O’Farrill is an introspective participant whose solos insinuate themselves to listeners. His new album proves he is as adept at matching wits along with his friends and elders as he’s nurturing his protégés.
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. Trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill has a particular set of bloodlines. His father is composer, pianist and impresario Arturo O’Farrill, and his mom is live performance pianist and educator Alison Deane. And that is not all. His grandfather is Afro Cuban jazz pioneer Chico O’Farrill. Adam went into the household enterprise, and regardless of the lengthy shadows of his household, jazz critic Martin Johnson says he shortly established himself as one of the crucial vital musicians of the twenty first century. He is been a facet man in a number of the key teams of latest vintages, and on his new recording, “Elephant,” on the age of 31, which is younger in jazz years, he is begun mentoring the subsequent wave of virtuosos. Martin says the longer term is in good arms.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADAM O’FARRILL’S “ALONG THE MALECON”)
MARTIN JOHNSON: The thought of a younger trumpet participant making his mark on the scene is among the cherished narratives in jazz, however Adam O’Farrill is completely different from his predecessors. He isn’t a flashy participant who stuns audiences along with his flamboyance. As an alternative, he is a extra introspective participant whose solos insinuate themselves to listeners quite than blow them away. This, too, has a lineage from Booker Little to Ron Miles. Adam O’Farrill is the subsequent virtuoso on this path, and his new recording, “Elephant,” permits extra space than any of his others to showcase his type, which often employs digital distortion as he does right here on “Bibo No Aozora.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ADAM O’FARRILL’S “BIBO NO AOZORA”)
JOHNSON: As is the case with many younger musicians, O’Farrill is keen to combine what he hears in different genres into his music. The beat on “Eleanor’s Dance” right here may be as germane to a nightclub as it will be to a dance studio. However the trumpeter and his band of younger up-and-comers navigate like previous professionals.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADAM O’FARRILL’S “ELEANOR’S DANCE”)
JOHNSON: After a decade of usually being one of many youngest members of any band, in “Elephant,” O’Farrill is mentoring some gamers youthful than he, most notably, pianist Yvonne Rogers, a superb stylist who remains to be new to the scene. She’s able to matching the vary of kinds in O’Farrill’s arsenal and tangling with them within the thorny components as they do on a bit of “Sea Triptych,” which is devoted to the nice novelist Iris Murdoch. It exhibits that O’Farrill is as adept at matching wits along with his friends and elders as he’s nurturing his proteges. “Elephant” may very well be the beginning of a pivotal group in jazz.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADAM O’FARRILL’S “SEA TRYPTYCH, PT 3: IRIS MURDOCH”)
GROSS: Martin Johnson writes for The Wall Road Journal and DownBeat. He reviewed Adam O’Farrill’s new album, “Elephant.”
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(SOUNDBITE OF ERIC DOLPHY’S “MISS ANN”)
GROSS: FRESH AIR’s government producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and critiques are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed at this time’s present. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I am Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF ERIC DOLPHY’S “MISS ANN”)
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