Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra Brings Mambo Madness to Eisenhower Auditorium
March 21, 2006
Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra heats things up at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in Eisenhower Auditorium with an evening of Mambo Madness. Pianist Arturo O'Farrill and the 17-member orchestra blend the rhythms of mambo and sophisticated jazz solos into an evening of musical delight.
"Just try staying in your seat at a Latin jazz show," writes Bob Townsed of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. "The propulsive rhythms and sexy grooves pull you up and make you dance in the aisles."
Tickets for are on sale now at $33 for an adult; $17 for a University Park student; and $26 for a person 18 and younger. For tickets and information, visit www.cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; and the Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
Each member of O'Farrill's band is a prominent soloist from the Latin jazz scene. Winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award for 2003, O'Farrill played piano with the Carla Bley Big Band from 1979 to 1983. He then developed as a solo performer performing with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis.
In 1995, O'Farrill agreed to direct the band that preserved much of the music written by his father, famed composer and bandleader Chico O'Farrill. Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, with the younger O'Farrill at the helm, spent six years as a resident band at Manhattan's famed Birdland.
In 2001, Marsalis, acting on a suggestion O'Farrill had made in the mid-1990s, decided to add a Latin big band to complement his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and asked O'Farrill to direct it. Now, O'Farrill and his band of choice musicians tour the world performing the best of the compositions in the Afro-Latin canon.
"Within minutes," a St. Paul Pioneer Press reviewer writes, "it was obvious that O'Farrill attacked his conducting duties the same way he attacked the piano: with passion and poise."
This tour of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra is made possible by a grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program. Spats Café sponsors the performance, while WPSU is the media partner. Artistic Viewpoints, sponsored by the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council, provides insight from a visiting artist or local expert and is offered free to ticket holders in the Eisenhower Auditorium Conference Room one hour before the performance.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379