In the realm of classical music –a genre that he excels in fair and square- Leo Brouwer (Havana 1939) is no doubt the highest-ranking Cuban musician of all time. Well-known Australian guitarist had this to say about the maestro: “Brouwer got a jump on the 20th century’s guitar language, just as Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt did it back in the 19th century.”

No guitarist who respects himself fails to include in his rep at least one of the Cuban musician’s compositions. His series of guitar concerts are widely known and are today either performed or requested by such top talented players as John Williams, Costas Cotsiolis, Ishiro Suzuki, Yulian Bream and Timo Korhonen. But his interests –those of a full-blown musician- technical mastery and high-flying imagination have led him to compose other memorable masterpieces.

Just to EXCELENCIAS Cuba 75 MÚSIC name but a couple of the most illustrative tunes, the Flute and String Orchestra Concerto (1972) and the Violin and Orchestra Concerto (1976) seem to hit the right chord.

Coupled with a staggeringly bright career as a guitarist and with three decades under his belt –he was stacked up at the time against Brazilian Toribio Santos, Venezuelan Alirio Diaz and Williams himself- his job as leader of major symphonic orchestras from Spain, UK, Hungary, Germany, France and Cuba, his Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, his conquest of the Cannes Classical Award, his influence on and commitment to a breed of troubadours like Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes, his plentiful movie scores and his vast catalog of instrumental combinations –including the 1994 Homo Ludens double albumit’s no exaggeration to say that totality is Brouwer’s ideal of what music is all about.

Chucho Valdes (Quivican 1941) reigns in a totally different kingdom: jazz. From the moment he stunned his father at the early age of 4 when he sat down before a keyboard to pluck out a few notes, he’s never stopped growing as an exceptional musician.

In the early 1960s, he joined the orchestra of the Havana Musical Theater, formed his own band and became a member of the Cuban Modern Music Orchestra. In 1973, he founded the Irakere band and that was the Chucho Valdes who traveled the whole wide world and panned out to be a fledgling star when critics at the 1970 Jamboree Jazz Festival in Warsaw said the Cuban musician had class and talent galore. In the United Status, the home of jazz, he put his first feather in his hat as he grabbed his first Grammy Award in 1979 with the Irakere band. Since then, he’s been penciled in as not only one of the top jazz piano performers in the world, but also a great renovator of Latin jazz.

As a composer, he has churned out such smash hits as Picadura Valley, A Hundred Years of Youth, Influenced Mambo, Juana 1600, Codfish and Bread, A Chant to Babalu-Aye and the very special Black Mass. Several colleges from all around the planet have recognized him as doctor honoris causa.

Any similarities between Brouwer and Valdes? A whole lot more than what meets the eye. They spent time together at the Havana Musical Theater, where Chucho learned from Leo’s early technical savvy on orchestration. In the early 1970s, Leo invited Chucho to be part of the world premiere of a piece of his specially composed for a jazz quintet and a symphonic orchestra. The composition entitled Arioso was a tribute to great American double-bassist Charles Mingus. A few years later, in 1978, Leo and Chucho joined Irakere in what went down in history as one of the most awesome musical developments of the 70s: a concert at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana where the two of them came up with a brand-new version of the Aranjuez Concert by Spanish musician Joaquin Rodrigo, the Prelude Number 3 by Brazil’s Heitor Villa-Lobos, and a ragtime composed by US performer and songwriter Scott Joplin.

When Chucho recorded his 2002 Cuban Fantasy Album: Classical Variations with the Blue Note record label, he confessed: “For this particular endeavor, I sat down with Leo Brouwer because I needed to hear what he had to say.” Leo, for his part, thought of Chucho for the opening act of the Homo Ludens, giving the pianist free rein to recreate the Sketch Number 2, a very fresh piece. All those coincidences hit their pinnacle within the framework of the 1999 National Music Awards. They both shared the highest Lifetime Achievement Award granted in Cuba.

As far as personal preferences and habits are concerned, neither Leo nor Chucho are cigar aficionados. But, beware! These two men know and praise the Habano culture and every so often lend themselves to the pleasure of puffing at a good cigar to feel the taste, the aroma and the texture of this Cuban extravaganza. As a matter of fact, Leo –a man who’s also famous for his vast intellectual knowledge- recalls that one influential book that sheds light on the social, economic and cultural processes that gave rise to the formation of the Cuban identity is Don Fernando Ortiz’s Musical Dialogue Between Cuban Sugar and Tobacco.

Chucho admires the enthusiasm and sensitivity of lovers of the ultimate smoke. “Every time I’ve been invited to the Habano Festival, either as a performer –something I’ve done with great pleasure- or just to have a good time with attendees, such a lovely experience has always put a spiritual spin on my life.”

Leo, for his part, enjoys watching rings of smoke wafting up in the air. “I liken that moment to essential images of the Cuban culture, from the wisdom and roots of tobacco harvesters and cigar rollers –bearers of an unyielding tradition- to the haziness that surrounded monumental poet Jose Lezama Lima as he used to inhale the smoke of a cigar, amid his panting breathing, while he was writing one of his convoluted metaphors.”

Leo and Chucho. Chucho and Leo. Both men and their music are riding the never-ending spiral of a Cuban way of being that underscores its universality. That is, after all, the greatest coincidence these two musical sages share.