Chucho Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval will play together again after 40 years

January 28, 2024

"Dreams come true," were the words with which the multi-awarded Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés announced that he would play again alongside two other greats of the island's music after 40 years without doing so.

"Happy to announce that after 40 years of not playing together, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval and I will reunite to pay homage to the project that revolutionized Cuban music to this day," Chucho wrote on his Facebook profile.

The meeting will be part of the announced celebration for the 50th anniversary of the band Irakere, during which Valdés will be performing several concerts in U.S. cities during the coming month of February.

According to what the artist had previously announced on the social network, the first performances will take place in the cities of Miami and San Francisco. The first of these will be on February 9 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in the City of the Sun.

Then, two concerts will be held on February 15 and 18 at the SFJAZZ Center, a venue considered the first independent building in the U.S. built for the performance and education of jazz, in San Francisco, California.

In addition to Sandoval and D'Rivera, Valdés will be accompanied by other musicians of the caliber of José Gola, Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, Roberto Vizcaíno Jr., Eddy de Armas Jr. and Carlos Averhoff Jr., among others.

"You cannot talk about the history of Cuban music without Irakere and it is very gratifying to know that many generations around the planet are the result of our contribution," added the seven-time Grammy Award winner in his Facebook message.

And it is that without a doubt Irakere revolutionized the popular dance genre in the Latin world and positioned jazz as never before in the Cuban music scene.

Its origins date back to 1962, when Chucho joined guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales and saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, to channel and experiment with new ideas through music.

This was followed by the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, where Chucho allied himself with other promising young talents such as Enrique Plá (drums), Arturo Sandoval (trumpet), Jorge Varona (trumpet), Carlos Averhoff (tenor sax) and Carlos del Puerto (bass).

However, over time, Valdés felt he needed to make a change and created, along with Del Puerto and Oscar Valdés, a trio that recorded the album Jazz Batá, in which they included the song "Irakere".

By 1972 they performed for the first time under the name Irakere at the Amadeo Roldán theater in Havana with the show Encuentro Latinoamericano, surprising those present with their fusion of traditional Latin rhythms with jazz, blues and Cuban music.

Although at first they had difficulty being well received by the island's institutions, in 1973 their founding was authorized, at that time and during their early years made up of Chucho Valdés (piano, arrangements and compositions), Oscar Valdés (singer, percussion), Carlos Emilio Morales (guitar), Carlos del Puerto (bass), Jorge Varona (trumpet), Paquito D'Rivera (sax), Bernardo García (drums), Lázaro Alfonso (congas) and Carlos Averhoff (sax). Other artists would later join such as Enrique Plá (drums).

The history of Irakere cannot be told without mentioning other musical talents who also were part of its ranks, such as Arturo Sandoval, Miguel Díaz "Angá" (percussion), Orlando Valle "Maraca" (flute), César López (alto sax), Germán Velazco (tenor sax), Jorge L. Chicoy (guitar), José Luis Cortés (baritone sax and flute) and José Miguel Crego "El greco" (trumpet), among others.

Their list of hits begins with their first major hit: "Bacalao con pan," followed by other anthological songs such as "Ese atrevimiento," "Valle de picadura," "Xiomara," "Cien años de juventud," "Estela va a estallar," "Juana 1600," "Dile a Catalina," "Por romper el coco," and "Baila mi ritmo," to name just a few.

To their credit they have a Grammy Award, obtained in the Best Latin Recording category in 1980, as well as a nomination in that same category in 1981 for 'Irakere 2' and in 1999 they were among the candidates to win the award in the Best Tropical Latin Album category, with the recording 'Babalú Ayé'.