Music
Chucho Valdés at the Arsht, his 85th birthday, standards and the poetry in jazz
Jesús “Chucho” Valdés 85th birthday celebration is Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall in Miami. (Photo by Martin Espino Garcia)
As he discusses preparations for his 85th birthday celebration at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami, pianist, composer and bandleader Jesús “Chucho” Valdés sounds almost giddy. The NEA Jazz Master has won seven Grammy and seven Latin Grammy awards.
“The group I’ll be playing with is very interesting because I chose some of the many musicians who have influenced me the most throughout my career,” he says, speaking in Spanish from his home in South Florida. “So, I thought of Terence Blanchard on trumpet; Joe Lovano on tenor sax; Marcus Gilmore on drums; John Patitucci on bass; and Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno (a member of Valdés’ Royal Quartet) on percussion.”
For the birthday bash on Saturday, Oct. 3, Valdés will revisit the jazz standards that helped shape his musical beginnings.
While Chucho Valdés public birthday celebration takes place Saturday, Oct. 3, his birthday is actually Oct. 9 (coincidentally the same date of his father’s Bebo Valdés). (Photo by Martin Espino Garcia)
“And the setlist we’re going to perform will consist of standards, the songs I played in my early days. It was the foundation of everything that came after — and we’re going to do it all without rehearsing. We’re going to improvise,” he says with a chuckle. He mentions classics such as Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Groovin’ High” and “St. Thomas” by the late Sonny Rollins.
The performance promises both a return to the beginnings of an extraordinary career spanning more than 60 years and a tribute to improvisation, the defining jazz art of creating compositions within compositions on the fly.
The approach follows Valdés’ path in recent years. This past decade has been marked by glances back as he moved forward. His 2018 recording “Jazz Bata 2” revisited the daring idea of a piano jazz trio featuring batá drums that he first explored in 1972. In 2022, he reunited with his longtime friend and musical co-conspirator, reedman Paquito D’Rivera, after more than 40 years apart.
Chucho Valdés performing Irakere 50, a 2024 celebration of the Afro-Cuban-jazz-rock fusion group Valdés co-founded, directed, and for which he was the principal composer and arranger. (Photo by Daniel Azoulay)
Then there was “Irakere 50,” a 2024 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Afro-Cuban jazz-rock fusion group Valdés co-founded and directed, serving as its principal composer and arranger. The concert featured two key players from the original Irakere: trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and D’Rivera.
Both the reunion with D’Rivera and the anniversary concert took place at the Arsht Center.
Even new works such as “La Creación” (“The Creation”), an ambitious three-movement suite for small ensemble, voices and big band, suggested a composer taking the long view and summing up his musical searches to that point. The work was commissioned in part by the Adrienne Arsht Center, where it premiered in 2021.
But when asked to look back and speak about special moments in his long career, Valdés doesn’t hesitate: It was being named a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. The distinction, as noted in the NEA announcement, honors “a select number of living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz.”
It is the highest honor the United States bestows on jazz artists.
Chucho Valdés at the premiere performance of “The Creation,” an ambitious three-movement suite for small ensemble, voices, and big band commissioned in part by, and premiered at, the Adrianne Arsht Center in 2021. (Photo by Omar Charcousse)
“Many important things that have happened all these years, but being named an NEA Jazz Master was like touching the sky with my hands,” he says. “To have made a contribution, to be recognized globally, and to have that confirmed by being named an NEA Jazz Master is for me, the ultimate achievement.”
Other moments marked turning points in Valdés’ story, such as Irakere’s debut at Carnegie Hall as part of the Newport Jazz Festival on June 28, 1978. The program, titled “Three Pianos and Two Guitars,” featured pianists Bill Evans, Mary Lou Williams and McCoy Tyner, and guitarists Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine.
The 11-piece Irakere was an unannounced addition, but its appearance had been preceded by a buzz among jazz fans about this Cuban band that played a blend of jazz, Afro-Cuban ritual music, Cuban popular music styles, rock and even classical music with dazzling virtuosity. By the end of the evening, the concert had turned into a celebration. The following year, Irakere won a Grammy for the live recording from that night.
“Now, that night was the greatest moment up until the NEA award,” he says, breaking into a laugh. “How amazing. At Carnegie Hall with Irakere! And everybody was there. The place was packed with musicians: Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Getz. Everyone was there. And that was not the best of it,” he says, his voice trailing off.
His father, pianist and composer Bebo Valdés, was there to witness it. Bebo had left Cuba in 1960 and was then living in exile in Sweden.
Saxophonist Joe Lovano has collaborated in various settings With Chucho Valdés including duets and leading a shared quintet. (Photo by Aquiapo Films)
“I knew he was there, but we had only spoken on the phone. And I hadn’t seen him in 18 years. On stage, my hands were shaking knowing that Bebo was watching me after all this time,” recalls Valdés.
Bebo was not only his beloved father but also Chucho’s first teacher. The reunion marked a new beginning for both.
“It was a historic night for me in so many ways,” says Valdés.
Another unforgettable encounter that night came with a friend’s laughter.
“After the concert, backstage, Paquito comes over and says, ‘Chucho, this guy told me that you play really well and that he wants to meet you.’ And here comes this guy with glasses and a beard and I’m like, OK, I don’t know him but, OK, of course, and I say ‘Hello’ and shake his hand, and Paquito starts to laugh,” recalls Valdés. “‘Chucho, it’s Bill Evans!’ Paquito knew how passionate I was about Bill Evans. But the only information I had about him came from the few records I owned. On ‘Live at the Village Vanguard,’ he didn’t have a beard; he looked like a completely different person now. I almost fell over right then and there — and Paquito, of course, was laughing his head off.”
“… I made the most of all these years, and I’ve kept evolving,” says Chucho Valdés. “And that also has to do with listening, listening a lot. ” (Photo by Martin Espino Garcia)
The difference between very good and superior musicians is often not what they can play but what they choose not to play, how they listen and how they serve the needs of the music.
Valdés, a gifted pianist of impeccable technique, says, “What remains most important from all these years, is that I’ve kept evolving. Right now, I’m very introspective. It’s not forced minimalism. It’s just that life and experience have taught me that less is more. And I’m playing a lot like that now. I think of it as a poetry phase. Poetry and communication — without fanfare.”
WHAT: Chucho Valdes 85th Birthday Celebration with Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard. Part of the 2026-27 Live at Knight series
WHERE: Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday Oct. 3
COST: $53- $158
INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org/jazz
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