Chucho Valdés presents “La Creacíon” at 65th Monterey Jazz Festival, 9.23.22 (El Rumbon)

Chucho Valdés presents “La Creacíon” with the Yoruband Orchestra directed by Hilario Durán & John Beasley plus MONK’estra at the 65th Monterey Jazz Festival on Friday, September 23, 2022.

The 65th Monterey Jazz Festival takes place on the Monterey County Fairgrounds (2004 Fairground Road in Monterey, California) September 23-25, 2022, and is the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world.
3 days featuring over 300 artists on 4 stages. A bucket list experience! Be at MJF65!
Tickets available at https://montereyjazzfestival.org

ABOUT CHUCHO VALDÉS
In a career spanning more than 60 years, both as a solo artist and bandleader, Jesús “Chucho” Valdés has distilled elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, rock, and more, into a deeply personal style. Winner of six Grammy and four Latin Grammy Awards, Mr. Valdés received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Science last year and was also inducted in the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.

His most recent project on record, Jazz Batá 2, revisits a revolutionary idea Mr. Valdés first recorded in 1972: a piano jazz trio featuring batá drums, the sacred, hourglass-shaped drums used in the ritual music of the Yoruba religion in Cuba, in place of the conventional trap set. Jazz Batá 2 won a Latin Grammy as Best Latin Jazz album and was selected as one of Billboard magazine’s list of The 50 Best Latin Albums of the Decade.

On October 9, 2021, Cuban pianist, composer, and bandleader Chucho Valdés turned 80. It’s a milestone after which many would choose to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor. Mr. Valdés produced the most ambitious work of his career instead. A three-movement suite for small ensemble, voices, and big band La Creación (The Creation) tells the history of creation according to the Regla De Ocha, the Afro-Cuban religion commonly known as Santería. La Creación had its world premiere on November 5, 2021, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and was later presented in Lyon, Paris, and Barcelona. Mr. Valdés called La Creación “a summation of all my experiences in music—up to today,” emphasis on “today.”

Video of “La Creacíon” recorded live from the Philharmonie de Paris in 2021. ©Oleo Films