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Wynton Marsalis y Chucho Valdés. Foto: Oni Acosta

Chucho is considered one of the five best jazz pianists of the planet. His pianism dates back to the late fifties. Already at the beginning of the sixties he excels playing at the Marti Theater, in several hotels of the capital and in the orchestra of the Musical Theater of Havana. Perhaps most notable is his inclusion in the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music, where his vision of the group sense of jazz is sown. A few years later, in 1973, he created Irakere. Constant experimentation was the way to go.
His discography is one of the most solid of Cuba, even from the stage of Irakere, contributing to our country’s first Grammy award with the LP Misa negra (1979). In recent years he has made very attractive phonograms, such as Canto a Dios (2008), a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "Canto a Dios is my homage to the American people, and to New Orleans, which is the cradle of jazz in that country," confessed Valdes. It is worth highlighting the chosen cast: his sister Mayra Caridad Valdés, singer-songwriter Pablo Milanes and teacher Digna Guerra and their boys from the National Choir of Cuba, as well as his musical producer Tony Taño.
Chucho Valdes, with several Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy, and many times nominated to both in the United States, also recorded the album Cancionero cubano (2005). Classical Cuban composers such as Adolfo Guzman, José Antonio Mendez, Manuel Corona and Portillo de la Luz starred in this record  that was recorded in just an hour and forty minutes. Only three songs by Chucho were included in that phonogram. It emphasizes in each one of them the wide jazz concept and the measured technique of Valdés.
Work of goldsmith was his tribute to one of the most important groups of American jazz: The Jazz Messengers, for which he created a format of luxury renamed The Afrocuban Messengers, gathering  young and well-known figures of the Cuban jazz like Yaroldy Abreu and Dreisser Durruthy, aand achieving a unique and renewing sound within the so-called Cuban jazz..