Arturo O’Farrill is a six-time Grammy winner, two-time Latin Grammy winner, and one of the defining voices in Latin jazz working today. As founder and artistic director of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Belongó, O’Farrill has spent over two decades building not just a body of work, but a movement.
Arturo O’Farrill NYC Performances
Arturo O’Farrill x Vincent Hsu: Spirits from Both Sides
Six-time Grammy winner Arturo O’Farrill teams with Taiwanese bassist and composer Vincent Hsu for a one-night fusion of Afro Cuban and Afro Taiwanese jazz traditions.
Flushing Town Hall
Flushing, Queens
Sat, August 15, 2026 | 8:00pm
$40+
O’Farrill and Hsu first joined forces at Havana’s Plaza Jazz Festival, and this marks their US debut together. Expect big band brass, Afro Latin rhythm, and Hsu’s Taiwanese-inflected compositions sharing the same stage, with the dance floor cleared for the audience. Stick around after the set for a conversation between the two bandleaders on the roots and future of the collaboration.
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at The Pocket
O’Farrill leads the 18-piece Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra through a weekly Tuesday night residency, continuing a weekly tradition that his father Chico started nearly three decades ago. The Orchestra plays alone when Arturo is touring.
The Pocket
Times Square Theater District, Manhattan
Tuesdays | 7:00pm and 9:00pm
$25+
The residency has moved through some of New York’s most storied rooms over the decades, and its current home at The Pocket keeps the tradition alive in a 170-seat listening room in the Theater District. Expect a broad sweep of repertoire each week, from Latin jazz classics to new commissions, performed by an orchestra built from some of the city’s most in-demand musicians.
Musical Style
O’Farrill works in Latin jazz, with roots planted firmly in Afro Cuban jazz. His arrangements pull from big band tradition while pushing into contemporary composition, blending Afro Latin rhythm with modern jazz harmony.
Notable Works
Song for Chico, released in 2008, won O’Farrill his first Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, a tribute to his father’s legacy and a defining early statement of his own voice.
The Offense of the Drum, released in 2015, took home another Grammy in the same category, further cementing the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s place at the top of the genre.
Four Questions, released in 2020, won Best Latin Jazz Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards, proof that decades into his career, O’Farrill continues to push the music forward rather than resting on it.
Arturo O’Farrill’s Legacy
Grammy wins are almost routine for O’Farrill at this point, but his real legacy in New York runs deeper than the trophy case. In 2007, he founded the nonprofit now known as Belongó, which puts instruments and musical instruction directly into the hands of New York City public school students.
He has held teaching posts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and SUNY Purchase, and most recently served as the Bill Evans Fellow at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
He also leads the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s weekly NYC residency, a tradition his father Chico O’Farrill started nearly three decades ago and that Arturo has now carried for almost 30 years running, most recently landing at The Pocket in Midtown.
Where some artists chase the next paycheck, O’Farrill has spent his career reinvesting in the culture that raised him, training the musicians who will carry Latin jazz into its next chapter. Two decades into leading the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, O’Farrill has earned his place as one of the godfathers of Latin music in New York City.
One last thing. Musical genius tends to pass down through Latin families. The O’Farrill sons are great musicians on their own. Like their dad and grandfather, they can play the music beautifully AND tell you how and why it came to be. They are a great musical family.