Chucho Valdés

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Chucho Valdés (2007)

Dionisio de Jésus "Chucho" Valdés Rodríguez (born October 9, 1941 in Havana , Cuba ) is a Cuban pianist and composer of Latin and modern jazz , who works on connections between Cuban music and other musical genres. He is one of the most famous Cuban jazz musicians.

Live and act

Valdés comes from a family of pianists: Bebo Valdés was his father; his mother Pilar Rodríguez is also a pianist, as is his son Chuchito Valdés . He began playing the piano at the age of three and passed the entrance examination for the Havana Conservatory in 1950 . As a teenager he played in the house band of Club Tropicana , of which he became musical director. At 16 he was already head of his own group. From 1963 he played with Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera , with whom he founded the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna in 1967 . With this ensemble he performed his own compositions such as his "Misa Negra" (1969). In 1970 he performed at the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw. With Sandoval and D'Rivera, he founded the group Irakere in 1973 , which performed at the Jazz Festival Montreux and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1978 . Valdés, the main composer of the group, passed it on even after Sandoval and D'Rivera left the group. After getting a contract with Blue Note Records , he focused his performances and recordings on quartet, trio and solo projects. He also worked as a sideman with Roy Hargrove . In 1998 he handed over the management of Irakere to his son Francisco. In 2009 he formed the five-piece band The Afro-Cuban Messengers , with whom he has since produced the albums Chucho's Steps (2010) and Border-Free (2013) and has undertaken international concert tours.

Valdés served as president of the annual Jazz Plaza festival in Havana from 1992 to 2009 . He is professor and head of the piano department of the Instituto Superior de Arte . He also teaches at the Escuela Nacional de Arte Kubas, but also at the Berklee College of Music .

Valdés has released 31 records so far, five of which have received Grammy Awards . He has a very powerful, phrasing-rich game in which he allows Latin American harmony and Afro-American rhythm to flow.

He is an honorary citizen of Ponce (Puerto Rico) , Panama City and the US cities of Los Angeles , San Francisco and New Orleans . The city council of Madison (Wisconsin) honored him in 2001 with an official "Jesús Chucho Valdés Day". 2011, awarded him Berklee College of Music , the honorary doctorate .

Political commitment

On the cultural and political level, Valdés claimed to have fought against the Cuban authorities' ban on the music of his exiled father, Bebo, which he found "frustrating". As early as 2009, Valdés expressed outrage in an interview with the Spanish daily El País that the Cuban media reported on the Latin Grammy for their joint album Juntos para siempre , but failed to mention the father's name.

Valdés is one of 26 permanent members on the national board of the Cuban state association of artists and writers UNEAC .

Discography (selection)

Chucho Valdés 2014 at a concert in Madrid
  • 1978 - Live at Newport
  • 1986 - Lucumí
  • 1991 - Solo piano
  • 1995 - Grandes de La Música Cubana, Vol. 1
  • 1997 - pianissimo
  • 1998 - Bele Bele en La Habana
  • 1999 - Babalú Ayé
  • 1999 - Briyumba Palo Congo
  • 2000 - Boleros Inigualables
  • 2000 - Cuban Jazz Pianissimo
  • 2000 - Live at the Village Vanguard
  • 2000 - Unforgettable Boleros
  • 2001 - Chucho Valdés y su Cuban Jazz
  • 2001 - Solo: Live in New York
  • 2002 - Canciones Inéditas
  • 2002 - Cantata a Babalú Ayé
  • 2002 - Fantasía Cubana: Variations on Classical Themes
  • 2002 - Yemayá
  • 2003 - New Conceptions
  • 2005 - Canciones Ineditas
  • 2005 - Virtuoso
  • 2007 - Cancionero Cubano
  • 2008 - Juntos Para Siempre (with Bebo Valdés)
  • 2010 - Chucho's Steps ( Grammy 2011 )
  • 2012 - Piano y charango con Eddy Navia
  • 2013 - Border-Free
  • 2015 - Tribute to Irakere: Live in Marciac ( Grammy 2017 )

Lexigraphic entry

See also

Web links

Commons : Chucho Valdés  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chucho Valdés reconoce calidad del 'Panama Jazz Festival', in: La Prensa from January 14, 2009, accessed on October 11, 2017 (Spanish)
  2. ↑ Cuban jazz star pays tribute to New Orleans in: MSNBC.com , December 6, 2005
  3. ↑ Common Council Proceedings , Minutes of the April 17, 2001 City Council meeting on the City of Wisconsin website, accessed October 10, 2017.
  4. ↑ Berklee to Present Honorary Doctorate of Music Degrees, in: Jazz Times of April 30, 2011, accessed on October 11, 2017 (English)
  5. ↑ Víctor Usón: Chucho Valdés: 'Fue frustrante que la música de Bebo se prohibiese en Cuba', in: Nuevo Herald of November 8, 2013, accessed on April 27, 2014 (Spanish)
  6. ↑ Mauricio Vicent: Chucho Valdés denuncia el ninguneo oficial de Cuba a la obra de su padre, in: El País of December 8, 2009, accessed on April 27, 2014 (Spanish)
  7. ↑ Presentan nuevo Comité Nacional de la UNEAC, in Trabajadores of April 12, 2014, accessed on April 27, 2014 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Valdés, Chucho
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valdés Rodríguez, Dionisio de Jésus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban composer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Havana , Cuba