Acclaimed living legend of Afro-Cuban music, seven-time GRAMMY Award winner and six-time Latin GRAMMY Award winner Chucho Valdés celebrates his lauded 60-year recording career with an instant-classic, Cuba & Beyond, set for release on Friday, August 30, 2024. Valdés is the preeminent composer/pianist of modern Afro-Cuban jazz with international acclaim to his name for deftly fusing the music of his homeland with jazz, classical music, dance music, and rock. His renowned career includes seven albums on Blue Note Records (1991-2003), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and being an inductee into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. On Cuba & Beyond, Valdés composes yet another masterpiece as he carries his legacy forward with a world-class catalog of recordings.
2024 marks 60 years since Valdés recorded his debut studio record, Jazz Nocturno (Areito, 1964), at the young age of 22-years-old. The prodigious son of multi-GRAMMY winner Bebo Valdés -- the iconic pianist/director of Cuba's Tropicana Club orchestra and bandleader of his big band Sabor de Cuba -- championed an evolutionary sound honoring the golden age of Cuban music while skyrocketing it into the future with his band Irakere (1973-2005). He subsequently launched a distinguished solo career (1998-2024) and worked with his traditional quartet, solo, a Tribute to Irakere, and with his band Afro-Cuban Messengers. With nearly 30 albums, Valdés remains ever-young at heart while composing an array of his greatest works yet. On Cuba & Beyond, Valdés performs with his electrifying Royal Quartet featuring Horacio El Negro Hernandez (drums), José A. Gola (bass), and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino (percussion).
Coinciding with the first single "Tatomania" from Cuba & Beyond (released on Friday, July 26, 2024, PRE-SAVE LINK), NPR Music produces a "Tiny Desk Concert" featuring a solo performance from Valdés (LINK). "Tatomania" celebrates the brilliance of Roberto Jr. Vizcaino, the son of master percussionist Roberto Vizcaino -- who represents a new generation of Cuban percussion greats. Known to Valdés as "Tato" since he was a kid -- Valdés performed with his father over the decades -- Roberto Jr. shines with a fiery symphony of congas alongside Valdés' melodic comping and air-tight pocket of the band. Valdés comments, "Every party in Cuba ends with the conga. Once the congas ignite, we all dance together."
As with other stellar Valdés albums, influences from his formal classical music education as a kid (ages 11-14) at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de la Habana radiate with uniquely Valdés-style compositions such as "Mozart a la Cubana" featured on Cuba & Beyond. A nod to the first sonata he performed live in concert at the young age of nine, Valdés fuses Mozart's "Sonata In C Major" with the national rhythms of Cuba Danzon. He also presents on the album, "Armando's Rhumba," a tribute to his piano contemporary and longtime friend, Chick Corea, who both first performed together on stage at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center (NYC) in November 2019. DownBeat Magazine noted of the concert, "Two of the most influential pianists in the jazz world would certainly have a lot to say to each other...Just two friends -- jazz greats each -- squaring off across two grand pianos."
Valdés comments, "Chick has had so much of an influence on me, I definitely wanted to commemorate him on this album. I've been performing 'Armando's Rhumba' live in concert since his unfortunate passing, and this is the first time we've recorded it."
"Congablues" swings between lightening-speed lines on the grand piano, Gola's ferocious upright bass lines, and magnetic interplay between Vizcaino and Hernandez. "'Congablues' emulates an enigmatic rhythm mixing Cuban music with American blues," says Valdés. On the opposite side of the meter scale, "Habanera Partida" slows down the groove to reflect 19th century Cuban Habanera, a popular dance style of the time developed from the French contradanza. "Habanera Partida" is composed by José A. Gola.
Cuban composer Pedro Junco's most beloved bolero, entitled "Nosotros," has been interpreted by hundreds of singers since its inception. Valdés offers a piano-driven rendition of "Nosotros" as he beautifully expresses its story of love and loss. "Punto Cubano" cuts to the lush farmland of Quivicán, Havana province, Cuba, where Valdés was born into his family of musicians. "Punto Cubano" represents the purist rhythms played by Cuban farmers. The style became popular within the western and central regions of Cuba during the 17th century and continues to carry its glorious enriching spirit. "Son de Almendra" closes Cuba & Beyond with a Coltrane-inspired improved harmony that builds with lush Afro-Cuban rhythmic interludes throughout the composition.
A restless visionary forever evolving Afro-Cuban music, Chucho Valdés is as creative and playful as ever on Cuba & Beyond. To see Valdés in a city near you as he celebrates 50 years of Irakere in European and with his Royal Quartet in fall 2024 throughout North America, please visit chucho-valdes.com.
