Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy

The umbrella term “Latin jazz” doesn’t really do justice to the multifaceted genre, especially when it canopies roughly 70 years of Afro-Cuban rhythms, South American samba and distinctly American swing, to name a few key flavors. As ethnomusicologist and speaker Dr. Peter Manuel will illustrate, few New York luminaries have personified Latin music’s diversity like Grammy Award–winning Afro-Cuban musician Francisco “Machito” Grillo, whom Manuel refers to as a pioneer of big-band dance music. Manuel will introduce and discuss Carlos Ortiz’s 1987 documentary, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy. The hour-long film doesn’t merely relay Grillo’s personal story, it uses his life and music as an analog for Cuban-Americans’ migratory journey.