Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Excellent jazz blog

Added to our favorites! A very nice jazz blog, Latin Jazz Post. Nice work, Luis!

Check out the DownBeat archives

Did you know that the always wonderful DownBeat has archives? Check out this ancient Nat Hentoff article about Lester Young. Terrific!

New York Observer on Arturo

Click here to read Devin Leonard's New York Observer piece about Arturo and Lincoln Center. Very nice and witty!

Ira Gitler in Jazz Inside

Check out Ira Gitler's Jazz Inside review! Thank you so much to the always excellent Jazz Inside.

Arturo at SUNY Purchase, Tuesday, Dec 10 at 7 p.m.

Join us for a fun evening of wonderful music! Conducted by Grammy winner Arturo O'Farrill, head of the Latin Jazz Program at Purchase College, selections include:

"Manteca Suite" by Dizzy Gillespie and Chico O'Farrill featuring Brendon Lewis in the role of Dizzy
Three compositions by Ray Santos: "Cookin'" "Cochise" and "Sunny Ray"
Title track of the Grammy winning album "A Song for Chico" by Dafinas Prieto
"Humility" by Tom Harrel
"Starry Nights" by James Seeley

Tickets $20
Box Office 914–251–6200 or artscenter.org

This evening's performers are students from the renowned Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music — known for its intensive training for aspiring performers and its academic excellence.

Composer Arturo'O'Farrill won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for "Song for Chico." He performs at leading clubs and concert halls and created the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Click here for directions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Arturo O'Farrill and Ballet Hispanico

ALJO's very own Arturo O'Farrill will be a featured guest artist at select performances as Ballet Hispanico captivates audiences worldwide with its magnetic energy and eclectic choreography fusing Latino movement, music and traditions with classical and contemporary dance forms to create an experience in which theatricality and passion propel every move.

Under the new direction of Artistic Director, Eduardo Vilaro, the Company will premiere works by Andrea Miller, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and a live music collaboration between choreographer Ron De Jesús and Latin Jazz sensation Oscar Hernández. Tickets start at $10.

Ballet Hispanico
www.ballethispanico.org
167 West 89th Street, New York, NY 10024
P: 212-362-6710, F: 212-362-7809

Lots of fun jazz videos here

So many fun jazz videos -- click here to check them out.

Wynton Marsalis free club gig in NYC

Wynton Marsalis will perform a free concert at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center on Nov. 29. Tickets to the concert will be distributed randomly to the trumpeter's e-newsletter subscribers.

Marsalis will also offer one winner a two night's stay at the Mandarin Oriental in New York. Additional winners will receive invitations to the quintet's sound check, gift certificates to Gabriel's Bar & Restaurant and tours of Jazz at Lincoln Center's House of Swing.

For more info, go to wyntonmarsalis.com.

Arturo interview in Jazz Inside

Check out Arturo's picture on the cover of Jazz Inside! And don't miss the delightful interview inside. Thank you so much to the always excellent Jazz Inside.

Jazz Inside Magazine

Jazz Inside Magazine has a nice write-up of our August 11 gig at the Louis Armstrong House in Corona here. You can download their pdf and go to page 46.

Thank you, Jazz Inside!

ALJA and the TimeWarner Matching Grant Program

ALJA is officially listed on the Time Warner Matching Grant program!

Time Warner's Matching Grants Program will match employee contributions to nonprofit educational institutions or arts/culture organizations. Match amount limits and ratios are determined by each participating Time Warner division.

Thank you very much, Time Warner!

ALJA and the TimeWarner Matching Grant Program

ALJA is officially listed on the TimeWarner Matching Grant program.

Thank you very much, TimeWarner!

Smoke gets in your eyes

Smoke, the intimate Upper West Side jazz joint, is hosting a quintet led by the pianist Arturo O’Farrill, and featuring the trumpeter Jim Seely, the saxophonist Ivan Renta, the bassist Boris Kozlov and the drummer Zach O’Farrill.

Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8

At 8, 10, and 11:30 p.m.

Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street

212 864 6662

smokejazz.com

Cover $30.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sonia Sotomayor confirmed for Supreme Court

Great news -- we just got word that Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate for her Supreme Court appointment! The last step is her official swearing-in, but the process is pretty much complete.

Good news for Justice Sotomayor and ALJA as we prepare to premiere Arturo's commission honoring her!

Composer George Russell, RIP

Composer George Russell, rest in peace.

Here's a lovely interview / conversation between George Russell and Ornette Coleman.

Jazziz Weekly news

Fantastic mention about the Justice Sotomayor commission in Jazziz here!

Thank you very much to Jazziz Weekly News!

All the way up in Syracuse

Melinda Johnson, in the Syracuse Post-Standard's Art of the Matter, has a nice story about Arturo's commission for Justice Sotomayor here.

Thanks, syracuse.com!

A mention in hometown paper the New York Post!

Love it -- much thanks to the New York Post for their note on our commission for Justice Sotomayor.

This is great -- thanks, New York Post!

A mention in Newsday!

Wow! An excellent blurb in Newsday here!

Many thanks, Newsday!

More about the Justice Sotomayor piece, from Downbeat

Thanks to the wonderful Downbeat for their mention of Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra getting the commission to compose and perform a new piece in honor of United States Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Thank you very much, Downbeat!

Song for Sonia

Nate Chinen has a very nice post -- thoughtful and well-written -- at his blog The Gig about Arturo O’Farrill being commissioned to write a piece for judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Thanks, Nate!

Sotomayor Confirmed by Bronx Orchestra

Rachel Lee Harris in Arts, Briefly in The New York TImes, mentions that Symphony Space has joined with the Bronx Museum of the Arts and R. D. Rice Construction Inc. to commission a piece by Arturo O’Farrill to be performed by the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra honoring Judge Sotomayor, a Bronx native -- and quoted Arturo: “What better way to fulfill that mission than to honor the first Latina to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court?”

What better way, indeed? Very very awesome all around.

Celebrate Duke Ellington's 110th Birthday

Celebrate Duke Ellington's 110th Birthday Saturday, July 11, 2009!

2:00 p.m. – 5 p.m.
FREE
Great Hill inside the Park at Duke Ellington Blvd 
106th Street and Central Park West
For more information call 212–860–1370 or 
visit www.centralparknyc.org/110