Chucho Valdés @ Hollywood Bowl – La Creación: Yoruban + MONK’estra bands

CHUCHO VALDÉS LA CREACIÓN W/ MONK’ESTRA, MUSIC DIRECTORS HILARIO DURÁN & JOHN BEASLEY

La Creación is an extraordinary career-spanning masterwork rendered with the vibrant sonic palette he forged in the epochal Cuban jazz fusion band Irakere.

In celebration of his 80th birthday in 2021, Cuban piano legend Chucho Valdés went back to the beginning, the very beginning. La Creación, his new three-movement suite for big band, Afro-Cuban percussion and vocals, recounts the story of creation according to La Regla de Ocha, the Afro-Cuban religion also known as Santería.

Encompassing sacred Yoruba chants, the blues, post-bop harmonies and what Valdés describes as “an atmosphere in the style of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew,” it’s an extraordinary career-spanning masterwork rendered with the vibrant sonic palette he forged in the epochal Cuban jazz fusion band Irakere.

Review: Chucho Valdes Creation’ at the Palau de la Música, Barcelona
Portentous, spiritual, at times thick and finally irresistible put the Palau on its feet with an irresistible encore by Irakere, the question remained as to whether ‘Creation’ is, indeed, his greatest work. The most ambitious, for sure. – Canadian News

Yoruban Band & MONK’estra
Erick Barberia, Román Diáz, tambour batá, Diosvany Valladares (tambour batá)
Dafnis Prieto (drum)
Yeni Valdés (vocals)

MONK’estra Horns
Trumpets:        James Ford, Brian Swartz (Brian Lynch, Etienne Charles, Marcus Strickland)

Trombones:    Francisco Torres, Wendell Kelly, Ryan Dragon, Lemar Guillary

Woodwinds:    Bob Sheppard, Tom Luer, Adam Schroeder

Co-arrangers, MD, keyboards: John Beasley, Hilario Duran

US and European Tour
September

02          Detroit Jazz Festival – Watch from anywhere around the world Livestream & Quest TV
21           Hollywood Bowl with MONK’estra
22           Paramount Theatre Oakland with MONK’estra
23           Monterey Jazz Festival with MONK’estra

October
07+08  Rose Theatre, Lincoln Center, NY
14           Berklee Performance Arts, Boston
16           Kennedy Center, Washington DC
18           Chicago Symphony Center

 November
18           London
22           Madrid
24           Hamburg
25           Berlin
26           Toulouse, France

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvc-T8adHMU