For those unaware, the Latin Grammy Award-winning New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band (NYABABB) is an Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble based in New York City.

As winner of Latin Jazz Album of the Year at the 9th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2008 for the recording “Afro Bop Alliance, featuring Dave Samuels,” released on the Heads-Up label, this recording was also nominated for a Grammy in the same category that same year at the 51st Grammy Awards.

NYABABB was founded and is led by drummer Joe McCarthy. The band is comprised of first call Jazz and Latin Jazz players from New York City who collectively perform with the greatest names in the business.

The band draws from their own extensive catalog of charts featuring the writing and composing talents of members of the band and collaborations with Dave Samuels and Roland Vazquez, among others.

The music of NYABABB has long been inspired by the great bebop tradition, married to the rich rhythmic stylings of Afro-Caribbean music.

Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band Returns with The Pan American Nutcracker Suite, a Pan-Afro Reimagining of the Tchaikovsky Classic on September 9th, 2022 via Angelface Records.

1. Overture
2. March
3. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
4. Trepak
5. Arabian Dance
6. Chinese Dance
7. Dance of the Reed Flutes
8. Waltz of the Flowers

Opening on the totally wild and vibrantly alive Overture, the album continues onward in much the same vein with the expressive March and then comes the Latin-hipsway within Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the strongly assertive Trepak, and then we get the wondrous pairing of the earnestly stirring Arabian Dance and the upbeat and joyous Chinese Dance.

Next up is the free flowing majesties found within the rhythmically exuberant Dance of the Reed Flutes and then comes the closing, and most well known of the works (most notably in British TV), the enthusiastically ebullient Waltz of the Flowers.

The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band:
Nick Marchione | trumpet
John Chudoba | trumpet
Brandon Lee | trumpet
Alex Norris | trumpet
Andrew Gould | alto saxophone
Alejandro Aviles | alto saxophone
Ben Kono | tenor saxophones
Luis Hernandez | tenor saxophones
Frank Basile | baritone saxophone
Mark Patterson | trombone
Ryan Keberle | trombone
John Yao | trombone
James Borowski | bass trombone
Luis Perdomo | piano
Vinny Valentino | guitar
Boris Kozlov | bass
Samuel Torres | percussion

Official Website