On Thursday, April 17, Cucurucho Valdés gave a concert at Yarini Habana, after two years away from Cuba and its stages.
Chucho’s nephew, who currently lives in Madrid, welcomed our team during the sound check a few hours before the performance. “I’m very nervous, but at the same time excited and committed. I want to give you something always better,” he told OnCuba, sitting at the piano he will play at this reunion with his audience and longtime musician friends.
“One is always very restless outside of this land that saw one grow up, that gave one all these gifts that Cuba offers, and which in my case are family and this tradition. So returning here, touching the land with one’s feet — as I say, ‘with my feet on my land’ — is a blessing, and presenting art here even more so,” he said, alluding to the title of his latest album, released under the Egrem label in 2018.
For this reunion, Roberto Carlos Rodríguez Valdés, known as Cucurucho, decided to be accompanied by other important Cuban musicians, with whom he also maintains a long friendship and has shared years of work: Jorge Reyes on double bass, Adel González on percussion, Alejandro Delgado on trumpet, and, as a guest, Alain Pérez.
“Since I began my solo career, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the support of many experienced musicians who have connected with my piano playing, my style, and my compositions. I’m very happy and honored that this is happening.
“First of all, as people they are exceptional, which is what motivates me to share the stage with them. Empathy, celebrations, and understanding are important, and when you enter the professional arena, everything is much better. I feel very comfortable because they are lifelong maestros,” explains Cucurucho.
His departure from Cuba was another step in his career and an opportunity to find his sound and even family roots, primarily the work of his grandfather, the great Bebo Valdés.
“I was touring Austria, Switzerland, and France, and I received an offer in Spain to start working with bassist Javier Colina, an icon of the double bass, and I really couldn’t pass it up. I also wanted to explore other aspects of Spanish music, flamenco, which are elements that are in our roots, elements that are also foundations of Cuban music.
“That’s when we started exploring the repertoire a bit, doing pieces by Maestro Bebo Valdés, trying to do versions, with great tact because Cuban music has to be played with care, and Javier is truly an expert in this genre. We did a project called Homenaje a Bebo. We’ve played on stages all over Europe and it’s been really well received. It’s been a different experience. I think I’m in a good place, on a good path, and accompanied by the greats. It is truly a tremendous honor.”
Although the artist had already traveled around the world several times throughout his career, making a living from music from another part of the globe has been a new experience for him.
“Day to day life in the city where I live, Madrid, has been hard; emigration isn’t easy, we all know that; but music is the only thing that can save me from these anxieties, from the absence of all this, which is wonderful: my Cuba, my people, my audience. At the same time, I’ve gained discipline, concentration, and growth, and I’ve realized the bad things I’ve done and the good things yet to come, and the things I’m doing as well.”
“So I think it has contributed to me professionally, spiritually, and in the person I’m becoming, because one changes, and I think it’s been for the better. So I’m grateful for everything that’s happened to me, since I laid hands on the piano, since my mother came up with that wonderful idea,” he reflects emotionally, remembering his mother, Miriam Caridad Valdés, the beloved piano teacher of several generations of Cuban artists.
For Cucurucho, being in Cuba isn’t determined by geography; it’s a feeling.
“I’m in Spain, and I don’t think I’ve ever left. Unfortunately, physically it’s the opposite, but my heart is always here. I’m never going to be far from this land. I plan to return whenever I have time and have this anxiety — which I have quite often — and life, my profession, and my finances allow it. I’ll always be with my feet on this land and trying to reconnect with my audience, which is what I’ll do this time and what I’ll always do. I’ll be here as long as I’m breathing.”
