Egrem Releases Another Single from the Phonogram "Los Herederos. Tribute to Chucho Valdés"

October 21, 2021

This week, the Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales (Egrem) invites you to continue with the weekly premieres of the extraordinary album Los Herederos. Homenaje a Chucho Valdés, which little by little, so that it can be enjoyed in total fullness, presents us with interpretations by wonderful musicians such as, without a doubt, Orlando "Maraca" Valle.

From his flute and exquisite virtue, he invites us to delight ourselves with Selva, the second single from this phonogram written by this outstanding flautist, composer, director and musical producer. It is characterized by its rhythmic force and by reflecting the mark of a super important area of Irakere's work: the fusion of cultures of African origin, which developed in our country, and of course, jazz.

Accompanying him on this journey is an all-star group: on piano Harold López-Nussa, on drums Juan Carlos Rojas "El peje", on bass and electric guitar Lázaro Rivero "El Fino" and Emilio Hernández Martini, respectively. Yasek Manzano and Roberto García López, on trumpet. On saxophone, the greats César López and Alfred Thompson. Yaroldi Abreu reigns on tumbadoras, cowbells and abakúa drums; finally, on timpani, Adel González.

According to "Maraca" himself referring to this single, "it is inspired exactly by a piece that Chucho made for an event that we would go to, a jazz festival in Lima, Peru, where Dave Valentín would also attend, a deceased great Puerto Rican-American flautist from the Bronx in New York. He named the piece My Funny Valentin. (…) There I met the great flautist, the piece was played, and afterwards he invited me to his concert. We saw each other many times after that, thanks to that memorable encounter... When the Irakere Live at Ronnie Scott's album came out in '93, the piece is there, because Chucho left it in the performances we had at that jazz club, and we were playing it for an entire month there. It's a tremendous piece, I really like it, and he put it on the Flute notes album, because it was dedicated to the flute and to me in particular".

Los Herederos... is an immense and heartfelt tribute to the great legacy of Chucho Valdés, to the Maestro's 80th birthday, and to the 50 years of the founding of the Irakere group, which will be commemorated in 2023. From the respect and affection of musicians who, at one time were part of the band that was Irakere, and of many others who by their talent could perfectly well have belonged to it, they come together in this super production under the Egrem label.