Cuban Blues: The Chico O'Farrill Sessions

Disc 1
1	Avocadoes 2:43
2	Taboo 2:52
3	Jatp Mambo 2:46
4	Duerme 2:45
5	Almendra 2:38
6	The Disappearance 2:56
7	Cuban Blues 3:05
8	Sin Titulo 2:27
9	Dance One 3:14
10	Bright One 2:34
11	Flamingo 3:36
12	Last One 2:54
13	Tierra Va Tembla 3:01
14	Vamos Pa la Rumba 2:39
15	Mambo Korula 3:07
16	Frizilandia 2:27
17	Peanut Vendor 2:33
18	Ill Wind 2:48
19	Malagueña 3:14
20	Castigala 3:12
21	Second Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite 16:46
Disc 2
1	Havana Special 3:03
2	Carioca 3:05
3	Fiesta Time 3:16
4	Heat Wave 3:35
5	It Ain't Necessarily So 3:14
6	Guess What? 2:57
7	Cry Baby Blues 2:49
8	Lamento 2:39
9	You Stepped out of a Dream 2:35
10	Cachita 2:34
11	Rumbonsito 2:18
12	Te Quiero Dijiste 2:21
13	Siboney 2:48
14	Angel's Flight 2:27
15	Tres Palabras 2:26
16	No Te Importe Saber 2:18
17	Vaya Con Dios (May God Be with You) 2:57
18	Pianarabatibiri 2:20
19	L.A. Mambo 2:11
20	Quiereme Mucho 2:28
21	More Mambo 2:50
22	Mambo for Bunto 2:13
23	Botellero 2:39
24	Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite / Machito & His Afro-Cubans 17:14

Barnes & Noble

During the first blush of mambomania, one composer-arranger emerged as the music's class act -- Chico O'Farrill, whose sophisticated knowledge of jazz harmonies and the rhythms of his native Cuba as unimpeachable. He wrote -- and, in the late '90s, continues to write -- some of the most glamorous, ambitious orchestral music jazz has ever heard. Fortunately, from 1950 to 1954 O'Farrill had a patron saint in Norman Granz, the farsighted record producer who gave carte blanche to O'Farrill's imagination. This double CD packs about two and a half hours of lush, heady orchestral works, including the landmark "Afro-Cuban Suite," featuring the Machito Orchestra with such guests as Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, and Buddy Rich; the less familiar, but no less stunning, "Second Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite," and 43 other originals and Cuban standards, all magnificently played by the crémé de la crémé of the early '50s Latin and jazz worlds: Mario Bauza, Roy Eldridge, Candido, Jo Jones, Rene Hernandez, and Bill Harris, among them. Sublime. Lee Jeske

All Music Guide

For any and all Latin jazz collectors, casual or serious, this is a fabulous deal, for it gathers together no less than six exceedingly rare Chico O'Farrill Clef and Norgran 10" albums, plus one under Machito's name, onto a slimline two-CD set. It will also come as a revelation to anyone who might scoff at anything associated with the 1950s mambo craze, for these discs reveal O'Farrill as a sophisticated, even daring arranger/composer who reached beyond merely providing a beat for dancers. Many of these charts -- whether for the brief, dance-oriented Latin numbers; ultra-familiar standards like "Malaguena" and "The Peanut Vendor"; or jazz tunes -- are loaded with intricate figures and striking harmonies obviously gleaned from classical study, all crisply executed with a brash, shiny edge by his Afro-Cuban groups and bands staffed by American jazzmen. Occasionally, he even conjures a delicate, classical ambience from a number like "Angels' Flight" (named after Los Angeles' legendary downtown funicular). The apotheosis of O'Farrill's experiments are his two full-blown, groundbreaking Afro-Cuban jazz suites. The first features Flip Phillips and the redoubtable Charlie Parker as soloists within the {|Machito|} band, and the second is even bolder in its zigzag journey through the classical, Latin, and jazz camps. Yet for all of his erudition, O'Farrill never forgets to ask for madly percolating Afro-Cuban grooves from his rhythm teams -- which clinches the deal for any Latin music fan. Richard S. Ginell