Thursday, September 6, 2007 12:41 PM CDT

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Pianist speaks through music

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com

It is good to have siblings who not only speak your musical tongue, but also speak other peoples' languages. LISTEN: Audio Sample 1 | Audio Sample 2

Just ask Afro-Cuban jazz pianist Chuchito Valdes, who is traveling from his home base in Cancun, Mexico, to perform a concert Saturday night with the Twin Cities' own Heartland Jazz Orchestra.

Valdes, a member of one of Cuba's reigning musical dynasties, speaks a universal musical language in his performances around the world.

And everyone in his audiences immediately gets the message -- a dynamic fusion of Afro-Cuban jazz, traditional Cuban dance classics, world beats and American jazz that needs no translator.

Just ask the feet dancing in the aisles.

However, when dealing with English-speaking media, the non-English speaker has two options: a.) secure a translator; or b.) page his English-speaking brother/sometimes-drummer Emilio to pitch in with the family story.

Today his management thinks option "b" will work best.

So Emilio, who lives in New York and who will be manning the drums Saturday night at the BCPA, pitches the story with no curves.

Chuchito's slightly-younger (by 1½ years) brother says he can't make all of the gigs his sibling plays due to both the distance between their homes and his own musical commitments in New York, which are numerous.

Chief among them: his own band Moorish, which, as the name suggests, also specializes in Afro-jazz rhythms.

"We try to play together as much as we can," says Emilio, especially when Chuchito and his ensemble veer toward the East Coast area.

As sons of one of Cuba's most famous pianists, Chucho Valdes, and as grandsons of one of the country's Afro-Cuban jazz pioneers, Bebo Valdes, Emilio and Chuchito have one advantage over their elders: they can travel freely to the United States to perform because of Chuchito's Mexican citizenship (he married a Mexican) and Emilio's U.S. citizenship.

Their father and grandfather, both living in Cuba, are unable to perform stateside due to the U.S. trade embargo imposed on Cuba with varying degrees of severity for the past 45 years.

Emilio has one phrase to describe the situation: "political (expletive deleted)." In short, "Music is music, and I hate this kind of political (expletive deleted)."

The above-mentioned (expletive deleted), he says, is what has prevented all three generations of the Valdes dynasty joining forces for a concert-of-concerts in the United States.

"We don't want to see that gig happen in Europe; we want it to happen here in the U.S., because our relationship with American music is so very deep," Emilio says.

Until that web of red tape is untangled, the two brothers must serve as the official ambassadors for a Cuban tradition dating back half a century or more.

Emilio says trying to avoid music as a Valdes family member was nigh impossible (for the record, he and Chuchito have three more brothers, all of whom are musicians: three out of the five are pianists, the rest are percussionists).

"We grew up with the music from both sides of our family -- my grandfather (Bebo) from father's side, and my grandmother from my mother's side," he continues.

No escape.

"When I was very young, it was normal to assume that I was supposed to play piano," Emilio says, just as father Chucho and grandfather Bebo had.

The pressure was definitely there.

"Chucho is one of the most important Latin pianists in the world, and Bebo is the best in the world ... the grand master."

Eldest brother Chuchito came through, "but I loved percussion and drums, and that's what I moved into." Plus, he adds, it helped him avoid competing with his big bro.

Chuchito was a child prodigy who studied not only with his father and grandfather, but also other Cuban jazz and classical masters. When he was around 13, he pushed in the piano bench and decided he wanted to be a professional baseball player.

But that lasted only a short time: He was soon back to his musical studies and destiny as a carrier of the Valdes family jazz banner.

For Chuchito and Emilio, that banner signifies an eclectic fusion of all their musical loves. Says Emilio, "For me it is important that people understand what we are doing, whether it is American jazz and blues or Latin jazz."

Growing up in Cuba, long before he learned to speak English as a New Yorker, "We heard a lot of American music, and even though we didn't understand any of the words, we did understand all of the melodies."

And that universal mode of communication, he promises, will be front and center at the Valdes siblings' first-ever concert in downstate Illinois.

"There's going to be a lot of powerful emotions," Emilio promises. "That's because Chuchito's technique is very strong. In fact, I think he is at the same level now as our father and grandfather. His passion is very deep, and he's also fresh, something very fresh."

The goal in one of their live performances, he adds, "is to find the right element to groove, to make a groove with the music, and to make the audience realize that we want to play for people who really want to dance."

For that, he adds, no translation whatsoever is necessary.

At a glance

What: The Chuchito Valdes Quartet, with the Heartland Jazz Orchestra

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday (preceded at 6:45 p.m. by a discussion on Afro-Cuban jazz)

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington

Tickets: $12.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

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Afro-Cuban jazz keyboard great Chuchito Valdes brings his quartet to the stage of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts for a Saturday night concert with the Heartland Jazz Orchestra.

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