Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on January 2, 2026
Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Mundoagua Celebrating Carla Bley
With Mundoagua—translated as “The World of Water”—Arturo O’Farrill once again affirms that jazz, at its highest level, is not only an art form but a moral act. The album, recorded with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, has earned a 2026 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album, recognizing a work that is expansive in sound, deeply personal in spirit, and unflinchingly connected to the world it reflects.
Released on the ZOHO label, Mundoagua marks O’Farrill’s fifth album with the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and presents three large-scale, multi-movement jazz suites that move fluidly through political, spiritual, and cultural terrain. At its core, the recording is about connection—between music and conscience, past and present, memory and movement.
The album’s centerpiece includes Blue Palestine, the final composition by iconic jazz composer Carla Bley (1936–2023). Written expressly for O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, the work carries profound weight. Bley was not only a towering figure in modern jazz but also O’Farrill’s mentor and early employer in her big band, making this recording both a tribute and a continuation of a shared artistic lineage.
Producer Kabir Sehgal describes Blue Palestine as a dedication imbued with trust and reverence—an intimate final statement from a composer whose influence shaped generations. Across its four movements, the piece unfolds with patience and power, balancing lyricism and tension while allowing the orchestra’s full expressive range to breathe.
O’Farrill’s own suites—Mundoagua and Día de los Muertos—extend that same sense of purpose. From meditations on water scarcity and climate politics to reflections on death, ritual, and cultural memory, the music resists easy comfort. Instead, it insists on engagement. As O’Farrill has long maintained, art divorced from conscience is incomplete.
“I have too much respect for human beings and for their intelligence,” O’Farrill writes in the album’s liner reflections. His words echo through the music itself—honest, curious, humorous when possible, and unsparingly direct when necessary. Mundoagua does not ask listeners merely to admire its beauty, but to think, feel, and reckon.
At the piano and podium, O’Farrill leads the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with clarity and conviction, drawing from Afro-Cuban tradition, modern orchestral jazz, and global rhythmic language. The result is a recording that feels both grounded and urgent—rooted in history while speaking unmistakably to the present moment.
With its 2026 Grammy nomination, Mundoagua stands as a reminder that jazz remains a living force—capable of honoring mentors like Carla Bley, confronting the realities of our time, and offering music that is as intellectually demanding as it is emotionally resonant.
