Arturo O’Farrill: Afro-Latino Heritage Is ‘One Big Culture That We All Share’Posted in Articles, Arts, Latino Studies, Media Archive, United States on 2015-02-08 16:29Z by Steven |
Arturo O’Farrill: Afro-Latino Heritage Is ‘One Big Culture That We All Share’
The Huffington Post
Latino Voices
2015-02-06
Roque Planas, Editor
Arturo O’Farrill wants Africa to get the credit it deserves.
The New York-based pianist, composer and educator traveled Friday to Los Angeles to attend the Grammys, where his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s “The Offense of the Drum” is nominated for best Latin jazz album.
“We talk a lot about Afro-Cuban jazz, but we don’t really talk about Africa and its impact on the Dominican Republic, on Venezuela, Colombia — bro, in Peru!” O’Farrill told The Huffington Post. “There’s whole parts of Colombia where they play a music called pacífico, and the instruments that they use are direct descendants of marímbulas and instruments that you can find throughout the west coast of Africa. How do you think it got there? Cuba’s a small — maybe a very vibrant and important part of that picture — but Cuba’s just one aspect.”…
…Like the United States, most Latin American societies are a multiracial mix of largely indigenous, European and African peoples — though people of virtually all backgrounds and parts of the globe have settled in the region. In places like Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic or Brazil, where many if not most people are either black or mixed-race, African influences can be found in virtually every aspect of the culture, whether it’s the language, food or religion.
But O’Farrill says too many musicians shortchange their African heritage…
Read the entire article here.