Chucho Valdés’ Birthday Gift

05 Monday Oct 2026

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From left to right, Chucho Valdés, John Patitucci, Marcus Gilmore, Roberto Jr. Vizcaino, and Joe Lovano at the Chucho Valdes 85th Birthday Celebration at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Saturday.

Leading a superb hand-picked quintet, Cuban pianist Jesús “Chucho” Valdés celebrated his upcoming 85th birthday with a concert at the Arsht Center in Miami on Saturday that took him back to the beginnings of his career. It played out as a love letter to standards – the basic texts in the liturgy of jazz – and the art of improvisation.

In his brief introduction, casually sitting at the piano by himself, Valdés set the evening’s tone: intimate, inviting, and no-nonsense. These were some of the pieces he learned as a teenager, and he would play them with a group of musicians he admired and who had influenced him. But before that, “we’ll start from the end,” he announced as he introduced a new piece from a solo piano recording he had just completed. It wasn’t what anyone might have expected. It was brief but intense. There was no nostalgia, but robust high energy, lengthy, lightning-fast runs; splashes of vivid harmonies set by unexpected turns and mood changes; then the storm died out in a whispered ending. It suggested a note of where he might be today — but that would be for another evening.

Saturday, Valdés, alongside Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Marcus Gilmore on drums, John Patitucci on bass, and Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno on percussion, set out to mine, one more time, tried-and-true classics such as “Blue Monk,” “Body and Soul,” and “Green Dolphin Street,” and in the process, turned the Arsht Center into an intimate jazz club.

It was a remarkable performance, both as a group and individually. At its best, improvisation is instant composition; it’s writing a piece within a piece, in the air, on the spot. And yes, it’s also a place for musicians to stretch out and showcase their technical prowess – always a risky proposition with lesser players. Saturday, no matter how far Patitucci took his melodic variations, how Lovano chose to suggest a vocalist through his phrasing and inflection, or how many rhythms and tonal colors Gilmore and Vizcaíno layered on their drums, the shared idea was consistently serving the music at hand. Given that narcissism seems to be the default approach these days, from sports to high politics, this was a gift worthy of the occasion.

As for the birthday man, while the concert celebrated Valdés the player, not the composer, the program smartly included his “Mambo Influenciado.” It’s a statement piece in his long career and a Latin Jazz standard in its own right and got a many-sided probing by the group. Another highlight was the one piece in the program that was not a jazz standard: Gabriel Fauré’s “Pavane in F♯ minor.” The reading by the Valdés – Patitucci duet was both elegant and subtly forceful, with a distinct jazz accent. “It will be Fauré as played by Bill Evans,” Valdés had suggested, tongue-in-cheek, in our conversation the week before the concert. By the end of their performance, Evans, Valdés’s jazz piano hero, was no doubt hovering around the house, listening in.

Happy birthday, Mr. Valdés. Same place, next year?

Chucho Valdés´85th Birthday, Standards, and the Poetry in jazz

30 Wednesday Sep 2026

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Chucho Valdés, celebrates his 85th birthday in style, tipping his hat to the beginnings of his extraordinary career playing jazz standards. “Those standards I played in my early years are the foundation of what came after in jazz for me,” he said. Photo by Martin Espino Garcia, courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

As he discusses preparations for his 85th birthday celebration at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami this Saturday, October 3, NEA Jazz Master and winner of seven Grammy and seven Latin Grammy Awards, pianist, composer, and bandleader Jesús “Chucho” Valdés sounds almost giddy.

“The group I’ll be playing with is very interesting because I chose some of the many musicians who have influenced me the most throughout my career,” he says, in a conversation in Spanish from his home in South Florida. “So, I thought of Terence Blanchard on trumpet; Joe Lovano, on tenor sax; Marcus Gilmore on drums; John Patitucci on bass; and Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno (a member of Valdés’ Royal Quartet) on percussion.”

“And the setlist we’re going to perform will consist of standards, the songs I played in my early days. It was the foundation of everything that came after — and we’re going to do it all without rehearsing. We’re going to improvise,” he says with a chuckle. He mentions classics such as Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Groovin’ High,”; and “St. Thomas” by the late Sonny Rollins.

It suggests both, a return to the beginnings of an extraordinary career spanning more than 60 years, and a tribute to improvisation and the defining art in jazz of creating compositions within compositions on the fly.

The approach follows Valdes’ path in recent years. This past decade has been marked by glances back as he moved forward, such as the recording of “Jazz Bata 2,” in 2018, which revisited the daring idea of a piano jazz trio featuring batá drums that he first explored in 1972; or the reunion in 2022 with his long-time friend and musical co-conspirator, reedman Paquito D’Rivera, after more than 40 years apart. And then there was Irakere 50, a 2024 celebration of 50th anniversary of the Afro-Cuban-jazz-rock fusion group Valdés co-founded, directed, and for which he was the principal composer and arranger. The concert was highlighted by the presence of two key players of the original Irakere: trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and D’Rivera.

Both events took place at the Arsht Center.

    Chucho Valdés, piano, Arturo Sandoval, trumpet, and Paquito D’Rivera, saxophone, performing variations on “Body and Soul” at the Irakere 50 tribute and celebration at the Arsht Center in Miami, in 2024.

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With Historia Gipsy Kings look back – and forward

10 Monday Aug 2026

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Historia, the latest release by the Gipsy Kings featuring Tonino Baliardo, celebrates family and community with a familiar and successful sound.

The title of the Gipsy Kings’ most recent release, Historia (History), may suggest a retrospective, but the music, mixing the familiar with subtle innovations, sounds like a reaffirmation and a look forward. And why not? They have a distinct sound, built on a joyful, high-energy mix of Catalan rumba, flamenco, and pop, highlighted with brushstrokes of styles from around the world, and simple, direct lyrics sung mostly in Spanish, but also French, Catalan, and languages of southern France. The combination turned a group of Gypsy Romanis once seemingly destined to scratch a living performing in restaurants, street events or busking in the beaches of Saint Tropez, into a global phenomenon.

But success was never a given. Their first two albums were largely unnoticed.

But then, their third recording, released in 1987, included the monster hits “Djobi Djoba” and “Bamboleo,” and the Gipsy Kings were on their way. Since then, they have won a Grammy (in 2014 for Best Global Music Album), have been featured in the soundtracks of Hollywood feature films including Toy Story 3 and The Big Lebowski, sold more than 25 million albums, have had in excess of 2 billion streams, and played to full houses all over the world.

“No, I never imagined that kind of success,” said Gipsy Kings leader, founder and main composer Tonino Baliardo, speaking in French through a translator from his home in the South of France. “We thought we could make a little living. We were doing private parties, and we did a little bit of work in Saint Tropez, but very little. When it exploded onto the world scene, it was just quite remarkable.”

They will be appearing at the James L. Knight Center in Miami on Saturday, August 15, at 8 p.m.

Tonino Baliardo, Gipsy Kings’ leader, founder, and main composer, once thought of making “a little living” playing community events, private parties near his home in the South of France. Becoming a global phenomenon? “No, I never imagined that kind of success,” Photo by Tobin Hill, courtesy of Gipsy Kings

The group was founded in 1979 in Arles, France, and featured two sets of brothers, the Baliardos (Tonino, Paco, and Diego, nephews of the great flamenco guitarist Ricardo Baliardo, better known as Manitas de Plata) and the Reyes (Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai, and Andre, sons of Manitas’ cousin, flamenco singer José Reyes). Manitas de Plata and Reyes performed as a duo in the 1970s. It’s a story that speaks of a close-knit community, strong family ties, a fierce attachment to their traditions and legacies that must be honored.

Tonino Baliardo once called Manitas de Plata “the original Gipsy King.”

Over the years, the group has featured several personnel changes, while remaining a family affair. This iteration of the Gipsy Kings features Tonino’s sons, Cosso and Mikael.

Gipsy Kings featuring Tonino Baliardo, center, with his sons Mikael Baliardo (first from left) and Benji “Cosso” Baliardo (second from left) The group was founded in 1979 in Arles, France, and since it  has had different lineups. Mikael and Cosso Bailardo have been part of the group since 2014. Photo courtesy of Gipsy Kings featuring Tonino Baliardo

Musically, “with ‘Historia’ I wanted to make a new album preserving our sound, our gypsy feel, but with new melodies, new energy,” said Baliardo. “I love having my sons play with me. They grew up with this music, so they’re rooted in the culture. But they bring a young energy, a young spirit. And I also learn with them because music has evolved so much the past 35, 40 years.”

As to how they call their music and the blurry line in it between rumba Catalana, a style that emerged in Barcelona in the 1950s, and rumba flamenca, one of the palos or classic styles in flamenco, Baliardo sounds unconcerned. “At the end of the day, we are originally from Catalonia,” says Baliardo with a shrug.  “My parents were born in Barcelona, Catalonia. So, we call it rumba Catalana (Catalan rumba).”

Over the years, the Gipsy Kings have added to it elements drawn from different sources, from Brazilian music and reggae to Algerian rai. “Historia” includes touches such as jazz piano solos, a hint of a montuno, and electric guitar rock solos.

“We kept the rhythms, the sound of the guitars. We call it the compas, and over that, our sound is always evolving,” explains Baliardo. “We always learn something in our world tours, new styles, new things.”

But the overall theme in the album, not surprisingly, remains family and community.

Songs such as “El Campo,” (the Countryside) a snapshot of life among the Romani, “Primavera” (Spring) which starts with the line “I remember the time I spent in this neighborhood where I was born, life was sweeter, more beautiful,” or ‘La Guerra” (The War) an anti-war lament that hints at the impact of war in so many Spanish Romanies’ family histories, including the Baliardos, who were once refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Even the instrumental “Cielo” (Heaven) is a deeply personal statement, a tribute to Tonino’s brother Paco, who passed away in April 2025.

“In Historia I wanted to tell the story of our ancestors, the story of our community,” says Baliardo, the main composer in the group. “It revolves a lot around that, about telling the long history of the Roma people, the Gypsies, and spreading that message throughout the world.”

His favorite song, however, is the title track “because [in it] we welcome the people who come to see us at the concerts and invite them to have a party with us,” says Baliardo. “We have seen people so happy, partying, dancing in our concerts – and people were crying too, because something in the music touched them. And it’s a public that has been following us for years. Now it’s their children who come to see us because they have listened to our music with their parents. So, the story continues.”

This story first appeared in ArtburstMiami.com