Grammy Award-Winner Chucho Valdés to Open US Tour at McCarter

Cuban jazz legend Chucho Valdés will return to McCarter Theatre on Friday, Jan. 20, at 7:30pm with the Afro-Cuban Messengers, the band with which he recorded his latest Grammy-winning CD.

Sharing the bill will be jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez and his trio. 

Valdés, a pianist, composer, arranger, band leader and music professor, has recorded more than 80 CDs, has won five Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, and performed solo and with his band across the world. 

His return to McCarter with be his first since 2003. 

Valdés was born in Havana, Cuba in 1941 to a musical family— his mother, Pilar Rodriguez, was a singer and piano teacher, his father, the band leader and pianist Bebo Valdés. Valdés formed his first band at the age of 15 and in 1973 formed the Cuban genre-defining band Irakere. With its blend of jazz, rock, traditional Cuban music and classical, the band had an. influence on Cuban music that can still be heard today. In 2009 Valdés formed Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban Messenger. The group tours internationally and recorded Valdés’ most recent Grammy-winning release, Chucho’s Steps, in 2011. 

Cuban-born pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, 25, calls up images of jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Bill Evans and his compatriot Chucho Valdés. Schooled in the classical conservatories of Havana, Rodriguez's riveting artistry is informed as much by Bach and Stravinsky as by his Cuban and jazz roots. Discovered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 by Quincy Jones, Rodríguez's star has risen under the tutelage of the famed producer.

Tickets start at $20 (students $15 with valid ID) and are available by phone at (609) 258-2787; online at www.mccarter.org; or in person at the ticket office.