Chucho Valdés marks his 85th birthday at Miami’s Arsht Center with an improvisation concert

Foto: Wikimedia Commons / Jacek Proszyk (CC BY-SA 4.0)

October 2, 2026

Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés marks his 85th birthday — on October 9 — with a concert at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 3, 2026, in the Knight Concert Hall at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center. In interviews with Diario Las Américas and Artburst Miami, the NEA Jazz Master said the night will hinge on improvisation: the musicians will know about ten tunes, and “everything that comes out from there” will proceed without a conventional rehearsal.

He is joined by saxophonist Joe Lovano, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Marcus Gilmore and percussionist Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno of his Royal Quartet. The set is expected to revisit early-career standards such as Charlie Parker’s Confirmation, Dizzy Gillespie’s Groovin’ High and Sonny Rollins’s St. Thomas. Valdés, who lives in South Florida, said he looks forward to playing for both American jazz audiences and Miami’s Cuban community.

The roughly 90-minute show is part of the Arsht Center’s 2026–27 Live at Knight series. Valdés, founder of Irakere and a multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner, told Diario Las Américas he will not perform material from his recent solo-piano album UNCUT that night.

Fuente: Diario Las Américas; Artburst Miami; Adrienne Arsht Center

Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez

Pianist, Musician, Composer, Director, Music, Society

Pianist, organist, composer and instrumentalist, Chucho Valdés is considered one of the best pianists in the world and certainly the most important jazz figure currently in Cuba. Chucho was born in Alquízar, current province of Mayabeque. From childhood he began playing piano guided by his father, also pianist, Bebo Valdés, and at age 14 he began his professional activity in the orchestra Sabor de Cuba, directed by his father.