|
"Valdés
is the greatest jazz pianist in Cuba,
perhaps one of the greatest pianists in the world."
- Time Magazine -
According to Jazziz magazine, Jesús
"Chucho" Valdés is "the most complete
pianist in the world." Cuba's most-renowned jazz musician
can drive an impatient crowd of dancers into a frenzy, play the
complex rhythms of Cuba's African religious traditions, perform
the classics with impeccable technique and solo in any jazz style
you can name.
The son of legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés,
Chucho began playing the piano when he was three and by his 16th
birthday was leading his own band. While his father defected to
the U.S. in 1960, Valdés stayed in his homeland, forming first
Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna (1967) and later Irakere
(1973), which featured such lauded performers as Arturo Sandoval
and Paquito D’Rivera. In 1993, Blue Note Records released his
highly regarded Solo Piano album. Since beginning
to tour in the U.S. four years ago, Valdés has released two
other well-received Blue Note albums as a leader (Bele Bele
en La Habana in 1998 and Bryumba Palo Congo
in 1999) as well as performed and recorded with the All-Star
Latin Jazz Ensemble and Roy Hargrove’s Afro-Cuban jazz band
Crisol.
With the April 2000 release of his fourth Blue
Note Records CD, aptly titled Live at the Village Vanguard,
heralded Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés adds his name to the long
list of noteworthies who have used the Vanguard as their live
recording studio. Recorded on April 9 and 10, 1999 during his
sold-out week-long engagement at the club, the disc captures the
58-year old Valdés and his quartet launching into a
scintillating set after the cautionary introduction captured on
tape: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Village
Vanguard. Brace yourself. There’s a hurricane approaching
from the Caribbean."
Briyumba Palo Congo (Religion of the
Congo), the previous Grammy nominated CD from the world-renowned
pianist, composer, bandleader and educator was a new chapter in
his ever-evolving explorations of the African, Spanish and U.S.
influences in Afro-Cuban Latin jazz. His third Blue Note release
revealed the impact that American pianists have had on his
playing. "The Cuban phrasing is syncopated and you use
more eighth notes. It's used in jazz also," Valdés
says. "My playing has changed in how I manage with the
musical language of jazz, the phrasing. McCoy Tyner and Bill
Evans are the biggest influences on me." Like McCoy Tyner, Valdés can evoke thunder-like chords punctuated
by lighting-fast arpeggios and like Bill Evans, he can make the
keyboard sing with a rainbow of impressionistic harmonic and
melodic colors.
These gems from his musical offerings are but the
latest from the seemingly inexhaustible treasure chest of Chucho
Valdés' musical genius. In 1944, Chucho's father
"Bebo" Valdés, the legendary pianist/composer and
musical director of the Havana-based Tropicana casino, gave his
son his first piano lesson and took him to the casino, where he
saw his dad work with some of the greatest figures in American
music, including Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Buddy
Rich, Sarah Vaughan, and Nat King Cole, whose album, Cole
en Español was arranged by Bebo.
Along with his classical studies by other
well-respected teachers including Zenaida Romeu and Rosario
Franco, Valdés worked with pianist/composer Ernesto Lecuona and
vocalist Beny Moré. He formed his first jazz trio at the age of
16; recorded two albums for RCA Victor at age 18; worked in the
Elio Reve Orquesta from 1965 to 1967; and seven years later
founded the Orquesta de Música Moderna with fellow Orquesta
bandmembers guitarist Carlos Emilio and saxophonist/clarinetist
Paquito D'Rivera. They eventually formed the pioneering ensemble,
Irakere, named for a West African word which means
"equatorial forest." Their music included Cuban, rock,
funk, classical and jazz stylings and in 1978 they were the first
post-embargo Cuban group to be signed to an American label. Their
debut LP on Columbia, released that same year, earned them a
Grammy and another recording Misa Negra (Black
Mass) was also critically acclaimed. D'Rivera and trumpeter
Arturo Sandoval would emerge and become stars in the U.S and the
group, like Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, would continue to
recruit the best Cuban talent.
Because of the embargo, American audiences didn't
see much of Valdés. That all changed in 1996, when trumpeter Roy Hargrove was invited to Valdés' Havana Jazz Festival. In
return, Hargrove brought Valdés' to the States as a guest
soloist in his band and as a guest educator. The result of that
fruitful union was Hargrove's masterpiece CD, Crisol,
which featured Valdés and other Latin jazz luminaries. Soon
after, Valdés performed to a sold-out audience at the Jazz at
Lincoln Center and signed with EMI/Canada.
Since
then, jazz lovers in the United States have been able to witness
Chucho Valdés, thanks to his concerts, club dates, performance
workshops, and guest appearances. Throughout his exceptional
career, Valdés, with his encyclopedic knowledge of American
jazz, reminds us just how similar our African-derived musical
heritages are, in his role as Cuba's greatest musical ambassador.
"We Cuban piano players are always thinking of the
rhythm base. We're always thinking of Cuba when we play
piano."
September 2002
|
