Jazz at Lincoln Center opens season with new suite ‘Ochas,’ drawing on Afro-Cuban tradition

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Wynton Marsalis has opened Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new season with the world premiere of “Ochas,” a three-movement suite blending jazz with the traditional folkloric music of Cuba.

At a pre-concert reception Thursday night, Marsalis said the season would be “a spectacular journey through the Americas celebrating the depth, diversity and influence of jazz in the Caribbean and North, South and Central America.”

Marsalis collaborated with the influential Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdez and rising Cuban percussion star Pedrito Martinez on a commission to create “Ochas.”

The suite, built around a dialogue between the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Cuban bata drummers, draws on the rhythms and chants of the Afro-Cuban Santeria religion.