Two great names of Cuban jazz from different generations, Chucho Vald\u00e9s and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, cross their keyboards to give a four-hand and two-piano concert in San Cugat (Barcelona), where Chucho Vald\u00e9s has arrived in top shape and full of projects, according to what he said in an interview with EFE news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel as if I were in a second adolescence,\u201d jokes the 76-year-old maestro, who landed in San Cugat\u2019s Teatre-Auditori with Rubalcaba, on a tour he is sharing with other many collaborations, like those he maintains with Arturo O\u2019Farrill or the one that has led him to publish a record with Patricia Sosa.<\/p>\n
Chucho Vald\u00e9s has been playing the piano since he was three years old, influenced by his father, the very great Bebo Vald\u00e9s, and he has devoted his entire life to the instrument, but he doesn\u2019t get tired and is more active than ever, and always open to research in new fields and to new genres.<\/p>\n
On this occasion, Chucho is sharing the stage with another important name of Latin jazz, who represents a newer generation, the one that is now in its 50s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Rubalcaba from when he was starting, at that time I was his referent, but afterwards he has found his own road and that joins us,\u201d said Vald\u00e9s, who affirms that now the admiration is mutual and he is impressed by his stage partner\u2019s \u201cvirtuosity and interpretative talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concert \u201cwill not be a piano duel,\u201d he specifies, \u201cbut rather a noncompetitive dialogue, an exchange between two histories, two stages.\u201d<\/p>\n
The repertoire includes the two\u2019s original pieces and versions of jazz greats, on a chronological tour through the history of piano.<\/p>\n
There are also incursions into other genres, like classical music, a ground Chucho Vald\u00e9s has touched on many occasions, like when he gave that historical recital together with Lang Lang and the National Symphony Orchestra in Havana\u2019s Cathedral Square.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be some Cuban classics and some classical classics, like Chopin, but in my way, I Africanize and jazz it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rubalcaba shares with Chucho Vald\u00e9s the open view on jazz, the Cuban roots and the place of residence, since both live in Florida (the United States).<\/p>\n
\u201cI have residence in Florida, but I actually live on the plane,\u201d affirms the pianist, who also has a home in M\u00e1laga and one in Cuba and considers himself a citizen of the world.<\/p>\n
Regarding relations between Cuba and the United States, he prefers to not speak, but he recognizes that \u201cwhat\u2019s best for culture is that relations be good. This is like the tide,\u201d he adds, \u201cit rises and falls, it is cyclical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vald\u00e9s has already lived several tides and has been able to keep one foot in the United States and another in Cuba, a formula that, in his opinion, is the best, musically speaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work in the United States, the contracts come from there, even for Europe, so it\u2019s good to live there; but Cuba is also very good, musical education is very good there, my children have been formed there and I have a granddaughter who is studying intermediate level violin and has really great professors,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In Cuba \u201cthere are incredible young musicians, but afterwards it\u2019s necessary to move, music is like that,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n
In any case, the country that has recently impressed him the most has been Korea, where he played \u201cin an open-air place, raining, and no one moved, everybody stayed listening, it was spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world is a nutshell for this artist, a man convinced that \u201cmusic is capable of getting to where nothing else gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 76-year-old Chucho Vald\u00e9s was the founder of the Irakere Group, a sort of big band that emerged in Havana in 1973 and which had in its ranks famous Cuban musicians like Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D\u2019Rivera. In his career of more than half a century he has won six Grammy and three Latin Grammy awards.<\/p>\n
Chucho has given master lectures in Banff University in Canada, the London Royal Academy of Music, Centers of Higher Studies of Los Angeles and San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. His most famous compositions include: \u201cMisa Negra\u201d, 1968; \u201cContradanza\u201d(dedicated to Mar\u00eda Cervantes), 1968; \u201cCien a\u00f1os de juventud\u201d (danz\u00f3n), 1979; \u201cLas Margaritas,\u201d 1981; \u201cCrisol of Havana\u201d with Roy Hargrove; \u201cLatin Jazz\u201d (won a Grammy Award in 1997); \u201cHomenaje a Peruch\u00edn,\u201d 1990; \u201cLive at village vanguard\u201d (won a Grammy in 2000).<\/p>\n
In 2016 he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).<\/p>\n
EFE \/ OnCuba<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two great names of Cuban jazz from different generations, Chucho Vald\u00e9s and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, cross their keyboards to give a four-hand and two-piano concert in San Cugat (Barcelona), where Chucho Vald\u00e9s has arrived in top shape and full of projects, according to what he said in an interview with EFE news agency. \u201cI feel as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3134,"featured_media":108433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[14010],"ppma_author":[33546,8689],"class_list":["post-108426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-oncuba-suggests"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n