WMI to Welcome Cucho Valdes in Tribute to Afro-Cuban Group Irakere at Town Hall, 11/10

The concert is set for Thursday, November 10, 2015 at 8 p.m. at The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, NYC. Tickets $55-$75 at www.worldmusicinstitute.org.

For this special performance, this winner of five Grammy and three Latin Grammy Awards celebrates the 40th anniversary of his original groundbreaking ensemble Irakere, a group that, with its bold fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, popular Afro-Cuban music styles, jazz and rock, marked a before and after in Latin jazz.

Irakere's members included Arturo Sandoval (who performs next in this Masters of Cuban Music series) and Paquito D'Rivera, who eventually became solo stars in their own right. For the first time in decades, Valdés and a band of young musicians-his Afro-Cuban Messengers, who grew up in Cuba listening to the music of Irakere-will revisit and reinterpret the music of his trailblazing group, keeping this dynamic music alive.

In conjunction with this U.S. tour, Chucho Valdés: Irakere 40 will release Chucho Valdés: Tribute to Irakere (Live in Marciac) on Jazz Village/harmonia mundi on November 13. The label also released Valdés's previous recording, Border-Free (2013) featuring his current group, The Afro-Cuban Messengers.

From World Music Institute's Artistic Director Par Neiburger: "Chucho Valdés is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians in Latin Jazz, and this concert will be a truly unique occasion. He and his young group, the Afro-Cuban Messengers, will perform and reinterpret the groundbreaking music of his original group Irakere in honor of their 40th Anniversary. Irakere was one of the most important and influential groups in the history of Afro-Cuban jazz. It is always a treat to be able to see Chucho perform but this concert will be particularly special."

World Music Institute's Masters of Cuban Music series continues December 2, 2015 with Arturo Sandoval at the 92nd Street Y.

About Chucho Valdés and Irakere - Chucho Valdés started Irakere in 1973 by recruiting some of his fellow players and main soloists in the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. The budding Irakere recorded "Bacalao Con Pan," an innovative, high energy, danceable piece that foreshadowed a style that would become known years later as timba. The song was the band's first major hit. In 1975, Irakere became a self-standing band. It remained active until 2005.

"Irakere represented for me a chance to put into practice all those ideas I had since I was a music student," says Chucho, who was the band's main composer and arranger. "And that included anything, from how to mix the ritual Afro-Cuban drums and rhythms with jazz, to how to have the sound of a 'small' big band and how to structure the pieces."

Dionisio Jesús "Chucho" Valdés Rodriguez learned piano and the sound of a big band studying and playing with his father, the great pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader Bebo Valdés. But in time, looking for "small groups that sounded bigger than they were," Chucho's references became Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver's quintets, and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

The discovery of Irakere by American audiences began with a chance encounter in 1977 when, in the first official visit of Americans to Cuba since the Missile Crisis, a jazz cruise ship carrying musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and a young Ry Cooder dropped anchor in Havana. They heard the group, were bowled over by the writing and virtuosic playing and, back in the US, recommended Irakere to the late Bruce Lundvall, then President of CBS Records. Months later, Lundvall visited Cuba, heard the group in a concert/audition, signed it on the spot and booked it at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York City.

On June 28, 1978, Chucho Valdés and Irakere burst onto the global stage.

That evening, the Newport Jazz Festival's bill at Carnegie Hall was "Three Pianos and Two Guitars," featuring Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Mary Lou Williams on pianos; and Larry Coryell and Phillip Catherine on guitars. Irakere appeared unannounced, at the end of the night. In his review for The New York Times, critic John S. Wilson wrote that "by the end of the evening, [the headliners] had almost been forgotten in the wake of an unannounced added attraction - Irakere, an 11 piece group from Cuba that had just been brought to New York by Columbia Records."

A few months later, an album simply titled Irakere and including tracks drawn from the Carnegie Hall debut and a later show at the Montreux Jazz Festival, won the GRAMMY for Best Latin Recording.

In the years since, several charter members of Irakere, most notably saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, have gone on to become leading music figures in their own right. In fact, emulating Blakey's Messengers, Irakere became a rolling graduate school of Afro-Cuban jazz.

Throughout, one of Irakere's remarkable characteristics was that the group followed and maintained two parallel musical tracks: jazz experimentation and dance music hits. Their shows, especially in Cuba, often featured a first part focused on jazz and a second half dedicated to dancers.

But an active creator such as Valdés wouldn't be happy settling for nostalgia. He is particularly proud of his young Afro-Cuban Messengers and how they continue to challenge him and push the music forward. The results can be clearly heard in Chucho Valdés: Irakere 40.

"In the original Irakere, the rhythm section was the foundation and we had a spectacular brass and wind section, with great soloists," recalls Chucho. "Perhaps Irakere in its first period depended more on the virtuosity of its players than the arranging. When some of those musicians left, then I really had to put pencil to paper, replace great individual talents with more of a group sound. Now I have an extraordinary rhythm section that's not only a foundation but a show in itself and I'm using them more as soloists. We have very, very strong brass and wind sections and the writing is more detailed. It's all more balanced. It makes the music new again."

Lineup:

Chucho Valdés (Piano)
Gastón Joya (Bass)
Rodney Barreto (Drums)
Yaroldy Abreu (Percussion)
Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé (Batás & Vocals)
Manuel Machado (Trumpet)
Reinaldo Melián (Trumpet)
Carlos Sarduy (Trumpet)
Ariel Bringuez (Tenor Sax)
Rafael Àguila (Alto Sax)

About WMI (www.worldmusicinstitute.org) - Since 1985, World Music Institute has been the leading presenter of world music and dance in the United States. WMI is committed to presenting the finest in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world at attainable prices for all, with the goal to promote awareness and engagement of other cultures and to encourage cultural exchange between nations and ethnic groups. WMI collaborates with community organizations and academic institutions to foster greater understanding of the world's cultural traditions and depends on public and private funding to accomplish its mission.

Under new leadership as of 2015-16 -- its 30th anniversary season -- World Music Institute has introduced an ambitious expansion of concert offerings that include contemporary, experimental and avant-garde presentations, as well as the traditional music that WMI has long been known and admired for. In addition, the institution is thrilled to have launched new partnerships with BAM, 92nd Street Y, Storm King Art Center, Le Poisson Rouge, and Drom -- while continuing partnerships with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Town Hall, Symphony Space, and the Apollo Theater (the annual Africa Now festival).

Some of the new and already widely-hailed series that World Music Institute created in the 2015-2016 season are the Lusophone Festival, Counterpoint series, Masters of Cuban Music, Masters of African Music, the return of Flamenco dance, and a Global Local initiative that offers opportunities and exposure to emerging NY talent in international music and dance. WMI is committed to continuing its legacy of presenting the world's greatest living masters in Indian classical music as well as in Indian dance, notably with its acclaimed Dancing the Gods series.

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