August 23, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Aug 23 2009

Abe Velez talks with David Katznelson of the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation and with pianist, composer and bandleader Arturo O'Farrill about the re-release of the 1961 recording Mazel Tov Mis Amigos, and its restaging at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

 

Episode segments
  • Mazel Tov Mis Amigos
    Music, Arts & Culture

    David Katznelson is co-founder of the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation a not-for-profit organization committed to exhuming lost music from America's attics.

    Arturo O'Farrill is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, jazz educator and creator of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center.
    Abe Velez

    In 1961, Latin and Jazz star Ray Barretto, Willie Rodriguez, Charlie Palmieri, Clark Terry and Doc Cheatham entered a New York City studio and recorded a legendary album, Mazel Tov Mis Amigos, under the fictitious band name, Juan Calle and His Latin Lanztmen. The album magically resounded Jewish standards in Latin time, translating somber, traditional Yiddish and Hebrew melodies into energy-laden Latin rumbas, cha-chas, and meringues.

    On August 23rd, at Lincoln Center, the process will be repeated for one night only, as the Idelsohn Society for Musical preservation will celebrate its re-release of Mazel Tov Mis Amigos as a newly remastered album by recreating it in its entirety from start to finish under the musical direction of  Arturo O'Farrill and His Afro-Cuban Sextet joined by a star-studded line up of legends and newcomers.