Chucho Valdés celebrates 60 years of career with new work

July 13, 2024

Chucho Valdés, considered the dean of Latin Afrojazz, celebrates 60 years of musical career with the September release of the album Cuba & Beyond, whose first single, "Tatomaní", goes on sale next July 26.

Coinciding with the release of the first single, Valdés will offer on August 12 an intimate solo concert in the United States, NPR Music reported in a statement cited by Efe.

The musician has released the single "Tatomanía", which celebrates the "brilliance of the conga symphony" of Robert Jr. Vizcaíno, of the Royal Quartet, son of master percussionist Roberto Vizcaíno (1957-2016), also known as 'Tato', who "represents a new generation of greats of Cuban percussion".

"Every party in Cuba ends with the conga. Once the congas start playing, we all dance together", said 82-year-old Valdés in the statement, founder of the famous group Irakere, the Cuban band he founded in the early seventies of the last century and which marked a before and after in Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music.

Son of Bebo Valdés (1918-2013), iconic jazz pianist, this year marks 60 years since Chucho recorded his first studio album, Jazz Nocturno (1964), at the young age of 22 years, as recalled by the Spanish agency.

Winner of seven Grammys, five Latin Grammys and an honorary Grammy for his entire career, Chucho Valdés has always defended "an evolutionary sound that pays homage to the golden age of Cuban music while elevating it toward the future", the statement adds.

With nearly thirty albums to his credit, in Cuba & Beyond, released next September 20, Valdés shares the sonic work with his electrifying Royal Quartet, made up of Horacio El Negro Hernández (drums), José A. Gola (bass) and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino (percussion).

The influences of his classical music education in Cuba as a child radiate through Cuba & Beyond in compositions such as "Mozart a la Cubana", a nod to the first sonata he performed live in concert at the young age of nine, in which Valdés fuses Mozart's "Sonata in C Major" with the national rhythms of Cuban danzón.

He also presents on the album "Armando's Rhumba", a tribute to jazz pianist and lifelong friend Chick Corea, with whom he performed for the first time at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York) in November 2019.

"Chick has had so much influence on me that I definitely wanted to commemorate him on this album. I have been performing 'Armando's Rhumba' in live concert since his unfortunate passing, and this is the first time we have recorded it", said Valdés.

Chucho Valdés doesn't get off the planes, and composes symphonic music

Another track, 'Congablues', "emulates an enigmatic rhythm that mixes Cuban music with American blues", says Valdés, while 'Habanera partida' "slows down the rhythm to reflect the Cuban habanera of the 19th century", a popular dance style.

This master of Latin Afrojazz "visionary, restless and in constant evolution" is as "creative and fun" as ever in 'Cuba & Beyond', the statement affirms.

Valdés begins today a ten-show tour with the Royal Quartet through several European cities that will occupy the rest of July and will continue with some performances already scheduled in February and May 2025 in the United States.