The Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés performs during the second day of the Cruïlla Festival in Barcelona last summer. | Marta Perez
Chucho Valdés is one of the greatest names to have ever emerged from Cuba’s music scene.
Now 83, he started learning piano at the age of three from his father Bebo, who himself was a great Afro-Cuban jazz pianist. With classical training in Havana as well, he joined the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music in 1967 and soon afterwards formed a quintet. It was work with this group that led Dave Brubeck to state that he was one of the five best pianists in the world along with Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Oscar Peterson.
He is the winner of twelve Grammys, the most recent having been in 2022 for his album Mirror Mirror; this won both the American and the Latin Grammys. His son, Chuchito, recently performed in Mallorca; there is a whole family dynasty of brilliant musicians
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