March 11, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
The Chucho Valdés Quartet featuring Joe Lovano brings its fantastic Cuban jazz to UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Chucho Valdés Quartet featuring Joe Lovano
- Pianist Valdés is esteemed as Cuba’s greatest jazz musician
- Valdés won Grammy Awards with Irakere and Crisol
- Performance features the world premiere of a work co-commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures
- Wednesday, April 16 / 8 pm
- UCSB Campbell Hall
- General: $40/$35, UCSB students: $19/$16
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Pianist Chucho Valdés, often hailed as Cuba’s Duke Ellington, will perform with his Quartet and special guest saxophonist Joe Lovano on Wednesday, April 16 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. The incredibly versatile Valdés can drive an impatient crowd of dancers into a frenzy, play the complex rhythms of Cuba’s African traditions, perform the classics with impeccable technique and solo in any jazz style one could name. Organizer of the Havana Jazz Festival, Valdés was a cofounder of the groundbreaking, Grammy Award-winning group Irakere along with Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera. In 1998 Valdés teamed up with American trumpeter Roy Hargrove to form Crisol, and that band also won a Grammy for the scintillating recording Habana. Time writes, “Valdés is the greatest jazz pianist in Cuba, perhaps one of the greatest pianists in the world.”
Chucho Valdés’ two most recent recordings further solidified his reputation as a brilliant piano improviser. Valdés’ has called his 2001 Blue Note recording Solo: Live in New York his “best work to date,” a wide-ranging, rhythmically powerful reconsideration of songs ranging from classic Latin tunes like “Besame Mucho” to the American chestnut “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” Valdés’ 2000 Blue Note release Live at the Village Vanguard features his quartet in fine fiery form. Amazon.com claims his playing combines “the force of McCoy Tyner, the superhuman keyboard agility of Art Tatum and the delicacy of Erroll Garner.”
The son of legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés, Chucho began playing the piano when he was three and by his 16th birthday was leading his own band. While his father defected from Cuba in 1960, Valdés stayed in his homeland, forming first Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna (1967) and later Irakere (1973). Irakere’s music included Cuban, rock, funk, classical and jazz stylings and in 1978 it was the first post-embargo Cuban group to be signed to an American label. Irakere’s debut LP on Columbia, released that same year, earned a Grammy and another recording Misa Negra was also critically acclaimed. It wasn’t until the middle 1990s that Valdés was able to play in the United States semi-regularly, but his Stateside acclaim has only grown with each new tour and album. The Los Angeles Times asserts, “Sweeter than sugar, more satisfying than a cigar, Chucho Valdés might be Cuba’s most valuable export.”
Featured artist Joe Lovano is a frequent winner of Downbeat’s critics’ and readers’ polls and was part of the powerhouse Newport Jazz® 2002 performance at Campbell Hall last March. A graduate of the Berklee School of Music, he has played with some of the most important jazz groups of the 1990s, including the John Scofield Quartet and the Paul Motian Trio. As a group leader, Lovano’s albums have won critical praise and Grammy nominations and include his latest CD Viva Caruso, a tribute to Enrico Caruso. The Chicago Reader calls him “the definitive jazz saxophonist of the decade,” while the Village Voice quips, “Move over Pavarotti, the greatest Italian tenor around today isn’t Luciano, but Lovano.”
In an effort to help foster the creation of new art as well as present it, UCSB Arts & Lectures co-commissioned Chucho Valdés to write a new composition. This work, “Prelude and Contrast,” written especially for tenor sax and piano with Joe Lovano in mind, will receive its world premiere at this performance. Other co-commissioners of the Chucho Valdés composition are California State University Long Beach and the University of Southern California. A&L has previously co-commissioned the highly acclaimed work Happiness by Laurie Anderson and presented the world premiere of her solo performance piece at Campbell Hall in January 2001.
The Chucho Valdés Quartet is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Daily Nexus, Haagen Printing and KCLU Public Radio. Tickets are $45 and $35 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.