In Cuba, Chucho Valdés is an institution in the same way as rum, sugar cane or Havana cigars. The pianist was 77 years is also an insider of his religion local, the Santeria, which incorporates the cadenzas incantations and rhythms of the «Bata», a drum used for invocations, with its jazz hybrid. The two albums Jazz Bata I & II, respectively published in 2007 and 2018, illustrate this dive in the deep roots of cuban identity. For all that, don’t expect an evening of purely traditionalist: engineering of brewing and the merger, Chucho Valdés knows how to combine like no other the various influences that have shaped his game: the trance african to Rachmaninoff, Miles Davis to Jean-Sébastien Bach.
He will be joined on stage by of size: the saxophonist Kenny Hock, a former protégé of Miles Davis, and the violinist and singer Yilian Cañizares, who shares with Chucho his cuban heritage, and especially, his extraordinary eclecticism. The three soloists are expected to offer a delicious cocktail of jazz, caribbean, supported by a rhythm section, high. And for the French public that he loves so much and that makes him well, he likes to play tunes from his friend, Michel Legrand, with which he has been so many times in a duo, four hands or two pianos.
Chucho Valdés, the festival Jazz des cinq Continents de Marseille on 25 July at 20.30, at Jazz in Marciac on July 29 to 23.
