2024-01-05 15:51:57
Photo: Pepin the Worker
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
The renowned Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés announced that he will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the group Irakere with several concerts in US cities.
“This year we start with the tribute to Irakere 50,” wrote the multi-award-winning artist from his Facebook profile.
Regarding the dates, he announced that the presentations will take place in the cities of Miami and San Francisco during the month of February.
The first of them will be on February 9 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in the city of the Sun.
Valdés will then perform two more concerts on February 15 and 18 at the SFJAZZ Center, a space considered the first freestanding building in the US built for jazz performance and education, in San Francisco, California.
The winner of seven Grammy Awards will be accompanied by other musicians of the stature of José Gola, Horacio “El Negro” Hernández, Roberto Vizcaíno Jr., Eddy de Armas Jr. and Carlos Averhoff Jr., among others.
Without a doubt, Irake revolutionized the popular dance genre in the Latin world and positioned jazz like never before in the Cuban sound scene. Its origins date back to 1962, when Chucho joined guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, to channel and experiment new ideas through music.
This was followed by the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra, where Chucho joined forces with other promising young people such as Enrique Plá (drums), Arturo Sandoval (trumpet), Jorge Varona (trumpet), Carlos Averhoff (tenor sax) and Carlos del Puerto (bass). ).
However, over time, Valdés felt that he needed to change and created a trio with Del Puerto and Oscar Valdés that recorded the album Jazz Batá, in which they included the song “Irakere.”
In 1972 they performed for the first time under the name of Irakere at the Amadeo Roldán theater in Havana with the show Encuentro Latinoamericano, surprising those present with their fusion of traditional Latin rhythms with jazz, blues and Cuban music.
Although at first it was difficult for them to be seen well by the island’s institutions, in 1973 its foundation was authorized, at that time and during its first years made up of Chucho Valdés (piano, arrangements and compositions), Oscar Valdés (singer, percussion) , Carlos Emilio Morales (guitar), Carlos del Puerto (bass), Jorge Varona (trumpet), Paquito D’Rivera (sax), Bernardo García (drums), Lázaro Alfonso (congas) and Carlos Averhoff (sax). Later other artists such as Enrique Plá (drums) would join in.
The story of Irakere cannot be told without mentioning other musical talents that also formed part of its ranks, such as Arturo Sandoval, Miguel Díaz “Angá” (percussion), Orlando Valle “Maraca” (flute), César López (alto sax), Germán Velazco (tenor sax), Jorge L. Chicoy (guitar), José Luis Cortés (baritone sax and flute) and José Miguel Crego “El greco” (trumpet), among others.
His list of hits starts with his first big hit: “Bacalao con pan”, which was followed by other anthological songs such as “Ese atrevimiento”, “Valle de picadura”, “Xiomara”, “One Hundred Years of Youth”, “Estela va to explode”, “Juana 1600”, “Tell Catalina”, “Por breaking the coconut”, and “Baila mi corazón”, just to mention a few.
To their credit they have a Grammy Award, obtained in the category of Best Latin Recording in 1980, in addition to a nomination in that same category in 1981 for ‘Irakere 2’ and in 1999 they were among the candidates to win the award in the section of Best Latin Tropical Album, with the phonogram ‘Babalú Ayé’.
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