In July of 2018, I toured all over Spain with my musical brother Zack O'Farrill, who I've played with since I moved to Brooklyn. We began the tour with Catalan double bassist Manel Fortià, and ended with Castilian double bassist Dario Guibert. At a concert in Zaragoza (Aragon), I asked Zack to play the cajon in addition to the drums. He had never played this percussion instrument, which was born in Peru and has become essential to flamenco and Spanish music. One week later he played it for the recording.

The album was recorded on July 26th, 2018 at Bogui, the legendary Madrid jazz club that recently closed. We had only one night to record. We didn't know what we would play. We didn't know how it would sound. This album is a brief glimpse into that summer. "Live In Madrid" includes flamenco grooves, Afro Cuban rhythms, contemporary jazz and conceptual compositions, but mainly it is a live recording that captures the energy and electricity of that night.

“Sepharad,” the first song of the album, is an homage to the Jewish heritage of flamenco and of Spanish culture that even the Inquisition couldn't erase. It is based on the rhythm of a flamenco groove called Seguiriya. The second song is an improvised version of the jazz standard "Caravan,” a nonstop flow of ideas and moods between us, ending in a Cuban groove called a "guajira." The third track is an explanation in Spanish of "Peace, Love & Freedom.” I explain that the piece contains three movements and invitethe audience to guess which one of the 3 movements represented peace, love or freedom. After the concert, I heard so many different answers: it was fascinating to learn how those words mean such different things to people. The 5th track of the album is a flamenco jazz fusion called "Bulería Brooklyniana." The album ends with "Conflict," a tune that I wrote when Trump was elected, followed by "Afro Blue" by Mongo Santamaria.

This is my third album as the leader of my trio, and all three have been live recordings. I am not trying to reach perfection. In fact, one of the strings of the piano even exploded (literally) during the sound check and couldn't be replaced! But I am happy to share how we played together, how we connected while sweating, struggled while laughing, had fun while crying and more importantly....how the three of us improvised together.


Albert Marquès
July 2019