Chucho Valdés brought together Irakere to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the revolutionary Afro-Cuban jazz group

At 82 years old and with enviable energy, the Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes will celebrate this Friday the 50th anniversary of the creation of Irakere, the most important Afro-Cuban jazz group.

It will be with a concert in Miami which will have two of its original members, the trumpeter, as an additional attraction Arturo Sandoval and the saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

After passing through Buenos Aires at the end of last year, with a solo piano concert at the Palacio Paz and a duet performance with the Mallorcan singer Concha Buika, at Aura Tango, both produced by the tango dancer, Dante Sánchez, Valdés prepares the concerts for the anniversary of Irakere.

Also He announced that he would return to Argentina for a concert at the Teatro Colón. “I don’t have a definitive date yet, but I’m going to be flying to Buenos Aires for this concert,” the pianist announced during the telephone call with Clarionfrom Miami.

A revolutionary contribution

According to Chucho, “Irakere made a contribution that revolutionized Afro-Cuban music, a group of enormous quality. Many musicians of the new generations come to me and tell me that Irakere was a before and an after.”

Valdes with Irakere managed to capture the musical strength of Cuba with jazz like few others

“The initial idea was to celebrate the 50th anniversary with the founding musicians of the group who are alive, but it is not easy due to visa problems, but those who live here in the United States, who are Arturo and Paquito, will be present for us,” added the pianist.

This happy reunion will be Friday, February 9 at the Adrianne Arsht Center, Miami while, for the four performances of Iraqere in San Francisco, Valdés will accompany his quartet together with a significant wind section. “Paquito and Arturo have commitments and will only play at the Miami concert,” he added.

Valdés announced that the repertoire will be a selection of the group’s most important songs. “We will make the best of dance music and the best of concert music.”

-How did the founding of that group happen?

-Most of the musicians who would make up Irakere were in the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra, a kind of All Star that was formed in Havana in 1967. Long before this orchestra, they already had a group called Chucho Valdés y Su Combo, where Paquito and guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales (one of the founders of Irakere).

After the time in the orchestra, the work began to become monotonous, there was no form of development such as an orchestra with soloists but rather an orchestra of accompanists and there is nothing wrong with being an accompanist, but we had other dreams, we wanted to develop our ideas, develop our music. In 1973 we made that change, we were a small group, but with the music we had in mind.

-The pianist Herbie Hancock declared that music no longer matters: people no longer care about the music itself, but about who makes it. You said that the public is more interested in celebrities than music, do you agree?

-I am one hundred percent for music, quality music, elaborate music that also reaches an audience, has its audience. What happens is that commercial music, at all times, has had more audiences, always, at all times. I remember that years ago there was more interest in the quality of the music, now it’s more commercial than ever.

His show with Patricia Sosa

-Regarding your memorable presentation in Buenos Aires with Patricia Sosa, is there a possibility of repeating this project?

-It was September 2018, in the Gran Rex. That concert was very nice, I really like Patricia; When I heard her I didn’t know her and I loved her voice. When I told a friend that I liked this singer, he told me: “But she’s a friend of mine!” She gave me her phone number, I called her and we put this project together, which we also did in Havana. I don’t think it can be repeated because we are in different races, but I don’t lose hope.

-His children are musicians and his father Bebo was a great musician. What do you think is Valdé’s legacy to Cuban music?

-We really need to talk about Bebo first, the first musician in the family. He was a very original and very creative pianist, with a lot of possibilities, because he not only played Cuban music, he also dominated jazz very well and played classical music well. He made a very great contribution to Cuban music, very important contributions from the genre of song, the “feeling”, as well as the music and was a great accompaniment, for example, to Rolando Laserie and many others.

All the great singers had him as a pianist on their albums for the Gema label. In addition to the Sabor de Cuba orchestra, he had a quartet and we got to share the work. When he conducted the orchestra, I went to the quartet and when he played with the quartet, I directed the orchestra. Baby it was a point of departure in time for the evolution of the wine that passed afterward, and at the moment I took the stick and said to myself “Follow it”.

As for my children (he has six), they are all musicians. They are Chuchito, Leyanis and the youngest, Julian, who is 17 years old and is a great percussionist, although it is not very good what his father says.

Chucho Valdés (Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez) was born on October 9, 1941 in Quivicán. Son of Bebo and Pilar Rodríguez, pianist and singer, Chucho At three years old he played melodies he heard on the radio and at five he began serious study of the instrument..

On the one hand, I had a strong piano education with classical music that was balanced with Cuban popular music and jazz, which came directly from my father’s side. At the age of 17 he replaced his father in both the orchestra and the quartet. Valdés, in addition to being a virtuoso pianist, stands out as a creative composer and arranger..

-How do you see the situation in your country?

-It’s very difficult; We miss a lot of everything and everything is very sad. It hurts. We will have to keep waiting because it is a problem of time and the last thing we lose is hope, but it hurts a lot.