For his Blue Note debut, pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill leads a big band thourgh some rich dark and well textured Afro Cuban originals. The predominant feature here is the overwhelming percussion instruments, with the avalanche delivered by Vince Cherico, Victor Pablo Garcia Gaetan and Carlos Maldonado teaming up with drummer Zack O’Farrill and bassist Jose Rodriguez Platiau. Along with Travis Reuter/g, Alejandro Aviles/fl-sax, Rafi Malkiel/tb-eu and Adam O’Farrill/tp, the leader brings lovely chords and rich textures to pieces such as “Del Mar”, the darkly sauntered “Beauty Cocoon” and the elegiac “I Wish We Was”. Puffy brass melds with floating flute on the soulful “How I Love”with the leader plugging in, contrasted with splattering horns with dots and dashes on “Struggles and Strugglets”. Aviles rides a white knuckler on “Scalular” while his soprano is elegant with melancholic piano moments on the thoughtful “War Bird Man”. Textured, complex, sophisticated but still grabbing the viscera.