CHUCHO VALDÉS — ROYAL QUARTET

Auditorium Palma — Sala Magna, Av. Gabriel Roca, 18, 07014 Palma, Balearic Islands

The acclaimed living legend of Afro-Cuban music, Chucho Valdés, winner of 15 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, is an outstanding composer and pianist who enjoys international recognition for his masterful fusion of elements of the Afro-Cuban musical tradition, jazz, classical music and rock, shaped by an intensely personal style.

The ‘Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet’ will perform pieces from the album ‘Cuba & Beyond’ (InnerJazz, 2024), winner of the 2025 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. The album includes tracks such as ‘Tatomania’, ‘Mozart a la cubana’ and ‘Armando’s Rhumba’, his personal tribute to pianist and lifelong friend Chick Corea.

Chucho Valdés on piano will be joined by José A. Gola (double bass and electric bass), Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno Torre (percussion) and Horacio Hernández ‘El Negro’ (drums).

Over the course of his acclaimed career spanning more than 70 years, Chucho Valdés has received the Latin Recording Academy’s ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’; been inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame; received the NEA Jazz Masters 2025 distinction, the highest honour a jazz musician can receive in the United States; and the Leonard Bernstein Grand Prize (United States) ‘For the Elevation of Music in Society’.

Dionisio Jesús ‘Chucho’ Valdés Rodríguez was born into a family of musicians in Quivicán, in the province of Havana (Cuba), on 9 October 1941. His first teacher and greatest influence was his father, pianist, composer and orchestra conductor Ramón ‘Bebo’ Valdés. At the age of three, Chucho could already play by ear, with both hands and in every key, the melodies he heard on the radio. At five, Chucho began taking private lessons in piano, theory and solfège, studies he completed at the Municipal Conservatory of Music in Havana, graduating at the age of 14.

He became known worldwide as the founder, principal composer and arranger of ‘Irakere’ (1973–2005), which he founded together with Paquito D’Rivera. The small big band stood out for its distinctive fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music with styles of Afro-Cuban popular music, Cuban dance, jazz, classical music and rock.

Chucho Valdés has accompanied singers and trios and has also composed works for orchestras and large ensembles. The most recent was ‘La Creación’, created to celebrate his 80th birthday in 2021. It is a three-movement suite for small ensemble, voices and big band that tells the story of creation according to the Regla de Ocha, the Afro-Cuban religion.

Concert · Sala Magna