ARTURO O’FARRILL, pianist, composer, educator, and founder and Artistic Director of the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. In 2002, Mr. O’Farrill created the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) for Jazz at Lincoln Center due in part to a large and very demanding body of substantial music in the genre of Latin and Afro Cuban Jazz that deserves to be much more widely appreciated and experienced by the general jazz audience. His debut album with the Orchestra, Una Noche Inolvidable, earned a GRAMMY Award nomination in 2006 and the Orchestra’s second album, Song for Chico, earned a GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2009. In February 2011, Mr. O’Farrill and the ALJO released their third and newest album, 40 Acres and a Burro, which was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. He is the winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award for 2003.
 
continue reading at arturoofarrill.com…
 
Arturo O’Farrill official site
on Facebook
Arturo O’Farrill on Twitter
Arturo O’Farrill on YouTube

Adegoke Steve Colson – pianist, composer, saxophonist, historian, educator – performs internationally as a soloist and leader of ensembles ranging from trios to orchestras. His work appears on labels including Columbia/Sony, Evidence, and Black Saint. Born in Newark and raised in East Orange, NJ, Steve started writing music during his high school years. He earned his degree from Northwestern University School of Music and joined the influential musicians’ collective, the Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1972 while living in Chicago. He returned to the east coast in 1982, moving to Montclair, NJ. His projects have featured modern innovators – Reggie Workman, David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Malachi Favors, Joseph Jarman, Anthony Davis, Andrew Cyrille, Tyshawn Sorey, Oliver Lake among many other musicians; and collaborations including master artists of other disciplines such as poet/activist Amiri Baraka, dancer/choreographer Carmen de Lavallade and artist Willie Cole. He co-owns recording label Silver Sphinx with wife and musical partner Iqua, and their first release in 1980 later became part of Gilles Peterson’s 2011 compilation Freedom, Rhythm & Sound which credited them as the early roots of the “indie” movement alongside such independent innovators as Maurice White, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Mary Lou Williams. Ade is featured on 14 recordings, 6 as ensemble leader and one solo piano.

Ade is a decorated composer having received several commissions from entities including American Composer’s Forum, Meet the Composer, AT&T, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, National Endowment for the Arts, and Absolute Jazz for National Lost Jazz Shrines project – which supported arranging, orchestrating and conducting the music of stride master Willie “The Lion” Smith. Ade’s “Suite Harlem”, commissioned through South Arts Jazz Road supported by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, premiered in New York City June 2022 and commission from Fromm Music Foundation – lead to International Contemporary Ensemble premiering his “Mirrors” in New York during their 2023 season. Some of his over 200 works for small ensemble have also been recorded by other pivotal artists such as bassist Richard Davis, trumpeter/composer Hannibal and most recently by Andrew Cyrille on his ECM Release, “The News”.

He was personally honored by his alma mater in 2024 when The Northwestern University Libraries purchased the Adegoke Steve Colson and Iqua Colson Archives including scores, compositions and artifacts relative to their varied and prolific careers.

Always involved in education, Steve was one of 21 artist-educators selected from across the U.S. by the National Endowment of the Arts to pilot the national concept of Artist Residencies in the 1980s. He is currently artist in residence in Jazz Studies at Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing & Fine Arts; lectures internationally; and is a professor in the Bloomfield College at Montclair State Creative Arts & Technology Department where he helped shape the vision and concept over 30 years ago as part of an initiative led by The Office of the President.

Ade was inducted into the East Orange, NJ Hall of Fame (2018), joining distinguished individuals from his hometown including well-known figures Althea Gibson, Dionne Warwick, John Amos, Whitney Houston and Naughty by Nature.

In 2024, The Northwestern University Libraries purchased The Adegoke Steve Colson and Iqua Colson Archives including scores, compositions and artifacts relative to the first 50 years of their varied and prolific careers; an honor as they are now documented at Ade’s alma-mater among one of the largest and most venerated music collections in the U.S., known for an unmatched strength in contemporary music.

Samora Pinderhughes official site | Samora Pinderhughes on Twitter | Samora Pinderhughes on Soundcloud

Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes is a composer/pianist/vocalist, known for large multidisciplinary projects and for his use of music to examine sociopolitical issues. A graduate of Juilliard, Samora has performed in venues including the White House, MoMA, the Sundance Film Festival, and Carnegie Hall, and has toured internationally with artists including Branford Marsalis, Christian Scott, and Emily King. His album The Transformations Suite was released in October 2016 to great acclaim, recently profiled in the NY Times & NPR.

A composer for film and theatre as well, Samora is the musical director for the Public Theater’s #BARS workshop, and is a Sundance Composers Lab fellow for film scoring. He has written songs for Common, Lalah Hathaway, and more. Samora is also a member of Blackout for Human Rights, the arts & social justice collective founded by Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay; and was musical director for their #MLKNow and #JusticeForFlint events. He most recently scored the documentary “Whose Streets”, which opened this year’s Sundance Film Festival.