Acclaimed living legend, seven-time GRAMMY Award winner, and six-time Latin GRAMMY Award winner Chucho Valdés celebrates his 60-year recording career with an instant classic, Cuba & Beyond, set for release on Friday, September 20, 2024.
Valdés is the preeminent composer/pianist of modern Afro-Cuban jazz, and he has international acclaim for deftly fusing his homeland’s music with jazz, classical music, dance music, and rock.
His renowned career includes seven albums on Blue Note Records (1991-2003), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and being an inductee into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
On Cuba & Beyond, Valdés composes yet another masterpiece as he carries his legacy forward with a world-class catalog of recordings. 2024 marks 60 years since Valdés recorded his debut studio record, Jazz Nocturno (Areito, 1964), at the young age of 22-years-old.
The prodigious son of multi-GRAMMY winner Bebo Valdés — the iconic pianist/director of Cuba’s Tropicana Club orchestra and bandleader of his big band Sabor de Cuba — championed an evolutionary sound honoring the golden age of Cuban music while skyrocketing it into the future with his band Irakere (1973-2005).
He subsequently launched a distinguished solo career (1998-2024). He worked with his traditional quartet, solo, a Tribute to Irakere, and with his band Afro-Cuban Messengers. With nearly 30 albums, Valdés remains ever-young at heart while composing an array of his greatest works yet.
On Cuba & Beyond, Valdés performs with his electrifying Royal Quartet featuring Horacio El Negro Hernandez (drums), José A. Gola (bass), and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino (percussion).Coinciding with the first single, “Tatomania” from Cuba & Beyond (to be released on Friday, July 26, 2024