Arturo Sandoval & Pharrell Williams – “Arturo Sandoval” (Feat. Ariana Grande)
Legendary Cuban-born jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval has played with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Frank Sinatra to Barbara Streisand to Justin Timberlake to Alicia Keys. He’s won ten Grammys, six Billboard awards, one Emmy, and Presidential Medal Of Freedom. He’s kind of a big deal. And he’s recruited a whole bunch of other big names for his new album.
The upcoming Ultimate Duets features collaborations with Stevie Wonder, ABBA’s Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Josh Groban, Al Jarreau, Plácido Domingo, Juan Luis Guerra, Celia Cruz, Alejandro Sanz, and more. And most relevantly to our interests, it features a brand new song with Pharrell Williams and Ariana Grande.
While most of the songs on the album are new recordings of old songs, working on the project apparently inspired Pharrell to write a brand new song dedicated to Sandoval himself. Appropriately enough, it’s titled “Arturo Sandoval,” and it’s a Latin jazz-inflected pop number that features the newly back-in-action Ariana Grande (who, although she’s Italian, is often mistaken for Latinx) on vocals. Listen below.
After Camila Cabello’s smash hit “Havana,” this is now the second Havana-referencing pop song that Pharrell has worked on this year. Ultimate Duets is out 5/18 via Universal Music Latino.