Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band
Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band
The Pocket Jazz Club, NYC – October 29 | 7 PM & 9 PM
The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band is a Latin Grammy® Award-winning, Grammy®-nominated ensemble founded and led by drummer, bandleader, and composer Joe McCarthy, celebrating twenty-five years on the scene. Among Afro-Cuban ensembles, DownBeat Magazine calls the band “a torchbearer of the genre’s storied history and also one of its fiercest innovators.”
Before entering the studio, the band shares five original works from ONE: For Harmony, For Humanity* composed by Alex Brown, Luis Hernandez, Vince Norman, Victor Provost, and Joe McCarthy. The eighteen-piece ensemble brings the lush orchestrations to life with rhythmic drive and fearless improvisation. The music draws on Afro-Latin jazz, bebop, Afro-Peruvian, Caribbean, classical Indian, funk, and big band traditions. They come together in a sound that is vibrant, full of color, and whole, felt in the body as much as heard.
ONE is the band’s new work, forthcoming on Angelface Records, a multidisciplinary contemporary jazz album and community-centered experience. Its mission is to awaken hearts, shift perspectives, and strengthen the well-being of every community it enters, carrying the connection created at each gathering into everyday life. At its center is one question: What does UNITY mean to you?
ONE is a musical call to remember that we are one body with many parts—and to live well and love one another. It is not a call for sameness, but a celebration of difference and a journey toward unity that begins with each of us.
Together as ONE—For Harmony, For Humanity
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Andrew Gould — Alto Saxophone / Lead
Alejandro Aviles — Alto Saxophone
Ben Kono — Tenor Saxophone
Luis Hernandez — Tenor Saxophone / Composer
Frank Basile — Baritone Saxophone
Nick Marchione — Trumpet / Lead
John Walsh — Trumpet
Tatum Greenblatt — Trumpet
Diego Urcola — Trumpet
Rob Edwards — Trombone / Lead
Alan Ferber — Trombone
John Yao — Trombone
Jeff Nelson — Bass Trombone
Alex Brown — Piano / Composer
John Benitez — Bass
Joe McCarthy — Drums / Bandleader / Composer
Victor Provost — Steel Pan / Composer
Luisito Quintero — Congas / Percussion
Fareed Haque — Guitar
* This project is funded in part by the Pathways to Jazz grant, a donor-advised fund of the Boulder County Arts Alliance. ONE: For Harmony, For Humanity was supported by New Music USA’s Creator Fund in 2026-27. The New York Afro Bop Alliance recording project entitled ONE: For Harmony, For Humanity is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) charity.
