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In the liner notes to "Virtual Birdland," Arturo O'Farrill observes, "The images of 2020 were scary, nights of ambulance sirens, freezer trucks, sleeplessness, a nation's economy brought to a halt. Jobs lost, businesses, restaurants, and yoga studios shuttered. With the exception of some high-tech companies and the well ensconced, everybody suffered.
"There were other images. Women and men in scrubs and face shields facing an onslaught of suffering with quiet strength. … People at the lower rungs of the socioeconomic strata who, just by showing up to work, conferred upon themselves wealth of character. Images of violence visited upon young black lives, millions marching in defiance of that hatred. … We saw who was who and what was what and can never unsee the differences. Into this reality we meet a group of musicians, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. One week they're looking at gainful employment. The next they're faced with the reality that the work they've prepared for their whole lives has disappeared."
The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra has had a weekly gig at New York's Birdland. This was impacted by the Pandemic, along with other free-lancers. O'Farrill noted that "At the beginning of this crisis the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance created an emergency fund for the freelance community, and the orchestra began a weekly stream to raise money to help artists. The production schedule involves musicians donating their time to record individually for hours at a time, then videographers and sound engineers spending days assembling, mixing, syncing, and editing the offering that is shown once a week on Facebook and YouTube." This led to the present recording, the motivation behind which O'Farrill details more fully in his liner notes, which arose with the technology that allowed a brilliant jazz big band recording to occur despite the fact the musicians were physically separate.
The opening "Gulab Jamon" is a multi-dimensional composition with a mix of tropical Afro Cuban rhythms and shifting, and often turbulent orchestral textures with Jasper Dutz's energetic tenor sax as well as the leader's intricate piano solo. Malika Zarra's "Pouvoir," arranged by Kali Rodriguez-Peña, brings an irresistible African groove with ebullient vocals and bras solos set against the vibrant horns. Rafi Malkiel's "Desert" has an exotic flavor (in the manner of Juan Tizol's "Caravan") with the band conjuring caravans on an ancient Middle Eastern trade route. There are intriguing solos from the composer on Euphonium and trumpeter Seneca Black. Then there is the high-spirited interpretation of Larry Willis' "Nightfall," with superior solos from Rachel Therrien on flugelhorn and Ivan Renta on tenor sax and Miguel Blanco's gorgeous arrangement.
Other tracks here are a similarly high level. Especially noted is the Orchestra's rendition of Paquito D'Rivera's buoyant "Samba For Carmen" with a riveting alto sax solo from D'Rivera followed by Adam O'Farrill's red-hot trumpet. The late Chico O'Farrill's arrangement was employed here. Then there is the superb, explosive rendition of Tito Puente's "Para Los Rumberos" with its memorable, recognizable theme and punchy horns. With excellent arrangements and compositions, along with the excellence and joy of the performers who collaborated from all over the globe, this is one of the best Big Band recordings, not simply Latin Big Band recordings, in recent years.
I received my review copy from a publicist. Here Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra perform "Gulab Jamon."
