at 8 p.m.
Tickets 38 dollars
afrolatinjazz.org
symphonyspace.org

Arturo Family Band featuring Arturo, Zack and Adam At BAMcafe
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
April 30th, 9-10:30 p.m.
718-636-4100
bam.org
ofarrillbrothers.com

For more information on the film, go to oyecubafilm.com, twitter.com/OyeCuba, and youtube.com/user/dsylvester100.