Chucho Valdés 85th Birthday Celebration With Special Guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard
About This Event
Pianist and composer Chucho Valdés—founder of Irakere and a central figure in Cuban jazz for more than five decades—marks his 85th birthday at Jazz at Lincoln Center with special guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard. The lineup pairs Valdés's Afro-Cuban rhythmic and arranging legacy with Lovano's narrative tenor and collective improvisation and Blanchard's compositional work in film and opera, foregrounding ensemble interplay and extended forms.
About the Artists
Chucho Valdés
Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, better known as Chucho, is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years. An original member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, in 1973 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands.
Joe Lovano
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
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.