The Ori-Gen Podcast

Lara Bello is from Granada, Spain, one of the most fascinating places in a land full of fascinating places. She lives in Harlem, NYC, and her music feeds on all of that but it comes out purely hers. Host Pablo Aslan probes into her musical roots and love of words and poetry in this bilingual edition.

Multifaceted, multitalented, multicultural. Kavita Shah is naturally this, all her.  In this Episode,  host Pablo Aslan speaks with Kavita Shah about her life long pursuit of knowledge and expression, and how she manages to juggle both . They talk about the role of music in the community, and of serendipitous ways to find yourself. Pull up a chair, she's got stories to tell.

Born in Colombia, raised in Venezuela, and after more than 20 years in the city, a New Yorker, guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer Juancho Herrera creates a worldly Latin music, rooted in folkloric traditions but informed by jazz and global styles. He calls it connecting the dots. In this week´s edition of the Ori-Gen Podcast, Herrera shares his global vision in a conversation in English and Spanish with hosts Pablo Aslan and Fernando González. Latin music for the 21st century. Please join us.

In this week´s episode hosts Pablo Aslan and  Fernando González interview Colombian percussionist and composer Samuel Torres. He speaks about the depth and variety of Afro-Colombian music, how it relates to the African and indigenous rooted traditions in other countries in Latin America, and also music as a social statement. If you think playing congas in a band or an orchestra means just keeping time or setting a groove, you have not heard  Samuel. Yes he has done that and more playing in salsa and Latin jazz bands; collaborating with pop stars such as Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz, and Shakira and also with innovative artists such as singers Sofia Rei and Lara Bello and pianist Arturo O'Farrill and The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. But his imaginative melodic playing of the congas and creative composing and arranging has been also featured in concerts with the Berlin Symphoniker, the Boston Pops, Bogotá Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 2019 he won a Latin GRAMMY  in the Best Classical Album category for Regreso, a work featuring the Nueva Filarmonia Orchestra with Samuel as soloist. Give the conguero some!

Bam Rodriguez has distilled years of studying and performing in Caracas, Brussels, Amsterdam, and New York City into a thoughtful, original approach to music-making. His work has a broad range, extending from anchoring the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra to his ambient-like Music to be Bored: “meditative, restorative, creative,“ as he defines it. Hosts Pablo Aslan and Fernando Gonzalez get into all of it in Episode 3 of the Ori-gen Podcast.

 Join host Pablo Aslan with writer and music critic Fernando Gonzalez in a kitchen table conversation with pianist, composer and bandleader Arturo O'Farrill and trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, who happens to be his youngest son.  We talk about family, the long shadow of Arturo's father, the great arranger and composer Chico O'Farrill; what it was like in the O'Farrill musical household, having not just a father, a grandfather and a brother who were into the music, but also, a mother! We talk about coming of age as a Latino and the art of playing in a duet. Pull up a chair and join us.

Introducing the Ori-gen Collective, a diverse group of Latino music makers based in NYC that came together to explore and present new combinations of Latin American roots music, jazz, and technology. Host Pablo Aslan interviews Arturo O' Farril, one of the founding members and main instigators of the Ori-Gen Collective. The interview is a companion to the concert series the Ori-gen Collective is producing online. The series starts on April 30th at 9PM, and continues on Thursdays at 9PM on Facebook Live and selected online platforms.