Chucho Valdés & Irakere 40th Anniversary

Monday, November 16, 2015 | 7:00 pm

Page Auditorium

Latin jazz giant and pianist Chucho Valdés visits Page Auditorium to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his groundbreaking Havana-based ten-piece band Irakere. A five-time GRAMMY winner, three-time Latin GRAMMY winner, and the son of Cuban jazz pioneer Bebo Valdés, Chucho single-handedly developed many of today’s Afro-Cuban musical hallmarks: the combination of bebop with guajeo-based horn lines, the use of the batá and other Cuban folkloric instruments, and rhythms that laid the groundwork for timba.

Irakere emerged as a collection of recent conservatory graduates led by Valdés and featuring Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. In 1979, after five years of international touring, they took the world by storm with a self-titled live album — recorded at the Newport and Montreux Jazz festivals — that earned the GRAMMY for Best Latin Recording. Valdés has helmed Irakere for the past four decades, swapping in the finest young Cuban musicians, making certain the band swings hard, and persevering at the vanguard of Cuban jazz. El Periódico declares, “Valdés is the creator of a sound that is now the lingua franca in Latin Jazz, but forty years ago … it sounded like a revolution.”
Chucho Valdés, Piano
Yaroldy Abreu Robles, Percussion & Vocals
Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé, Batás & Lead Vocals
Rodney Barreto, Drums & Vocals
Gastón Joya, Bass & Vocals
Manuel Machado, Trumpet
Ariel Bringuez, Tenor Sax
Alexander Abreu, Trumpet & Vocals
Rafael Águila, Alto Sax
Reinaldo Melián, Trumpet