Meet Irio O' Farrill

An Interview with Irio O'Farrill

Hi Irio, how many years have you been playing?
I've been a professional musician for almost forty years now, but I didn't start playing the bass until my second year in college.  I was a bass trombone and tuba player before that both of which I had already been playing professionally.

What was your first instrument?
My first instrument was guitar.  My father bought me an acoustic guitar when I was eleven or twelve years old.

What musicians influenced you?
As a bass player, I've been very influenced by James Jameson, Jaco Pastourious, Marcus Miller, Ron Carter, and Paul Chambers just to name a few.  I've also been influenced by different horn players and singers.

How many bands have you been in?
Too many to count.  I'm a freelance musician, so I play with a lot of different people in many different genres of music.

What's it like to gig?
It depends on the gig.  Most gigs are a lot of fun, simply because I'm playing my instrument and I'm getting paid to do it.  I'm very fortunate that I get to play with world class musicians all the time.  There are gigs that are really amazing.  Everyone is at the top of their game and everything is clicking just right.  Those are the gigs that are transcendental and remind me of why I do what I do.  Occasionally, however, there are gigs that I can't wait to be over.  That could be for various reasons that I usually don't have any control over.  There are also the aspects of traveling and being on the road that can put a damper on a gig.

How often do you practice?
Because I do this for a living, I play pretty much every day.  I practice as often as I can.  Usually, these days when I practice,  it's learning new music for a gig or practicing the upright bass, an instrument that I still struggle with.

What was one of your accomplishments as a musician?
Probably one of the most recent is winning a Grammy for the cast recording of In The Heights and the recognition I received from other musicians for that.

Always looking for new artists to feature on our blog.

                       Email us at tothegig@gmail.com

Click on the follow button on our blog page!