Chucho Valdés & The Afro Cuban Messengers

Chucho Valdés (piano), Reinaldo Melián Alvarez (trumpet), Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez (saxophone), Lázaro Rivero Alarcón (bass), Juan Carlos Rojas Castro (drums), Dreiser Durruthy Bambole (bata drums, vocals), Yaroldy Abreu Robles (percussion), Mayra Caridad Valdés (vocals)

The 68 year-old Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés is a huge guy with equally huge hands. With much bravura he fires off thundering salvos from his piano, and yet he can play the same keys with a delicate touch. He traverses jazz through its many ages while at the same time adding that unmistakable Cuban aroma.

Chucho Valdés was brought up on music. He is the son of the famous Bebo Valdés who was the musical director of the house orchestra of the famous Tropicana Club, a favourite hang-out of the American mafia. The house orchestra backed many American stars. Via his father, Chucho met singers like Nat 'King' Cole and Sarah Vaughan. With a background like that, there was only one future for Chucho… musician.

He formed his first jazz trio when he was 16 and made his first recordings when he was eighteen. In 1967 he co-founded the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna which boasted musicians like guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales, saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, trumpet player Arturo Sandoval and vocalist/percussionist Oscar Valdés. Irakere saw the light of day in 1973, formed by eight members of the Orquesta Cubana. Chucho wrote most of the compositions and arrangements and also performed as solo artist. This jazz-rock-concert-dance orchestra won a Grammy, in spite of the USA boycott of everything that had to do with Cuba.

In recent years Chucho has recorded various albums for Blue Note. This is all down to the recently retired Blue Note president, Bruce Lundvall. When he was still president of Columbia Records, he dared to stand up to the White House and signed Irakere to the label. In 1978 they signed a recording contract with Columbia making Irakere the first band in the Castro era to be under contract to a US label. When Chucho was able to leave Cuba, a lot of major record companies queued up to sign him. His allegiance to Bruce Lundvall won through. In the meantime Chucho has recorded solo albums on Blue Note as well as recording more ambitious projects such as Fantasia Cubana, which sees a large line-up giving a swinging Cuban feel to classical repertoire from such masters as Debussy en Ravel.

Chucho Valdés has become a national monument in Cuba. Some even refer to him as the Duke Ellington of his country. Valdés has also played an influential part in Cuban music. If you listen to contemporary Cuban jazz or popular music, whether it’s Gonzalo Rubalcaba, N.G. La Banda or Charanga Habanera, you hear the influence of Chucho Valdés and Irakere. Live, his playing remains as infectious as ever, and the surprise of today’s concert might well be his sister, Mayra Caridad Valdés.