Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés has been at the pinnacle of Latin jazz
since his band Irakere won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Performance in 1979.
A major figure in the artistic breakthrough of Cuban musicians despite America's
blockade of that country, he has continued to win acclaim and awards for his
Afro-Cuban sound with Irakere and other sidemen ever since.
Son of the late pianist Ramon 'Bebo' Valdés, bandleader at the famed Havana
nightspot Tropicana, he studied classical musical as a child but was soon
exposed to the American artists who flocked to Havana t...