Arturo O’Farrill & ALJO – Premiere of the Suite The Offense of the Drum

AFRO LATIN JAZZ ALLIANCE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6/1/212 – CONTACT: Nina Gale Olson, 212/866-6634, nolson@afrolatinjazz.org

ARTURO O’FARRILL & THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA World Premiere of the Suite The Offense of the Drum Featuring A Special Exhibit in Collaboration with El Museo del Barrio & Red Rooster Chef-Owner Marcus Samuelsson’s Unique Afro-Cuban Menu and Cocktails on June 19, 21, 22, 2012 New York, NY — Ginny’s Supper Club at the famed Red Rooster in Harlem is pleased to present the world premiere of GRAMMY award winners Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s brand new suite, The Offense of the Drum, on June 19, 21, and 22 with two sets at 8pm and 10:30pm. Complementing the program will be a special exhibition of artwork by Tony Peralta, presented by El Museo del Barrio, located in East Harlem. Adding to the evening’s excitement will be Red Rooster chef-owner extraordinaire Marcus Samuelsson’s unique Afro-Cuban menu complete with signature cocktails. This multi-sensory celebration pays homage to the profound impact of Latino culture on Harlem and brings together the best of East and West Harlem culture and cuisine. Admission is: $25 seated and $10 standing. Ginny’s Supper Club is on the lower level of the Red Rooster in Harlem, located at 310 Lenox Avenue. For reservations and more information please call 212/421-3821.

Arturo O’Farrill will be premiering his new suite entitled, The Offense of the Drum, inspired by the attempt to silence drumming circles in New York City parks. A multi-movement work, it features the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with an expanded master percussion section that includes a Taiko drummer, African percussionist, Tabla player, and Jazz drummer, showcasing the various cultures and percussive traditions. The work examines the relationship between the slave trade and the drum in the new world, exploring the difference between those cultures that allowed the slaves to keep their drums and those that did not, and the resulting impact on their new world hybrid culture. The work underscores the significance of the drum in Afro Latin Jazz and pays tribute to the drum’s traditional role as a vehicle for political resistance, a transmitter of communication and celebration, and a force that draws and binds community together. The work resonates loudly in a time when the drum beats continue to carry the message of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

ABOUT ARTURO O’FARRILL

ARTURO O’FARRILL, pianist, composer, educator, and founder of the non profit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, was born in Mexico, grew up in New York, and was educated at the Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. O’Farrill 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 Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Freddy Cole, The Fort Apache Band, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. In 1995 Mr. O’Farrill agreed to direct the band that preserved much of his father’s music, the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which concluded a 15-year residency at Birdland. In 2002 Mr. O’Farrill created the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) for Jazz at Lincoln Center due to a large body of music in the genre of Latin and Afro Cuban Jazz that deserves to be much more widely appreciated. His debut album with the Orchestra, Una Noche Inolvidable, earned a GRAMMY Award nomination in 2006 and the Orchestra’s second album, Song for Chico, earned a GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2009. The ALJO’s new album, 40 Acres and a Burro, was released to critical acclaim and was nominated for a 2012 GRAMMY Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Arturo O’Farrill is a Steinway artist.

ABOUT THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA (ALJO)

The ALJO, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, was founded in 2002 by musician, composer, and educator Arturo O’Farrill to perform the full repertory of big band Afro Latin jazz, and to commission new works to advance this culturally rich genre. The ALJO was a resident orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the ALJO left Lincoln Center to pursue the twin goals of developing new audiences for big band Afro Latin jazz and of creating a robust educational program for young performers. O’Farrill founded the non profit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance that same year to pursue both the performance and educational aspects of this uniquely Pan-American art form. The ALJO is currently in its fifth season in residence at Symphony Space, and it continues to tour nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. For more info on the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, Orchestra, and Education Programs please visit: www.afrolatinjazz.org

ABOUT VISUAL ARTIST TONY PERALTA

Born in New York City’s emerging uptown neighborhood of Washington Heights to Dominican immigrant parents, Peralta was a child of hip-hop generation. His love of hip-hop music and imagery, together with a traditional Dominican upbringing in the streets of New York City, fueled his early interest in visual art. “I was always a serious aficionado of graffiti and its graphic characters,” he says. His first art influences were actually characters in Marvel Comic books and his early love of drawing continued to evolve throughout his school years. As a teenager, his eye shifted to graffiti and the work of New York downtown artist Keith Haring; at age 17, Peralta transformed his own artwork onto t-shirts, which he sold in his neighborhood. Armed with a Media Arts degree from Long Island University, Peralta began his career as a Design Director at a boutique PR/marketing agency in Manhattan. His in-house work designing logos, Web sites, and promotional materials for clients opened up outside opportunities to design graphics for fashion companies like Sean John, Goliath,Vault NY, and others. Most recently Peralta had his first solo gallery show at NoMAA Gallery, an Upper Manhattan arts organization. His exhibition titled Complejo was Peralta’s most personal work to date, and was received with great acclaim. This collection of mixed media silk screens explores the cultural complexities of being both Latin and Black.

ABOUT EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO

El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino cultural institution, welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American cultures. Their richness is represented in El Museo’s wide-ranging collections and critically acclaimed exhibitions, complemented by film, literary, visual, and performing arts series, cultural celebrations, and educational programs. Voces y Visiones: Gran Caribe will be on view at El Museo del Barrio concurrently with CARIBBEAN: Crossroads, giving visitors a deeper understanding of the Caribbean presence in American culture. Gran Caribe features works drawn from El Museo del Barrio’s wide-ranging Permanent Collection, exploring the vast diversity and complexity of the Caribbean basin. www.elmuseo.org, 1230 Fifth Avenue,New York, NY 10029

ABOUT GINNY’S SUPPER CLUB & RED ROOSTER

Owners Andrew Chapman and Marcus Samuelsson opened Ginny’s Supper Club in 2012, in the space underneath their acclaimed restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem, which opened in 2010. A modern interpretation of the glamorous clubs and parlors that were popular in the early Twentieth Century, Ginny’s Supper Club is a place where food, hand-crafted cocktails, and live music converge. Leather banquettes and carved wood arches create an inviting den, with an 18-seat bar stretched across the back of the room. With performances changing nightly, Ginny’s Supper Club features a diverse roster, from jazz, reggae, and rock musicians, to global DJs and gospel singers, to poets and authors. Local artists’ works adorn the walls throughout the Supper Club, bringing the neighborhood’s spirit into the space. Marcus Samuelsson, a James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef who holds the record for being the youngest chef to ever receive two three-star ratings from The New York Times, oversees a menu that takes inspirations from classic supper clubs, which had Southern, Chinese, and French influences on the menu. His vision is executed by Ginny’s executive chef, Jeremie Tomczak.