Chico O'Farrill. (Cuban jazz composer)(Interview)

With his rich tonal range, "Chico" (Arturo) O'Farrill is the most famous composer-arranger of Cuban and Latin jazz. He began working with the leading Havana bands in the 1940s and later worked in New York with the Afro-Cubans ("The Afro-Cuban Suite", recorded with Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips and Buddy Rich), Dizzy Gillespie ("Manteca Suite"), Benny Goodman ("Undercurrent Blues"), Stan Kenton ("Cuban Episode"), Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Clark Terry, David Bowie and Gato Barbieri. He has also composed film music and classical works, including "Three Cuban Dances" and "Symphony No. 1".

He was born in Havana to a Cuban mother and an Irish father and spent a few years in an American military academy ("my father thought it would keep me out of trouble") where he played trumpet in the school band and took his first steps in jazz. Back in Cuba, he studied law for a year, but music won the day. In …