The Santiago Big Band featuring Marcos Fernández & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra featuring Arturo O’Farrill have teamed up to bring us the luxuriant new recording, Santiago Brooklyn Santiago.

Yes, you heard that right, Arturo O’Farrill pairs up with Cuban pianist Marcos Fernández and Cuba’s Santiago Big Band in a historic collaboration. Santiago, Cuba, is a place where folks know their local culture, lore, and history. A place where buildings have etched brick detailing and names like Casa Lescay.

A place where the arts are beloved, and the Corneta China leads throngs of revelers. A place where young filmmakers, dancers, musicians, writers also begin their careers. A place where your soul is fed by knowledge, community and maduros.

Furthermore, Santiago is where O’Farrill first met the master musician Marcos Fernández (also known as El Brujo Del Tumbao), at his home. He had a piano and they immediately started playing for each other, together and in a round robin frenzy of pure music bonding. He also gave him a reading with the shells and told him things about himself that you could not possibly know unless you were him!

Often Santiago is called the real Cuba, which is probably because it is closer to Cuba’s African roots than Havana. The music here is profound and profoundly loved. This is the home of Son, and the practitioners are the originators. La Familia Varela, El Quarteto de Saxofon de Juan Chacon, La Conga de Los Hoyas, these are profoundly gifted, deeply rooted musicians with a command of the most authentic of Cuban musical languages.

1. Piano Prelude
2. Cha
3. Almendra
4. Asia Minor
5. Bilongo
6. Pitbull Mambo
7. Ay, Mama Ines
8. Iron Jungle
9. Dialogo
10. Crazy City (... But I Love It)
11. Santiago Brooklyn Santiago
12. El Manicero

The album opens on a decadently jagged solo number, Piano Prelude and then brings us a romantically-hued Cha, the free flowing hipsway of Almendra, the tempered Latin swing of Asia Minor, the golden days dancefloor flashback within the sprightly Bilongo, and then comes the taut melodies within Pitbull Mambo.

Along next is the playfully rambunctious Ay, Mama Ines and the drum-led rhythmic beauty Iron Jungle, the heated swirl of Dialogo, the album rounding out on the triumphantly sculpted Crazy City (... But I Love It), the all-embracing warmth of Santiago Brooklyn Santiago, coming to a close on the elegantly-imbibed El Manicero.

Rumba, Guaganco, Comparsa, Son, Cha Cha, Mambo, Timba, it’s all here and in it’s greatest expression. These are the waters in which Marcos swims and in which he excels even beyond what one could expect from a people that excel in all things artistic.

Indeed, this record began as a phone conversation between Marcos and O’Farrill in which we were looking for ways to collaborate, not an easy thing for two people who play the same instrument. He and Marcos shared musicians from of each of our groups and a true collaboration was given birth.

Marcos and his musicians recorded in Santiago and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra recorded in their homes. Guest soloists from each group played on each other’s recordings and finally after many months a unique recording was produced.

www.arturoofarrill.com

www.musicmarcos.com