On March 7, the documentary will premiere in Miami. I drink, on the life of the Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés (1918-2013), composer, pianist and arranger, father of Chucho Valdés. An artist who, after 30 years of anonymity, has obtained the deserved recognition.
The director of the documentary, Ricardo Bacallaostressed that the film accurately depicts the life of the artist born in Quivicán, after he fled Cuba in 1960 in opposition to the Cuban regime.
“He had a very bad time in exile in Swedenbut he never lost his stoic discipline and self-respect,” he said.
The documentary will be presented at the Miami International Film Festival and is co-produced by Arte Miami and entrepreneur Aida Levitán; its release is in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of his death, which will take place on March 22nd.
I drink contains unpublished images of Valdés, an important figure of Cuban jazz and collects the testimonies of three sons of the musician and as many grandchildren as well as friends, like saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera who brought Valdés back to the music scene.
Bacallao, exiled and resident in cold lands as a child, since he lives in Berlin, developed a first version of the documentary in 2020 to which he subsequently added new materials, including the only television interview released in Sweden and which was the result of the album’s success recorded with Diego El Cigala, Black tears.
“Bebo did everything in Sweden, from cleaning the floors to playing the piano in a bar”, said the director, who would have proposed to the Scandinavian country to recognize the artistic value of Bebo who fell in love with the young Swedish Rose Marie Pehrson, with who had two sons Raymond and Rickard.
the real mission
This work on the Cuban musician is part of the great mission that Bacallao claims to have for the EFE agency and that is to reflect the Cuban exile, the Cuban community scattered throughout the world.
“I’m sure there are many people that no one knows about who have been extraordinary in what they have done and have been forgotten,” she underlined and announced that she has just finished another documentary about six Cuban women who have succeeded in different artistic facets in the United States.
The first time Bacallao heard of Bebo Valdés was thanks to the film 54th streetby Fernando Truebain 2000 and the idea for the documentary was born after he was commissioned in 2019 to film the concert in tribute to Bebo, by his nephew Emilio Valdés, in New Jersey.
Emilio is the son of jazz pianist Chucho Valdésone of the children Bebo left behind in Cuba when he went into exile and is one of those featured in the documentary.
When Paquito D’Rivera called Bebo, whose father had been a great friend of the pianist, Valdés was practically retired, although he practiced daily and It had been 34 years without recording.
“He was ignored, quite forgotten, but he never stopped playing,” says Bacallao, who also traced the work as an arranger that Valdés did, in Sweden, for a Cuban orchestra that had María Llerena as lead singer.
“He had self-respect, that’s the most important thing, and a stoic standard of living. He has always given himself the place of him ”, says Bacallao of Dionisio Emilio Valdés Amaro.
“Somehow, bebo was a victim in Sweden of tolerance towards the Cuban dictatorship. There is a double standard, an incredible hypocrisy of the world left,” she concluded.
Source: Clarin
