AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA TO PLAY MMB CENTER MARCH 28

DAYTONA BEACH,  Fla. -- Latin Jazz.  Sounds that ignited the dance floor and revolutionized jazz.  Direct from Lincoln Center, Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis presents the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) on Saturday, March 20, 8pm at the Mary McLeod Bethune Performing Arts Center (MMB Center).   Music director and pianist Arturo O’Farrill and Marsalis tapped the ultimate practitioners of the genre to form the large ensemble, which Marsalis says, “is firmly connected to the essence of Latin jazz. They have great soloists and first-class ensemble playing.”  O’Farrill agrees:  “It’s really an all-star orchestra. Every member is a player of major stature.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra has set the New York jazz scene on fire, reinvigorating popular classics such as Carioca, Mambo Inn, Wild Jungle and Chico O’Farrill’s masterwork Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite. O’Farrill says “the idea behind the ALJO is to perform the very best of the compositions in the canon of the Afro-Latin genre.”  The ALJO’s Latin Jazz Masters Tour pays tribute to the masters of the genre - Machito, Chico O’Farrill, Mario Bauza and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

The orchestra includes saxophonists Mario Rivera, Bobby Porcelli, Erica von Kleist, Bob Franceschini and Pablo Calogero; bassist Andy Gonzales; trumpeters Ray Vega, Jim Seeley, John Walsh and Michael Philip Mossman: trombonists Reynaldo Jorge, Papo Vazquez, Douglas Purviance and Luis Bonilla: drummer Phoenix Rivera; and percussionists Joe Gonzales and Milton Cardona.

Tickets to see The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra are $39, $29, and $19 and are available at the Ocean Center Box Office, B-CC Cashier’s Office and through Ticketmaster. All tickets are subject to applicable service charges at point of purchase. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.mmbcenter.com or www.ticketmaster.com.                     

The MMB Center is located at 698 West International Speedway Blvd. at the corner of Lincoln Street. There is free, convenient parking adjacent to the MMB Center.  Free roundtrip shuttle service escorts concertgoers to and from the parking lots to the auditorium.

Arturo O’Farrill (Music Director and Piano) was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Educated at the Manhattan School of Music and the Brooklyn College Conservatory, Arturo played piano with the Carla Bley Big Band from 1979 through 1983. He then went on to develop as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Papo Vazquez, The Fort Apache Band, Lester Bowie, and Harry Belafonte. In 1995, Arturo agreed to direct the band that preserved much of his father’s music, Chico O’Farrill’s Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which has been in residence at New York City’s Birdland for the past few years as well as performing throughout the world. Besides recording three albums as a leader for Milestone Records, 32 Jazz, and M & I (Bloodlines, A Night in Tunisia, and Cumana Bop), Arturo has appeared on numerous records including Habanera with Alberto Shiroma, and the soundtrack to the critically-acclaimed movie Calle 54. Arturo was a special guest soloist at three landmark Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts—Afro-Cuban Jazz: Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, November 1995; Con Alma: The Latin Tinge in Big Band Jazz, September 1998; and the 2001 Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala: The Spirit of Tito Puente, November 2001.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, these productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children's concerts, lectures, adult education courses, film programs, and student and educator workshops.

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Bethune-Cookman is a comprehensive college, which offers degrees in liberal arts as well as professional fields, such as business, education and nursing. A United Methodist Church-affiliated school, the College has a diverse and international student population of more than 2,700 and a solid reputation for academic excellence and community service. As evidence of its outstanding program, the College has been listed in the Templeton Honor Roll of Character Building Colleges and Universities, and it was ranked by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the “Top 50” schools in the nation for black students.  B-CC is one of 10 charter member colleges of Project Pericles, a program to create civic leadership and involvement on its member campuses.  The College will celebrate its 100^th year of founding on October 4, 2004.

For more information, contact our website www.bethune.cookman.edu. 

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