Inspired by the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Arturno O’Farrill has recorded his solo-piano debut. Titled The Noguchi Sessions, the 12-track disc will be released on the Zoho label on July 10.

“I performed at a gala at The Noguchi Museum,” O’Farrill says of the album’s origin, “and I noticed how in many of Noguchi’s stone sculptures there’s a section, maybe a side or an angle, that is unfinished. He had such a mastery over these huge stone and metal structures, and yet he left parts of his raw material untouched. It’s almost as if he were inviting the viewer to complete the piece, to enter the conversation.”

The pianist adds that Noguchi’s solid pieces “also capture the transient nature of life.”

“When you are in a room surrounded by objects that weigh several tons, you definitely feel your fragility, the transience of being a bag of skin and bones. We are not permanent. And Noguchi captures that fleetingness of our lives in his work.”

If all this struck a chord with O’Farrill, it was in part because, as he sees it, “there is an unfinished quality to jazz. It’s not supposed to be finished. The best jazz has a certain roughness. It’s not supposed to be all perfectly polished.”

It’s not by chance then that O’Farrill chose The Noguchi Museum, in Long Island City, New York, as a setting to record his solo-piano debut. “I have waited to record solo piano,” O’Farrill writes in his notes to The Noguchi Sessions. “It is the scariest thing a pianist can do. But that’s not why. I think it’s because I feel a bit like an outsider.”

In Noguchi, an American of mixed descent, O’Farrill—born in Mexico to a Cuban father and a Mexican mother but raised in New York—saw himself in an unexpected mirror. And in Noguchi’s multifaceted approach to his work—painting, drawing, sculpting and designing furniture, lighting and public spaces—he found a kindred spirit. O’Farrill has not only performed as a soloist, and led and composed for small and large ensembles (including the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra), he’s also created his own organization. The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance is a non-profit organization committed to advancing the performance and educational aspects of the music.

“While I would not have the hubris to imagine myself as profound as the master,” writes O’Farrill in his notes, “I think I understand why he felt this way and created his own path. It’s about the art.”

For The Noguchi Sessions, O’Farrill simply set up his piano in one of the galleries of the Museum after closing time and played, recording the whole album in one sitting.

“I had been working on some of these pieces for the past two years at the Puppet’s Jazz Bar, a little club here in Brooklyn where I played every Wednesday. Sometimes I’d have 20 people, sometimes there would be two people,” recalls O’Farrill. “It was a very interesting experience. By the time of the recording I had things all worked out. But when I sat down to play, I kind of abandoned the game plan I had and entered a very exposed and vulnerable, truly improvisational space.”

Of Noguchi, O’Farrill says: “There is a thickness, a kind of dense quality to his work. But I find that’s one of the magical things about Noguchi’s work. Some of his pieces weigh tons—they would crush you if they fell on you—yet they seem to soar. So when I sat down to playing, I tried to capture that density, that weight, but also the lightness.”

Photo credit: Andrew Lepley

Tags: Arturo O’Farrill, Isamu Noguchi