Chucho Valdés Quintet Plays the Standards
About This Event
At Jazz at Lincoln Center, Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés leads his quintet through a program built on the American songbook and jazz standards. A founder of Irakere with a five‑decade career, Valdés brings Afro‑Cuban rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary to the piano‑led quintet, favoring structured arrangements and conversational ensemble interplay over solo display.
About the Artists
Chucho Valdés Quintet Plays the Standards
Chucho Valdés Quintet Plays the Standards is a working group built around the repertoire of American songbook and jazz canon, filtered through the bandleader’s long Cuban career. At Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, the quintet approaches familiar material with the rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary Valdés developed in ensembles such as Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna and later quintet projects under his name.
Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist, composer, and bandleader whose work sits at the crossroads of jazz and Afro‑Cuban tradition. After early prominence with Cuba’s modern dance and jazz orchestras, he co-founded Irakere, a group that helped define Latin jazz’s post‑1970s language.
Chucho Valdés Quintet
Chucho Valdés Quintet is led by Cuban pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdés, a composer and arranger whose work bridges Latin jazz, Afro-Cuban traditions, and the standard jazz repertoire. Valdés brings decades of experience from major Cuban ensembles into a small-group format that emphasizes rhythmic architecture and clear ensemble roles.