Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - The Offense of the Drum (CD)

2015 57th GRAMMY Winner for Best Latin Jazz Album. With its clave patterns, piano guajeos, and bass tumbaos, Afro Latin Jazz is indeed the flowering of what Jelly Roll Morton called the “Spanish tinge” of jazz. Yet while the roots of Afro Latin Jazz are intertwined with those of jazz, like a colony of Aspen trees, this music seems to stand alone with its own canon, characters, and culture. We think we know this music. That’s why Arturo O’Farrill wanted to bend it. To create a new form, a new sound, “Musica Nueva,” a new direction for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He certainly succeeded.