Live at Knight Chucho Valdés 85th Birthday Celebration

Founding and leading IRAKERE—making history as the most influential band in Afro-Cuban jazz and one of the most renowned Latin jazz ensembles of all time—would have been more than enough to secure CHUCHO VALDÉS a permanent, towering place in the history of Cuban music and jazz. Yet, Valdés did, and continues to do, so much more.

His exceptional career spans 94 albums as a leader, over 295 original compositions, 15 Grammy Awards (including 7 Latin Grammys), and 28 nominations (12 for Latin Grammys). His peerless trajectory as a pianist, composer, bandleader, and arranger has made him one of the most influential figures in the global jazz landscape. This legacy is backed by prestigious accolades: an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music (2017); the Latin Recording Academy’s Musical Excellence Award and an induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame (2018); and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Longy School of Music (2025). The NEA Jazz Masters fellowship—the highest honor bestowed upon jazz musicians in the United States—rightfully crowns a triumphant career of more than 60 years completely dedicated to music. His distinct style is deeply rooted in the Afro-Cuban musical tradition, which he seamlessly weaves with jazz innovation, classical music, and rock, always guided by an endless spirit of exploration and experimentation.

Music was part of Dionisio Jesús “Chucho” Valdés Rodríguez’s life from the moment he was born in Quivicán, Havana Province, Cuba, on October 9, 1941. His mother, Pilar, recalls that by age three, Valdés was already playing piano with both hands in any key, sketching out melodies he heard on the radio. His father, the legendary pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Ramón “Bebo” Valdés, was his first teacher. Both parents recognized the boy's prodigal talent and arranged for him to begin formal piano, theory, and solfège lessons at age five.

The Valdés Rodríguez family eventually moved from Quivicán to the Cuban capital of Havana. Beyond the influence of a home filled with music—as Pilar sang too, though never professionally—came the impact of Santa Amalia. The vibrant musical atmosphere of this Havana neighborhood was shaped by the sheer number of musicians who lived there. As a teenager, Chucho entered the Municipal Music Conservatory of Havana, graduating at age 14 and expanding upon the knowledge he received from his mentors Oscar Muñoz Bouffartique, Rosario Franco, and Zenaida Romeu. A year later, he informally formed his first jazz trio with Luis “Pellejo” Rodríguez on bass and Emilio de Monte on percussion. In 1959, at just 18 years old, his father gave him his professional debut with Sabor de Cuba, the jazz big band Bebo had created and directed.

Live concerts and recordings with his father's orchestra were not enough for the restless young pianist, whose drive for jazz experimentation grew relentlessly. By 1961, he could be seen performing at the legendary Elegante bar inside Havana’s Hotel Riviera as the pianist for Rolando Estrella’s group. He remained there until 1963, the year he joined the orchestra of the newly established Havana Musical Theater, where he played until 1967. Concurrently, he brought together several remarkable, close-knit instrumentalists in 1964 to create Jesús Valdés y su combo. That same year, he recorded his debut album, Jazz Nocturno (Areíto/Palma). He further honed his skills by backing various emerging soloists in the studio, including the legendary Amado Borcelá "Guapachá," with whom he recorded the 1965 album Guapachá en La Habana (Areíto).

Following the break in diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States in 1961, jazz became a political tool. While the government-approved artistic direction stuck to safe, outdated formulas, Valdés refused to abandon his experimental approaches in smaller formats, drawing from more avant-garde influences. Although he had to join the official Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna in 1967—a big band whose name deliberately avoided the word "jazz"—he continued his musical "heresies" on the side.

Chucho Valdés’s innovative drive reached a turning point with the 1972 album Jazz Batá (Areíto). In a trio format, the piano, bass, and Afro-Cuban ritual percussion engaged in a dialogue with jazz sensibilities, marking a brand-new way to approach the core elements of Afro-Caribbean music. This album served as the direct precursor to Valdés’s greatest and most influential creation: Irakere (1973–2005). This trailblazing band redefined Latin jazz by prioritizing polyrhythms and sacred Afro-Cuban percussion, blending tradition, ancestry, and modernity. Irakere built directly upon the lineage started by Mario Bauzá, Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, Chico O’Farrill, Machito, and Bebo Valdés himself—pioneers who gave Latin jazz a distinct Afro-Cuban sonic identity, which Irakere elevated to its most advanced and modern expression.

Following their first U.S. performances in 1978 to promote the album Irakere (released that year by Areíto and Columbia Records), Valdés and his band won their first Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording at the 1980 ceremony. The album prominently featured Misa negra (Black Mass), a four-movement suite for big band, Afro-Cuban percussion, and vocals, which was the first Afro-Cuban jazz suite created by Chucho Valdés. Boasting a discography of 40 original albums, Chucho Valdés’s work with Irakere earned two additional Grammy nominations: for Irakere 2 (Best Latin Recording in 1981) and Babalú Ayé (Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album in 1999).

Valdés never stopped experimenting. While he remained with Irakere until 2005, he launched a parallel career in 1998 as a soloist, small-ensemble leader, and prolific collaborator. This initiated a highly fruitful period defined by landmarks like Roy Hargrove’s Habana (1998)—a major collaborative album that earned Valdés his second Grammy Award—and his solo release Solo Piano (Blue Note, 1991). He also released celebrated quartet recordings including Bele Bele en La Habana (Blue Note, 1998), Briyumba Palo Congo (Blue Note, 1999), and New Conceptions (Blue Note, 2003)—all Grammy-nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album—as well as Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 2001), which won the award that year. Throughout this era, Valdés channeled his extraordinary pianistic imagination and devotion to constant experimentation. His broad artistic vision led to successful collaborations with widely diverse musicians, including Roy Hargrove, Leo Brouwer, Pablo Milanés, Iván Lins, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Omara Portuondo, various symphony orchestras, and more recently, Chick Corea and Eliane Elias, among many others.

In 2015, Valdés celebrated Irakere’s 40th anniversary with a world tour and a live recording: Tribute to Irakere: Live at Marciac (Jazz Village / Comanche Music), which won the 2017 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. Forty-three years after conceiving the innovative Misa negra suite, Valdés drew inspiration once again from Yoruba rituals and their philosophical teachings on life to compose La creación (The Creation) in 2021. This three-movement suite for big band, an Afro-Cuban percussion ensemble, and vocals premiered on November 5 of that year at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. La creación was co-commissioned by the Arsht Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Symphony Center, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. Following its premiere, the suite was performed across the United States and Europe, including concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York; the Detroit Jazz Festival in Michigan; the Monterey Jazz Festival in California; the Philharmonie de Paris; and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Spain.

The year 2024 held a deeply special meaning for Chucho Valdés, marking his musical reunion with two musicians who were foundational pillars of Irakere's original lineup: Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. During concerts in Miami and Chicago, the instruments of these three lifelong friends resonated together once again after four decades apart. This took place during the Irakere 50 tour, celebrating the golden anniversary of the flagship Latin jazz band Valdés founded and directed. For Valdés, these were two nights of profound reconnections and emotions alongside artists who are today massive names in jazz, and whose paths had diverged back in the 1980s. His reunion with D'Rivera, his old friend and musical partner-in-crime, had actually begun a bit earlier, when they recorded the album I Missed You Too (Paquito Records/Sunnyside) in January 2022 and embarked on a tour with a sextet they named Reunión, traveling across Europe and the United States. I Missed You Too won a Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Also in 2024, he recorded his most recent album, Cuba & Beyond (Innercat Music Group), commemorating the 60th anniversary of his recording debut. Cuba & Beyond stands as a powerful approach to Valdés's unstoppable creativity, setting new standards for contemporary music alongside another brilliant new group under his leadership: the Royal Quartet. Introduced in September of that year, this standout ensemble features members representing three generations of Cuban musicians, including Horacio "El Negro" Hernández on drums, José A. Gola on bass, and Roberto Vizcaíno Jr. on percussion, among others.

Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer and producer Joe Lovano is fearless in finding new modes of artistic expression. With a Grammy Win for his 52nd Street Themes and 14 other nominations, he has won DownBeat Magazine ’s Critics and Readers Polls countless times as Tenor Saxophonist, Musician of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Triple Crowns from DownBeat. He has also received numerous awards from Jazz Times and the Jazz Journalists Association for Tenor Saxophone, Album of the Year and Musician of the Year.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 29, 1952 he attended the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston where years later he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. Since 2001 he has held the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance and is a founding faculty member since 2009 of the Global Jazz Institute at Berklee directed by Danilo Pérez. He is a guest lecturer at New York University’s Jazz Program, Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music as well as Clinician at Universities around the globe.

From 1991 through 2016, Lovano released an unprecedented 25 records as a leader for the historic Blue Note Records. Joe Lovano Quartet: Classic! Live at Newport featuring Hank Jones was recorded in 2005 and released in 2016 to critical acclaim. In 2019, Lovano released his debut album as a bandleader on ECM Records, Trio Tapestry, with Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi. Over the next few years, Lovano saw the release of three additional ECM Records albums: ROMA, a collaboration with Enrico Rava; Arctic Riff, a special guest appearance with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio; and the sophomore release from Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, Garden of Expression. In 2021, Lovano released Other Worlds, his third album with Sound Prints, a quintet he co-leads with trumpeter Dave Douglas. The next year brought a collaboration with guitarist Jakob Bro, Once Around the Room: A Tribute to Paul Motian. In 2023, Lovano released his third Trio Tapestry recording entitled, Our Daily Bread. Most recently, Lovano released Homage, a follow-up recording with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio.

In addition, composer Mark Anthony Turnage wrote a Concerto for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra for Joe called “A Man Descending” which has been performed globally and Maestro Michael Abene orchestrated an album of all-Lovano originals called Symphonica for the WDR Symphonic Orchestra and Big Band, which was released on Blue Note and received a Grammy nomination.

Joe has performed and recorded with a long list of jazz greats including Woody Herman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Gunther Schuller, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Ed Blackwell, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Hank Jones, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Judi Silvano, Ravi Coltrane, Chucho Valdés, Ornette Coleman, Diana Krall, and many others. Joe has created an extensive body of work for his own ensembles including strings, woodwinds, his horn-rich Nonet, the Classic Quartet, Trio Tapestry, and more.

Joe Lovano continues to explore new horizons within the world of music as a soloist, bandleader and composer.

Terence Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present. A true “Renaissance” man, Blanchard stands tall as one of jazz’s most-esteemed trumpeters and defies expectations by creating a spectrum of artistic pursuits. Boundary-breaking and genre-defying, Blanchard is recognized globally as a dazzling soloist and a prolific composer for film, television, opera, Broadway, orchestras and for his own ensembles. In fact, leading theater magazine TheaterMania recently cited Blanchard as “the most exciting American composer working in opera today.”

An eight-time Grammy Winner and twice Oscar-nominated film composer, Blanchard became only the second African-American composer to be nominated twice in the original score category at the 2022 Academy Awards, duplicating Quincy Jones’ feat from 1967’s In Cold Blood and 1985’s The Color Purple. Blanchard’s work has placed him at the forefront of giving voice to human rights, civil rights, and racial injustice, including the 2015 album “Breathless, ’’an elegy for Eric Garner, who was killed by police and whose words, “I can’t breathe,” became a civil rights rallying cry.

Blanchard is also heralded as a two-time opera composer whose Fire Shut Up in My Bones is based on the memoir of celebrated writer and New York Times columnist Charles Blow. The Metropolitan Opera premiered Fire Shut Up in My Bones on September 27, 2021, to open their 2021-22 season in New York, making it the first opera composer by an African American composer to premiere at the Met in its 138-year history. The recording of those performances received a Grammy Award for “Best Opera Recording,” and The New York Times heralded “Fire” as “inspiring,” “subtly powerful” and “a bold affecting adaptation of Charles Blow’s work.” Of the historical moment, Blanchard said, “I don’t want to be a token, but a turnkey.” “Fire” has been widely recognized as one of our nation’s most important cultural milestones and returns to the Met for a highly-anticipated second run in April of 2024.

Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, about the troubled life of boxer Emile Griffith, premiered in 2013 and starred Denyce Graves with a libretto from Pulitzer Prize Winner, Michael Cristofer. Champion premiered at the Met in April 2023 to widespread critical acclaim. It too received a 2024 Grammy for “Best Opera Recording.”

But there is a center of gravity. It’s Blanchard’s beautiful, provocative, inspiring jazz recordings that undergird all these projects. The same holds true now as it did early in his career in 1994 when he told DownBeat: “Writing for film is fun, but nothing can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert.”

From his expansive work composing the scores for over 20 Spike Lee projects over three decades - ranging from the documentary When the Levees Broke to the recent Lee films, BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods (both of which garnered Blanchard Oscar nominations), Terence has interwoven beautiful melodies that create strong backdrops to human stories like Regina King’s One Night in Miami; Kasi Lemmons’ Eve’s Bayou; George Lucas ’Red Tails; the HBO drama series Perry Mason (now in its second season); Apple TV’s docuseries They Call Me Magic (for which Blanchard received an Emmy nomination) and Gina Prince Bythewood and Viola Davis’ critically acclaimed film, The Woman King.

In his expansive career as a recording leader Blanchard delivered Absence, a collaboration with his longtime E-Collective band and the acclaimed Turtle Island Quartet which received Grammy nominations in November 2021 for Best Instrumental Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Blanchard. Recorded in February 2020 just before the Covid-19 lockdowns, Absence started out as a project to show gratitude to Wayne Shorter. “I knew that Wayne wasn’t feeling well at the time, so I wanted to honor him to let him know how much he has meant to me,” says Blanchard who today lives in Los Angeles as well as in his native New Orleans. “When you look at my own writing, you can see how much I’ve learned from Wayne. He mastered writing compositions starting with a simple melody and then juxtaposing it against the harmonies that come from a different place to make it come alive in a different light."

Born in New Orleans in 1962, Blanchard is a musical polymath who launched his solo career as a bandleader in the 1990s. Since then, he has released 20 solo albums, garnered 15 Grammy nominations, composed for the stage and for more than 60 films, and received 10 major commissions. He has been named an official 2024 NEA Jazz Master as well as a member of the 2024 class of awardees for the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Letters, and currently serves as the Executive Artistic Director for SF Jazz, the largest non-profit jazz presenter in the world.

Regarding his consistent attachment to artistic works of conscience, Blanchard confesses, “You get to a certain age when you ask, ‘Who’s going to stand up and speak out for us? ’Then you look around and realize that the James Baldwins, Muhammad Alis and Dr. Kings are no longer here...and begin to understand that it falls on you. I’m not trying to say I’m here to try to correct the whole thing, I’m just trying to speak the truth.” In that regard, he cites unimpeachable inspirations. “John Coltrane playing Alabama, even Louis Armstrong talking about what was going on with his people any time he was interviewed. Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter who live by their Buddhist philosophy and try to expand the conscience of their communities. I’m standing on all their shoulders. How dare I come through this life having had the blessing of meeting those men and not take away any of that? Like anybody else, I’d like to play feel good party music but sometimes my music is about the reality of where we are.”