Category Archives: On Music

As he looks forward, Chucho Valdés celebrates a band’s storied past

12 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music

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Chucho Valdes & Irakere 40 - Marciac Jazz Festival - Marciac, F

Chucho Valdés, center, with the band of Irakere 40 at Marciac, France

This story was first posted in Artburst Miami, November, 2015

For the past 50 years, Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés, 74, has been a transcendent figure in Cuban music. But despite of his virtuosity as an instrumentalist and the brilliance of his writing, many consider the founder and leader of Irakere, the exceptional Afro-Cuban jazz fusion group that became a landmark in Latin jazz, his masterwork.

Valdés and a 10-piece band comprising his new group, the quintet The Afro Cuban Messengers, augmented by three trumpets and two saxophones, will offer “Irakere 40,” a tribute to Irakere at the Fillmore Miami Beach on Saturday, November 14, at 8 p.m.

“It’s not an Irakere concert,” said Valdés in an interview during a brief visit in Miami a few weeks ago. “This is my group, featuring several generations of Cuban musicians, celebrating Irakere’s concept — today.”

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Jazz With a Venezuelan Accent

15 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Latin Jazz, On Music

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For decades, Latin Jazz was a shorthand for what was, in essence, Afro-Cuban Jazz. But there is more to Latin Jazz than that.
For some time now, musicians throughout Ibero-America have been utilizing jazz to explore and reinterpret their own musical traditions,from flamenco and tamborito to candombe and porro, and in recent years, they have started to be heard. Pianist, composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill has been a North American champion of this broader view of Latin jazz. In his own writing and playing, O’Farrill has explored African-rooted music genres of the Americas such as Peruvian festejo, Colombian cumbia, Brazilian choros and Argentine tango.

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Alan Broadbent, jazz and LA

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

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In 2011, after 39 years in Los Angeles, pianist, composer and arranger Alan Broadbent, perhaps best known for his work with Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, moved to New York City. He has been active, teaching at New York University and playing around town. In an interview with Alex Henderson for the October issue of the The New York City Jazz Record, Broadbent talks about electric keyboards (he doesn´t play them), working with singers and writing and playing film noir music (“I’m not intentionally trying to be a film noir writer or a film noir artist — I write that way and I feel that way.”) Still, his most striking observations are about life as a jazz musician in LA.

The New York City Jazz Record: You were a fixture on the West Coast for many years.
AB: What’s a fixture? There were no jazz gigs, really. […] I would play a club in Los Angeles and three people would show up.They would sit in front of the piano, eat their spaghetti and yap the whole time. That to me is not the jazz experience.
TNYCJR: So you are happy to be living on the East Coast?
AB: I’m absolutely happy.[…] I’m appreciated here.[…] my wife is from Philadelphia. She’s an East Coast girl. And we wanted our son to grow up here with some culture.

October 2015.