Oscar Valdés

He is a Cuban percussionist and singer. He was a member of the folkloric group Irakere under the direction of maestro Chucho Valdés and while with this group obtained the first Grammy Award. For almost three decades he was the percussionist and akpwón of the Irakere group.

He lives in the Pogolotti neighborhood of Havana, in a kind of musical fortress built for his music classes. One of the rooms has collections of various drums manufactured to work with Irakere and their special performances. He can be seen with his group Diákara at La Zorra y el Cuervo and Jazz Café. He composes, records, offers classes, and continues making music non-stop.

Since childhood he felt a calling for music, as he was part of a notable family of musicians, among whom are his father, percussionist Oscar Valdés (father); his uncle percussionist Marcelino Valdés, and his uncles Alfredo Valdés and Vicentico Valdés (singers).

The percussionist, born in the Cerro neighborhood of Havana, at age 12 began playing drums with his father Oscar. In 1949 he also received percussion and drum lessons with Guillermo Barreto and Walfredo de los Reyes (father).

He started his professional career in the orchestra of the La Campana cabaret, on Infanta and Manglar, a place frequently visited by Benny Moré when he returned from Mexico. "I trained myself on the bongó and the paila; I played in many nightclubs like the Parisién at the Hotel Nacional, at the Cabaret Tropicana. I came to play the drums with Benny Moré's Orchestra, after the departure of Rolando Laserie (1955-56)".

He worked in the orchestras CMQ, ICRT, Benny Moré, Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. He was a singer and percussionist of the Irakere group, with which he did recognized work, and later formed a group with which he has worked at the end of the 90s and beginning of the 21st century.

Professional Life

In 1949 he began playing with his father, Oscar Valdés (36 years old):
I remember very well, one day when the old man was playing at the Montmartre cabaret with Bebo Valdés ―where the batacún batá rhythm by Orestes López (Maño) was performed― and I went to see him. Some batá drums on the floor caught my attention, and there I started playing by instinct. It wasn't so he would see me, because he was in his rehearsal. I start playing and I remember that suddenly he's behind me, standing there:
―I didn't know you played.
―No, I don't play.
―Look, we're working at the La Campana hotel, on Infanta and Manglar. Why don't you go there and practice and get into this music thing?
―Hell, old man, I've never been into any of this, I'm just now "playing rumba" (goofing around and all that)!
―No, no: go there in the evenings.
And he bought me a guayabera so I could go to La Campana, where they would let me play for a while in the dance area.
Oscar Valdés (son)[1]

A drummer named Fermín taught him the touches of the batá drums, the construction of abakuá, batá and chekerés drums; later he studied with Guillermo Barreto and Salvador Admiral (father), and at the Alejandro García Caturla conservatory, timpani.

At the Montmartre cabaret, where his father Oscar Valdés played with Bebo Valdés's orchestra, he heard the batacún batá rhythm by Orestes López (Maño); at La Campana, on Infanta and Manglar, with Antúnez's typical orchestra, he began to substitute when the tumbador or timbalero player was absent.

There he accompanied a dance trio, made up of Estela, Mario and Litico Rodríguez, which was very famous. His uncle Marcelino had made a combination with some percussion instruments, in which he placed the bongó in front, the paila on the right, and in that way performed both instruments, which he taught to Oscar.

He later joins the CMQ orchestra as bongosero and timbalero, under the direction of Roberto Valdés Arnau. He worked with the Symphonic orchestras, with Rafael Somavilla at the Habana Hilton (now Habana Libre), with the Capri hotel orchestra, the Cabaret Tropicana orchestra, Benny Moré's Banda Gigante, of which he was the drummer, and with directors Gonzalo Roig, Paquito Godino, Carlos Ansa and Enrique González Mántici.

After 1959, he was part of the Rebel Army Band and Choir, worked with Chucho Valdés's group, with Leo Brouwer and Manuel Duchesne Cuzán at the ICAIC, until in 1967 he joined the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, directed by Armando Romeu and Rafael Somavilla.

In 1972, when the Irakere group was founded under the direction of Chucho Valdés, he joined the payroll as a singer and percussionist. His work with this group was to create the lyrics and rhythmic ideas of the group: the use of batá, the folkloric part, and Chucho, the music and orchestrations. In 1979, Irakere won the first Grammy award. With Irakere he performed, among others, with Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.

During 1993, he worked with his sons Diego, bassist, and Oscarito, drummer. In 2000 he formed a new group, Diákara, which performs jazz, and with which he has worked at La Zorra y el Cuervo, Jazz Café, the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba. The group performs instrumental music, but Oscar brought to it the line of work he had previously done with Irakere; that is, folkloric roots are taken up again, but treated in a more profound way. Examples of this are "Mi chaoko," "Obatalá," in which based on traditional Afro-Cuban touches, he makes an arrangement for the drum, which means he doesn't adapt the drum to the arrangement, but rather makes it specifically for it.

This has allowed him to make contemporary music with the use of Afro-Cuban instruments, using three drummers, who are the same musicians who play the tumbadora, the bongó, the batá, the drums and also sing; in addition, electric guitar, three brass instruments, piano and bass are integrated. In this line they have arranged: Lágrimas negras, Mamá son de la loma, A romper el coco and Xiomara.

In 2000 he toured and gave a lecture at a university in France, plus two weeks of classes along with Arístides Soto (Tata Güines) and José Luis Quintana (Changuito), in 2001 he toured Spain and other European countries, and Israel where in addition to working with the group in clubs and festivals, he offered several courses, in which one of his students was the Japanese Khono.

Works

La verdad
Lo que arrebata
Luisa

The experience with Irakere was very enriching for Oscar; they performed at the most important jazz festivals in the world, sharing with high-level musical figures.

Oscar's departure from Irakere, in the midst of the Cuban salsa boom, was very newsworthy in musical circles. New times were beginning for Chucho Valdés, who was already moving in other directions.

Oscar recounts with great sadness the separation from Irakere, recalling those great moments of the most sought-after orchestra in Cuban jazz music (Afro-Cuban or Latin jazz). In his home he shows photos of the festivals where they triumphed around the world.

"When I left Irakere in 1994-1995, I started working with my sons: Oscarito (drums), Diego (bass). We accompanied the songwriter Silvio Rodríguez in some performances. Later I worked more with Cuban and Afro music".

"We started at the UNEAC, La Zorra y el Cuervo, Jazz Café, we performed Latin jazz classics: Manteca, Tunicia, influenced mambo, Caravana. I've rescued some emblematic pieces from Irakere. I've done many orisha songs with batá".

Oscar believes that Irakere filled a true chapter in the new Cuban music of the second half of the 20th century, he considers Chucho Valdés's orchestra an All-Stars, a Team Cuba. They achieved the country's first Grammy in 1979, and afterwards Chucho went on collecting a long list of awards exceeding seven Grammys and more than 15 nominations.

In this last stage, his classes have been taught in Argentina and France, while he receives in his home many students from Japan, Europe, the United States and Latin America.

The maestro had a dream of recording an Orisha album with Afro jazz, a very personal work. That idea was realized with Leyenda Viva, by Bis Music, which won the Special Prize at Cubadisco 2010. He had as his only guest Omara Portuondo.