CHESTERTOWN, MD— On Saturday, March 28, the Premier Artist Concert Series at Washington College welcomes the Latin Grammy-winning Afro Bop Alliance to Hotchkiss Recital Hall, Gibson Center for the Arts, for an evening of polyrhythmic grooves, harmonic colorings and improvisational flights with Latin flair. 

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Individual tickets, available online and at the door, are $20 (adults) and $15 (WC Faculty/Staff, adults over 65, and non-WC students). Washington College students, and children are admitted for free. For information on the full Washington College Concert Series and for tickets, visit washcoll.edu/concert. 

The Afro Bop Alliance is a seven-piece ensemble directed by percussionist Joe McCarthy. Based in D.C., the band has performed throughout the region, including gigs at the Kennedy Center, Rams Head On Stage, and The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. It has released five albums, including Afro Bop Alliance, featuring Dave Samuels, which won the Latin Grammy Award for Latin Jazz Album of the Year in 2008. 

In addition to McCarthy, the ensemble members are Harry Appelman (pianist), Luis Hernandez (saxophones), Tim Stanley (trumpet and flugelhorn), Tom Baldwin (bass), Victor Provost (steel pan), and Vince Norman (saxophone, music arranger). Composing their own music and pulling inspiration from be-bop and Afro-Caribbean music, the musicians together achieve what jazz musician and 14-time Grammy Award winner Paquito D’Rivera describes as a mix “so balanced that you never feel that the music is too Latin to be jazz or too jazzy to be Latin.” 

Members of the Afro Bop Alliance. The Premier Artist Concert Series at Washington College showcases nationally and internationally known musicians who are “entertaining, inspiring, educational and intellectually provocative.”  For more information about the Afro Bop Alliance performance and the concert series, email concertseries@washcoll.edu or visit washcoll.edu/concert.

—Kaitlyn Fowler ’17