IRAKERE 50

This Thursday, May 8, 2025: Chucho brings Irakere 50, his celebration of his groundbreaking band Irakere, which in the '70s changed the sound of Cuban music, and also made history by winning a Grammy award, to NYC. The Irakere 50th anniversary celebration has extended from 2023 until now; on Thursday the concert takes place at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts in Queens. This weekend, there are shows in Blacksburg, VA and North Bethesda, MD; and in July at Chicago’s Ravinia festival. If you’re in the mood to be blown away, go.

The most exciting and virtuoso Cuban musicians from younger generations in the diaspora play with Chucho Valdes (Maestros Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Carlos Emilio Morales, Oscar Valdes...) NEA Jazz Masters, in both the Irakere project and his latest band, the Royal Quartet, with which he is also touring through July.

Kupferberg Center for the Arts
presents

 

CHUCHO VALDÉS
IRAKERE 50 FEAT. EMILIO FRIAS
THU, MAY 8, 8 PM
Colden Auditorium

Winner of seven Grammy and seven Latin Grammy Awards, and an NEA Jazz Master, Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is a leading figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. In a rich career spanning sixty years, Chucho has pushed boundaries in pursuit of new expressions in Afro-Cuban music. Chucho Valdés: Irakere 50 is a celebration of Irakere, the Cuban band that, with its bold fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, popular Cuban music styles, jazz and rock, marked a before and after in Latin jazz. This special performance features new guest vocalist Emilio Frias.

Colden Auditorium: Queens College in Flushing, Queens, New York City. 

Viva The Latin Jazz!!

www.jazzcaribe.blogspot.com

jazzcaribe2001@yahoo.com

Note: The bestselling book "The Bible of Latin Jazz" by writer, musicologist, and educator Luis Raúl Montell is available on Amazon.