{"id":10988,"date":"2019-03-13T16:45:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T23:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10988"},"modified":"2019-03-13T16:51:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T23:51:47","slug":"recent-listening-chucho-valdes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2019\/03\/recent-listening-chucho-valdes\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Chucho Valdes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chucho Vald\u00c3\u00a9s<\/strong>, Jazz Bat\u00c3\u00a1 2<\/em><\/a> (Mack Avenue)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Valdes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Jazz Bat\u00c3\u00a1<\/em> was considered a departure into the avant garde when he made it in 1972. That trio recording was a preview of advances to come from the great Cuban pianist and composer. Nearly half a century later, the followup finds him as adventurous as ever, heading a quartet that concentrates on mastery of the bat\u00c3\u00a1 tradition of West Africa, long a major component of Cuban music. In their rhythmic power and harmonic acuity, Valdes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 piano solos throughout are riveting, none moreso than his work on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Och\u00c3\u00ban,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a Haitian <em>merengue<\/em> that recalls Chucho\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father Bebo because of the elder Vald\u00c3\u00a9z\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close association with Haiti.<\/p>\n

Violinist Regina Carter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s empathy with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Och\u00c3\u00ban\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d blues-drenched harmonies takes shape in the first of her two striking guest appearances on the album. She is sensuous, flowing and forceful in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153100 A\u00c3\u00b1os de Bebo,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a danz\u00c3\u00b3n-mambo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that Chucho heard his father play when he was a child. This new album, packed with performances that can serve as guides to rhythms that abound in Cuban music, closes with a Vald\u00c3\u00a9s unaccompanied piano performance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Clown,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d dedicated to Maurice Ravel. In it, he reflects Ravel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressionism and something of the French impressionist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whimsy.<\/p>\n

You may wish to make note of the names of Vald\u00c3\u00a9s\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young Cuban bandmates\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbassist Yelsy Heredia, percussionist Yaroldy Abreu Robles and bat\u00c3\u00a1ist-vocalist Dreiser Durruthy Bombal\u00c3\u00a9. They are all superb. If they record again with Vald\u00c3\u00a9s, it will be something to look forward to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chucho Vald\u00c3\u00a9s, Jazz Bat\u00c3\u00a1 2 (Mack Avenue) Valdes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Jazz Bat\u00c3\u00a1 was considered a departure into the avant garde when he made it in 1972. That trio recording was a preview of advances to come from the great Cuban pianist and composer. Nearly half a century later, the followup finds him as adventurous as ever, heading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}