Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Octet

Right after his live performance with the Cuban Mapalso Dance Company for the International Summer Festival opening, piano virtuoso Arturo O’Farrill makes his Elbphilharmonie debut.

With a total of six Grammy Awards, the pianist Arturo O’Farrill is among the most formative reinventors of Latin Jazz. The son of Cuban Jazz pioneer Chico O’Farrill, Arturo is a sensitive crossover artist who toggles between different eras and styles. Free of nostalgia, he blends Latin American elements with the influences of Jazz pioneers, like Mario Bauza and Tito Puente, whose pieces are also part of the octet’s repertory. O’Farrill is also interested in the contemporary spirit and future of Latin Jazz, whose polyrhythmic complexity becomes euphorically light in his hands – far from salsa-music clichés or self-referential Jazz abstractions. O’Farrill’s sound gives off energy, as, in the days directly before the Elbphilharmonie concert, the International Summer Festival opening will show you how: For the first time ever, the Malpaso Dance Company, currently the most exciting contemporary dance group in Cuba, will come to Europe – accompanied live by Arturo O’Farrill and his octet.