Chucho Valdés Reassembled Irakere to Celebrate 50 Years of the Iconic Afro-Cuban Jazz Group

February 13, 2024

Three glories of Cuban music, Chucho Valdés, Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval, took the stage together after four decades of separation, for a unique concert that celebrated 50 years of Irakere, a legendary group of jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms.

The concert at the Adrienne Arscht Center in Miami was a display of mutual admiration among the three virtuoso performers and composers, and at the same time a reverence to the band that united them in the 1970s and with which they made history.

Among the most emblematic songs of the night, the classic Irakere pieces stood out: Estela va a estallar, Xiomara Mayoral and Bacalao con pan, by Chucho Valdés; Iya, composed by Sandoval and Mozart's Adagio, a classic from D'Rivera's repertoire.

Other renowned musicians such as bassist José Gola, drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernández; trumpet players Eddy de Armas Jr. and Osvaldo Fleites; saxophonists Carlos Averhoff Jr. and Luis Beltrán; percussionists Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno Torre and Julián Valdés; and vocalist Ramón Alvarez attended the tribute concert, which had as special guests the singers Pancho Céspedes and Luis Enrique.

As a pianist, composer and arranger, Chucho Valdés has established himself as one of the most prominent figures in jazz worldwide. He is a winner of seven Grammy Awards and five Latin Grammy Awards, among other recognitions. With his 82 years and enviable energy, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés celebrated last Friday the 50th anniversary of the creation of Irakere, the most important Afro-Cuban jazz group.

The concert took place in Miami and had as an additional attraction the presence of its original members, trumpet player Arturo Sandoval and saxophonist and clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera.

According to Chucho, "Irakere made a contribution that revolutionized Afro-Cuban music, a group of enormous quality. Many musicians from the new generations approach me and tell me that Irakere was a before and after."

And he adds: "It is an appropriate perspective because four generations of musicians passed through the group, and later they had great solo careers and today they speak of that experience as having gone to the Irakere school."

Valdés with Irakere managed to capture, as few did, the musical force of Cuba with jazz and was happy because the group shines again with Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera, artists who brought a potent and creative touch to the band's music.

"The initial idea was to celebrate the 50 years with the founding musicians of the group who are still alive, but it is not easy due to visa problems, but those who live in the United States were present, Arturo and Paquito," added the pianist.

This happy reunion took place on Friday, February 9 at the Adrianne Arscht Center in Miami, while for the four Irakere performances in San Francisco, Valdés will go with his quartet along with an important wind section. "Paquito and Arturo have other commitments and will only play at the Miami concert," he added.

Valdés has said that the repertoire will be a selection of the group's most important songs. "We will do the best of dance music and the best of concert music."

-How was that group founded?

-Most of the musicians who would form Irakere were in the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, a kind of All Star that was put together in Havana in 1967. Long before this orchestra, I already had a group called Chucho Valdés y Su Combo, where Paquito and guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales (one of the founders of Irakere) were.

After some time in the orchestra, the work began to become monotonous. There was no form of development of the orchestra-with-soloists type but rather an orchestra of accompanists, and there is nothing wrong with being an accompanist, but we had other dreams. We wanted to develop our ideas, develop our own music. In 1973, we made that change. We became a smaller group, but with the music we had in mind.

Chucho Valdés (Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez) was born on October 9, 1941, in Quivicán. Son of Bebo and Pilar Rodríguez, pianist and singer, Chucho at age three was playing melodies he heard on the radio and at five he began serious study of the instrument.

On one hand, he had very strong piano training with classical music that was balanced with Cuban popular music and jazz, which came directly from his father's side. At age 17 he replaced his father both in the orchestra and in the quartet. Valdés, in addition to being a virtuoso pianist, stands out as a creative composer and arranger.

He took ideas from teachers like Armando Romeu and Rafael Somavilla, directors of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, for his next steps, which resulted in an inspired relationship between music with African roots, established in Cuba, with jazz.

Perhaps his best calling card is the creative Irakere, which unlike most Cuban bands, offered a reasonable amount of non-Latin music, like that remembered version of The Duke, by Dave Brubeck, arranged from the Cuban perspective.

Valdés has recorded more than 25 albums, some of them excellent such as Misa Negra (1979), Live At Village Vanguard (2000), New Conceptions (2004), Chucho Steps (2011), Irakere 40 (2015), Mirror, Mirror (with Eliane Elias and Chick Corea) (2021), and his latest recording I Missed To You (2023) with Paquito D'Rivera.

He has won five Grammy Awards, four Latin Grammys, and in 2018 received the Latin Grammy for Musical Excellence.

Valdés was recently presenting in Miami his latest work La Creación, in which he addresses the influence of the Yoruba religion, of Nigerian origin, in the Afro-American religious world. We could say it is the next step from his previous work Misa Negra, which portrays the Yoruba religious rites that slaves brought from Africa to Cuba in the seventeenth century.

"It is one of the most important works of my career," says the pianist. "It is the history of the influence of the African religion from Nigeria, of the Yorubas, and how it entered Cuba and America and how it relates to the religious and musical world of New Orleans."

He continues: "The work is the representation of each of the touches of the Yoruba saints, of their songs and their rhythms, which are all different and which establishes the connection between Cuba and New Orleans. It is a work for Big Band, singers and choirs."

-After decades you reunited with Paquito D'Rivera, how was that reunion?

-It was like picking up the past time and updating it because we spent a long time each on our own path; me with my Irakere and my quartet, and Paquito with his works.

The thing was that Paquito wrote an arrangement for clarinet of a song of mine, Chorrino. I listened to it and I was moved. I called him and told him: "Paquito, what a beautiful thing you did; it's been a while since we've done anything together. I still miss you," and Paquito told me: "I miss you too; let's do something together," and this work came out: I Missed To You.

Arturo Sandoval, trumpet, is a winner of ten Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards and an Emmy, among other recognitions. He has stood out as an important figure in Latin Jazz, where he is considered a trumpet virtuoso and also as a composer. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Paquito D'Rivera has won five Grammy Awards and 11 Latin Grammys, among other recognitions. He is considered one of the great exponents of Latin Jazz.