Interview: Janine Santana with Arturo O’Farrill—Fandango at the Wall

KUVO’s Janine Santana sat down with bandleader Arturo O’Farrill to discuss his new feature music documentary Fandango at the Wall – premiering  Friday, September 25 on HBO Latino on with additional HBO broadcasts scheduled for the subsequent days and available to stream on HBO Max in the United States. Directed by Varda Bar-Kar and executive produced by Quincy Jones, Andrew Young, and Carlos Santana — Fandango at the Wall follows Multi-GRAMMY Award-winning musician Arturo O’Farrill and Multi-GRAMMY Award-winning producer Kabir Sehgal who journey to Veracruz, Mexico to recruit master musicians for a live album recording at the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

At the heart of Fandango at the Wall is the “Fandango Fronterizo” music festival that takes place annually on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border. Jorge Francisco Castillo, who founded the festival, invites Sehgal and O’Farrill to Veracruz, Mexico to meet the masters of son jarocho, which is a 300-hundred-year-old folk music. With musicians on both sides of the US-Mexico border wall, the festival becomes a celebration of friendship and unity. Fandango at the Wall features remarkable and dynamic music that blends quintessential son jarocho songs with lush big band jazz arrangements.

Janine’s conversation with O’Farrill also covers how this music overcomes the separation of people, family influences, and how multiculturalism transforms musical experiences. 

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