On Sunday, August 21, The Knockturnal was invited to experience a magical musical evening on Little Island.
The weather was perfect and the water was calm surrounding Little Island’s amphitheater aka The Amph, which is 687 seat performance space facing the Hudson River. Grammy Award winning pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill and nonprofit the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (ALJA) along with presenting partner Little Island hosted the North American premiere of the acclaimed The Cuban Khaleeji Project from Friday, August 19 – Sunday, August 21, 2022. The concert event was originally commissioned and presented by NYU-Abu Dhabi Arts Center (2019) and it was an honor to attend the stateside premiere. The evening featured a wonderful fusion of Afro Cuban jazz and the music of the Middle East and North Africa. No concert event was the same as each performance featured improvisation.
O’Farrill led listeners on an exploration of the Arab, Moorish, and North African roots of Afro Latin and Afro Cuban music and the seafaring music of the Arabian Gulf. The Cuban Khaleeji Project was inspired by the work of author Ned Sublette, who traced the connection between Arabic and Afro Cuban music as it traveled via the Strait of Gibraltar and Andalucia, Spain. For The Cuban Khaleeji Project, the 18-piece Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and was joined by special guests Ghazi Al-Mulaifi & Boom.Diwan (Kuwaiti styles), Ali Obaid (Emirati oudist and founder of the band Takht Al Emarat), Yazz Ahmed (British-Bahraini trumpet player) and Malika Zarra (mezzo-soprano Moroccan jazz vocalist who sings in Berber, Moroccan Arabic, French, and English). I had never thought about the connection between afro latin / cuban jazz music and the middle east until attending this event, but left enlightened. I felt like I was transported to the middle east with all of this beautiful music and while I had not heard of these renowned artists previously, I left a fan.
The evening was made possible by the Mellon Foundation, The Arnhold Foundation, Donald A Pels Charitable Trust, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Hispanic Federation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Healthfirst, NYC H+H/Queens Hospital, Spectrasonics, Steinway and Sons and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.