Over the course of the last decade, Brooklyn native Adam O’Farrill, has cemented himself as one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the international contemporary jazz scene, and is widely recognized as a “rising star as a player and composer” (PopMatters) and “a blazing young trumpet talent” (The New York Times). Of course, none of this comes as any surprise, considering the rich musical lineage into which he was born: Adam’s grandfather was the boundary-pushing Cuban composer & arranger, Chico O’Farrill; his father is the composer, pianist & activist, Arturo O’Farrill; his mother, Alison Deane, is a classical pianist & educator; his brother and frequent collaborator, Zack O’Farrill, is a drummer & musicologist. Adam himself has been featured with the likes of Hiromi, Mary Halvorson, Vijay Iyer, Anna Webber, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mulatu Astatke, Samora Pinderhughes, Son Lux, & Kaoru Watanabe, and has garnered widespread acclaim as a leader in his own right. Adam has released 4 albums documenting his longtime quartet Stranger Days, including 2024’s HUESO, which The Washington Post called, “strikingly original.” HUESO features saxophonist Xavier Del Castillo, bassist Walter Stinson, and his brother Zack on drums in the chord-less setting that has served as the vehicle for the lion’s share of O’Farrill’s output as a composer. The band’s previous album, Visions of Your Other, was named one of 2021’s best jazz albums by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Popmatters, and was awarded the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in January 2022. Adam has received awards and recognition for both his compositions and his work as an improviser. In 2014, he won 3rd place honors in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition, and in both 2019 and 2021, he won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Rising Star Trumpeter. Adam has received commissions and grants from organizations such as The Shifting Foundation, South Arts, Roulette, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Metropolis Ensemble, The Jazz Gallery, as well as winning the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Adam holds a B.M. in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. During his time there, he studied composition with Reiko Füting, and trumpet with Laurie Frink, Thomas Smith, & Cecil Bridgewater. Previous to college, O’Farrill’s teachers included Jim Seeley, Nathan Warner & Ambrose Akinmusire, and he attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts, in Manhattan.
Adam and I had a chance to get together ahead of the September 4th show at the North Street Cabaret. He is bringing his latest project ELEPHANT here with the same cast of players that are on the album of the same name that was released at the end of March:
Adam O’Farrill- trumpet/electronics, fender rhodes
Yvonne Rogers- piano, synthesizer
Walter Stinson- double bass
Russell Holzman- drums
We dive into both the event and that album to find out how both came to be, how it was possible to bring the same players on the road and how he takes the past and works in the future to create a unique now sound.
