Valdes Crosses Over the U.S.-Cuban Gulf

Mention the name of Jesus “Chucho” Valdes to jazz fans around the world and expect a smile of recognition. Everywhere, that is, except in the United States, where even the most dedicated listener might respond with a bewildered frown.

Yet Valdes is a pianist and composer who has been compared to everyone from Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner to Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and who is spoken of in reverent terms throughout most of the international community of jazz musicians.

So why his relative obscurity among U.S. audiences?

Because Valdes, now in his mid-50s, has spent most of his adult life living in Cuba at a time when U.S.-Cuban relations have ranged from confrontational to outright hostile, and a U.S. trade embargo, which has been in place since the early ‘60s, has placed severe restrictions upon the availability of his music.

But this weekend, jazz fans will have an exceedingly rare opportunity to hear Valdes and his now legendary 14-piece band, Irakere, at the Playboy Jazz Festival in an appearance that possesses cultural and political significance. When they take the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday afternoon, their performance will recall, however temporarily, one of jazz music’s most historically vital linkages: the Cuban-American connection.

Although Valdes was in the Southland late last year performing with a quartet, his band, Irakere--which made a spectacular entrance onto the music scene with a Newport Jazz Festival appearance and a Grammy Award-winning recording in 1978--has not been seen in the United States since an appearance at a 1987 jazz festival in Chicago.

Speaking by telephone from his home in Havana, he was eager to describe what he identifies as a newer, younger edition of the legendary ensemble.

“Irakere is practically a new band right now,” he says, adding with an irrepressible surge of pride, “and it’s the best band I’ve ever had. The horn section is all new guys, the soloists are the best around, and in the percussion section I’ve got Cuba’s finest young drummers, with the most modern ideas.”

In addition to their Playboy festival performance, Valdes and Irakere will appear for lectures and demonstrations (mandated by their visas) at Whittier College on Thursday and Friday at UCLA and will surface for a rare one-nighter at Catalina Bar & Grill on Monday.

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Other stops on their brief U.S. tour include events in San Francisco and San Diego--a surprising number of programs, given the recent chilling of U.S.-Cuban relations that took place after Cuban military jets shot down two small planes in international waters near Cuba earlier this year.

But does the return of Valdes and Irakere signal a revival of the Cuban-American connection? It is a connection, after all, that has been remarkably persistent, including everything from the impact of son, rumba and danzon upon the American and European dance music of the ‘20s and ‘30s to the stirring influence of the Afro Cuban jazz of the ‘40s and ‘50s.

It’s far too soon to expect the music channels between the two countries to be as fully invigorated as they were in the past. Still, given the difficult political interactions of the last few decades, any breakthrough has to be viewed as a plus. It’s worth recalling that Irakere was the first Cuban band to win a Grammy, yet Valdes and his musicians were unable to obtain entry into the United States to accept their awards in 1978. Not until 1990, when National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences President Michael Greene personally took the statuettes to Havana, were the Grammys finally delivered.

The shutting down of the Cuban-American jazz connection compelled many Cuban jazz players to make a difficult decision. Some--Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval among them--elected to pursue their careers elsewhere. But Valdes has continued to reside in his native country throughout the difficult decades. And the effect of the thorny Cuban-U.S. relationship upon his career has been considerable.

“It’s had a very serious impact,” he says, pointing to the high U.S. visibility that has been achieved not only by D’Rivera and Sandoval but also by younger pianists such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, all of whom have elected to leave Cuba.

“But there are different points of view,” he says. “Some musicians preferred to leave, and they have the right to do so. I chose to stay.”

Valdes’ decision may well have been affected by his personal history. Born Jesus Valdes in 1941, the son of Bebo Valdes, one of Cuba’s most noted bandleaders, he has been a vital figure in the country’s musical world for most of his life.

Raised in an environment that often included figures such as the seminal Cuban bassist and bandleader “Cachao” Lopez as well as American greats Dizzy Gillespie and Nat “King” Cole, Valdes was a prodigy who was studying at the Havana Conservatory at the age of 9.

A decade later, when the government decided to form an ensemble called the Orquestra Cubana de Musica Moderna, Valdes’ entire group--which included D’Rivera--was enlisted. By the early ‘70s, he was ready to take off on his own and organized an ensemble that split from the Orquestra. It was named, in tribute to his fascination with the Nigerian roots of Cuban music, Irakere (a Yoruban word for “forest”).

Valdes has not lacked international exposure, with more than 40 recordings as pianist and bandleader on labels around the world. But he also is aware that a life in the United States would, at the very least, have brought his music to vastly larger numbers of listeners.

Yet he is quick to point out that there is another side to his choice to remain in Cuba.

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“Those who stay,” he says, “can investigate and research the roots of Cuban music and rhythm and folklore every day, as well as studying North American jazz.”

It would be hard to argue against the importance of that investigation and research in Valdes’ own works. Functioning now as a pianist, bandleader and educator, as well as the artistic director of Jazz Festival Plaza 96 (a far-reaching musical event held in Havana earlier this year that featured American jazzmen Roy Hargrove, Ravi Coltrane and Steve Coleman), he believes that he would be a considerably less effective artist without his roots studies.

“I’m very dedicated to those roots,” he says. “Culturally, musicians need to know the different elements, the Congolese, South African, Dahomey and Indian elements. Each one not only has a rhythm, but it also has a language. And I try to differentiate them and express them in my music.”

Like most musicians, Valdes has little patience with the political maneuvering that has isolated him--and other Cuban artists--from the United States.

“I believe,” Valdes says, “that culture, just like sports, should not be included in these political arguments. To me, musicians are like a universal family and should be above politics.

“And, in spite of the problems,” he says, “I have continued to communicate with musicians in the U.S. in the hope of breaking through the barriers. Because, you see, the admiration and the love and respect that we have for each other will always be there.”

* The Southland performances of “Chucho” Valdes and Irakere are as follows: Thursday: A lecture-demonstration at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for Performing Arts, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier, 8 p.m. $16. (310) 907-4203. Friday: A lecture-demonstration for UCLA students at Wadsworth Auditorium, 8 p.m. Sunday: The Playboy Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. $22.50. Tickets are still available. (310) 449-4070. Monday: A club date at Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd. (213) 466-2210. $15 cover with two-drink minimum. Shows at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.