Chucho Valdés: The Creation Tickets

The towering Cuban piano virtuoso and distinguished composer Chucho Valdés returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center to celebrate his 81st birthday with the four-movement suite The Creation, accompanied by the Yoruban Orchestra. In this re-imagining of the recent work for big band, Afro-Cuban percussion and vocals explores the story of creation according to La Regla de Ocha, the Yoruba-descended syncretic religion also known as Santería, incorporating elements of Santería ritual music, West African music, the blues, and what Valdés describes as “an atmosphere in the style of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew.” A Jazz at Lincoln Center regular since the 1998 solo recital at the Stanley Kaplan Playhouse that generated his tour de force album Solo: Live In New York, Valdés’ recent JALC performances include a two-piano concert with the late Chick Corea, in 2019, and Ochas, with the JLCO and Cuban percussion wizard Pedrito Martinez, in 2014. “This new work represents the accumulation of all my experiences and everything I’ve learned in music,” says the founder of the iconic Cuban-Jazz band Irakere, which introduced Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval and Valdés to the world. “This is a moment of full maturity, personally and musically.”