Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents

Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet

1. El Rumbón (Chucho Valdés)

2. Punto Cubano (Chucho Valdés)

3. Armando’s Rhumba (Chick Corea)

4. Ponle la clave (Chucho Valdés)

5. Bolero (Chucho Valdés)

6. Son de Almendra (Abelardo Valdés)

7. Anabis (Chucho Valdés)

8. Mozart a la Cubana (Chucho Valdés)

9. Tatomanía (Chucho Valdés)

Chucho Valdés is a living legend of Afro-Cuban music, a seven-time Grammy Award winner and a six-time Latin Grammy Award winner. The preeminent composer and pianist of modern Afro-Cuban jazz, Valdés has earned international acclaim for deftly fusing the music of his homeland with jazz, classical music, dance music and rock. His renowned, 60-year career includes seven albums on Blue Note Records (1991-2003), a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and an induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded Valdés an NEA Jazz Masters fellowship, considered to be the highest honor for a jazz musician in the United States.

The son of iconic pianist Bebo Valdés, Chucho recorded his debut studio album, Jazz Nocturno, in 1964 at 22 years old. With his band Irakere (1973-2005), Valdés championed an evolutionary sound that honored the golden age of Cuban music while rocketing it into the future. He has enjoyed a distinguished solo career and worked with a traditional quartet, a tribute to Irakere and with his band Afro-Cuban Messengers.

After nearly 30 albums, Valdés remains young at heart. On his latest album, last year's Cuba & Beyond, Valdés performs with his electrifying Royal Quartet, featuring Horacio El Negro Hernandez on drums, José A. Gola on bass and Roberto Junior Vizcaino on percussion. The album's first single, “Tatomania,” celebrates the brilliance of 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, Vizcaino shines alongside Valdés’ melodic comping.

“Every party in Cuba ends with the conga," Valdés says. "Once the congas ignite, we all dance together.”

As with other stellar Valdés albums, Cuba & Beyond bears the influence of his classical music education at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de la Habana. “Mozart a la Cubana" is a nod to the first sonata Valdés performed in concert at the age of 9. It fuses Mozart’s “Sonata in C Major” with the national rhythms of Cuba Danzon. “Armando’s Rhumba” is a tribute to Valdés' piano contemporary and longtime friend Chick Corea, with whom he first performed in 2019 at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

“Two of the most influential pianists in the jazz world would certainly have a lot to say to each other," Downbeat Magazine noted of the concert. "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 [in 2021], and this is the first time we’ve recorded it.”

“Congablues” swings among lightning-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,” Valdés says.

On the opposite side of the meter scale, “Habanera Partida,” composed by Gola, slows down the groove to reflect 19th century Cuban Habanera, a popular dance style of the time developed from the French contradanza.

Cuban composer Pedro Junco’s most beloved bolero, “Nosotros,” has been interpreted by hundreds of singers since its inception. Valdés offers a piano-driven rendition of the song that 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. The song 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.

A restless visionary forever evolving Afro-Cuban music, Valdés is as creative and playful as ever on Cuba & Beyond.