Chucho Valdés 85th Birthday Celebration With Special Guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard

Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist and composer whose work sits at the crossroads of modern jazz and Afro-Cuban tradition, shaped by decades of bandleading and arranging. He is known for founding Irakere, a group that brought folkloric rhythms into contemporary jazz structures with disciplined ensemble writing.

Special Guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard appear at Jazz at Lincoln Center in conjunction with Chucho Valdés’s 85th birthday celebration, bringing two distinct strands of modern jazz into the same frame.

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.

Joe Lovano is a jazz multi-instrumentalist best known for tenor saxophone, with recorded work that also extends to alto clarinet, flute, and drums. A Grammy winner with long-standing recognition in DownBeat critics’ and readers’ polls, he has also been a key voice in the late Paul Motian’s trio alongside Bill Frisell.

Terence Blanchard is a jazz trumpeter and composer whose work moves between bandstands and scoring stages. A frequent collaborator of filmmaker Spike Lee, he has written more than 80 film and television scores and earned two Academy Award nominations, alongside large-form projects including operas.