Chucho Valdés Awarded Latin Grammy for Musical Excellence

August 31, 2018

Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdés, along with Napoleón, Yuri, Wilfrido Vargas, Dyango, Andy Montañez and Erasmo Carlos, will be recognized with the award for musical excellence at the next Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, announced the Latin Recording Academy.

Similarly, Horacio Malvicino and Tomás Muñoz will receive the Board of Directors Award as revealed through a released statement.

The recognitions will be presented at a private ceremony on November 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of Latin Grammy week and where the main awards presentation will take place on November 15.

"We are proud to honor this extraordinary group of talented artists and music professionals with this year's Musical Excellence Awards and Board of Directors Awards," said Gabriel Abaroa Jr., president of the Latin Recording Academy.

"The group we are recognizing in 2018 has made exceptional contributions, benefiting the music of Latin America, providing innovation, and a unique vision in favor of music lovers," he stated.

The Musical Excellence Award is presented to artists who have made unprecedented contributions of extraordinary artistic importance to Latin music.

The Board of Directors recognition is awarded following a vote by the Board of Directors of the Latin Recording Academy in which people are selected who, even if not musical performers, have significantly contributed to music during their careers.

Pianist, orchestra conductor and composer Chucho Valdés, both in his work with the supergroup Irakere and in his work as an eclectic and prolific soloist, reinvented the lexicon of jazz, mixing it with rock, classical music and Afro-Cuban roots.

Chucho Valdés' Irakere band featured some of Cuba's most talented musicians, with which he presented a stunning musical blend of rock, Afro-Cuban roots and jazz.

In 1998, Valdés launched an ambitious solo career that included notable performances, an emotional duet album with his father Bebo Valdés (Juntos Para Siempre), vibrant quartet sessions and the emergence of a new band, The Afro-Cuban Messengers.

Known as "The Poet of Song," José María Napoleón is one of the main protagonists of the influential ballad movement of the 1970s. He was just 20 years old when he recorded his first album.

Since then, Napoleón, who has also performed in Mexican telenovelas, continued releasing albums and writing hits with great emotional impact such as "Pajarillo," "Hombre," "Eres," "Leña verde," "30 años" and "Celos."

Mexican singer Yuri has also put her remarkable vocal range to the service of a variety of musical styles; from ballads and Christian music to tropical, folk and ranchera genres.

In 1980 Yuri rose to fame in Latin America, thanks to her appearances in some films and telenovelas, as well as the release of one of her most successful albums (Esperanzas), which includes a hit of the same name.

In the mid-80s, she reached the top, participating in the Viña del Mar Festival, and the radio success "¿Qué Te Pasa?" from her album "Aire" firmly established her music career while making her an icon of international pop.

During the height of her fame she released singles such as "Yo te amo, te amo," "Tiempos mejores," "El apagón," and "Karma Kamaleón," a Spanish version of Culture Club's catchy musical hit.

The musical biography of Erasmo Carlos has two phases. First, there is his association as a composer with pop star Roberto Carlos, with which he helped define the emotional scope and nostalgic atmosphere that surrounded Latin American ballad in the 1970s.

On the other hand, there is his brilliant solo career, with which he released some of the most unpredictable and evocative albums in the history of Brazilian music. The singer-songwriter gained notoriety in the late 1960s as part of the jovem guarda youth movement.

In 2009 his album "Rock 'N' Roll" received a Latin Grammy nomination and in 2014, he won that award for Best Brazilian Rock Album (Gigante Gentil).

Dyango (José Gómez Romero) is known as "The Voice of Love." Since he began his career with the release of the album "Lejos de los ojos" with which he debuted in 1969, the Spanish singer continued his evolution as a performer of romantic songs, leaving his indelible mark in both the ballad genre and tango.

In 1975 his recording of the tango "Nostalgia," with a subtle ballad arrangement, as well as "Por volverte a ver," "Corazón mágico" and "Por ese hombre" confirmed Dyango as a key exponent of Latin American pop music. And although he has reduced large-scale tours, he continues to record and perform live.

Puerto Rican salsa has been the home of many legendary singers. And even amid such fierce competition, Andy Montañez has distinguished himself as one of the most moving and creative vocalists of the Afro-Caribbean genre.

He was 20 years old when he joined El Gran Combo, considered the pinnacle of salsa orchestras, until 1981 when he decided to focus on his solo career. This new independence allowed him to flourish as a composer and deepen a style that was then emerging: romantic salsa.

Hits such as "Casi te envidio," "Payaso," "Me gusta" and "La última copa," which were characterized by superlative production values and delicate musical arrangements, established him as one of the most successful salsa singers of the 1980s.

Dominican Wilfrido Vargas and his merengue music have achieved hits such as "El africano," "El jardinero," "A mover la colita," "El baile del perrito" and "Abusadora."

Horacio Malvicino has been a successful record industry executive and excellent business administrator in his native Argentina; a legendary tango and jazz guitarist, composer and arranger, as well as a key collaborator with tango master Astor Piazzolla.

Tomás Muñoz is a record industry executive who has been blessed with an infallible instinct for developing future pop stars, and is possibly one of the greatest champions of Spanish music.

In 1969, he was appointed general director of CBS Records in Spain, where he supported the careers of Julio Iglesias, Rafael and Joaquín Sabina, and effectively changed the way Spanish music was perceived and consumed throughout the world.