Cuban Jazz legend Chucho Valdés celebrates 50 years of Irakere
When Chucho Valdés takes the stage, the energy is undeniable. The iconic Cuban musician helps close the Moss Arts Center’s 2024-25 season with a tribute to 50 years of Irakere, his band that revolutionized Afro-Latin jazz with its bold fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, Cuban popular music, jazz, rock, and a splash of classical music.
Expect bold rhythms, blazing percussion, and stunning solos from one of the greatest jazz pianists alive on Saturday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m.
Valdés, a seven-time Grammy and six-time Latin Grammy winner and recipient of a Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, offers a vivid retrospective of his work with Irakere. A nine-piece ensemble, Irakere 50 is a new iteration of the legendary band, with brilliant performers hand-picked from the next generation of Cuban musicians.
His quartet — José A. Gola, electric and acoustic bass; Horacio Hernández, drums; and Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno Torre, percussion — is joined by Eddie de Armas Jr. and Osvaldo Fleites on trumpets; Luis Beltrán and Carlos Averhoff Jr., son of a late, long-time Irakere member, on saxophones; and vocalist Ramón Alvarez.
Valdés launched Irakere in 1973. To interpret his vision, he selected notable members and the principal soloists of the legendary Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna — a big band made up of Cuba's best musicians, which was organized in 1967 to play jazz and pop. The budding Irakere, still a band-within-a-band, recorded “Bacalao Con Pan” in 1973. It was an irresistible, danceable song that hinted at the depth and breadth of the writing and playing, and it became Irakere's first major hit, foreshadowing innovations that would become known years later as timba, a popular style today.
One of Irakere’s remarkable characteristics throughout its extraordinary run was following and maintaining two parallel musical tracks: Afro-Cuban jazz experimentation and dance music. The group’s shows, especially in Cuba, often featured a first part focused on jazz and a second half dedicated to dancers.
“We never were a dance group. We were a jazz group,” Valdés said. “But jazz in Cuba had a limited audience, so we started playing dance music to attract new audiences for what we were doing — and it worked incredibly well. We had a tremendous dancing audience. But many times, that audience would stop dancing just to listen, and then it was as if we were at a concert. I always thought that the people who came to hear us wanted to hear good music, good arrangements, good soloing, something different. So in our concerts, we aimed to please those who came to hear jazz. … But there was also another audience waiting to dance to ‘Bacalao Con Pan,’ so we played jazz, and then we played music for dancing. We wanted the dancers to also have fun. And that’s what we’ll do on this tribute.”
On June 28, 1978, unannounced, Chucho Valdés and Irakere closed the evening at Carnegie Hall and burst onto the global stage. A few months later, an album titled “Irakere,” including selected tracks from that show and a later performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, won the Grammy for Best Latin Recording.
Irakere became a self-standing band in 1975 and remained active until 2005.
This performance is supported in part by a gift from Dr. E. Fred Carlisle and Mrs. Elizabeth A. Obenshain. Additional funding is provided by the Larry and Lindsey Bowman Center for the Arts Excellence Fund.
Related events
Join Valdés for a pre-performance discussion moderated by Michael Davidson, professor of music at the University of Richmond, with English/Spanish translation by Gonzalo Montero, associate professor of Spanish at Virginia Tech, on Saturday, May 10, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cube at the Moss Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The center is partnering with Big Lick Latin Underground to host “Club Cube(a),” a post-performance dance party, on Saturday, May 10, from 9-11 p.m. in the Cube. Dance instructors will provide a beginner-friendly Cuban salsa dance lesson, followed by a dance social featuring DJ Perico's mix of salsa, bachata, kizomba, zouk, and merengue. New, seasoned, solo, and partnered dancers are all welcome. The dance party is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Local families will attend the performance through the community ticket program. Offered in partnership with New River Community Action, the program helps build community and provide greater access to Moss programs for under-resourced families.
Tickets
Tickets are $40-$85 for general audience and $10 for students and youth 18 and under. Tickets can be purchased online; at the Moss Arts Center's box office, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.
Venue and parking information
The performance will be held in the center’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall. Convenient parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street and in downtown Blacksburg. Find more parking details online.
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jamie Wiggert at least 10 days prior to the event at 540-231-5300 or email wiggertj@vt.edu during regular business hours.