46th Voll-Damm Festival Internacional de Jazz de Barcelona: Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers

Chucho was just three years old when his grandmother, Caridad Amaro, told his father, Bebo, that whenever he left the house Chucho sat at the piano and imitated for hours (and showing plenty of talent) what he'd heard his father doing while he was composing or tuning the piano. Seventy years later, the Barcelona Jazz Festival celebrates Chucho Valdés by naming him a permanent resident artist. That means special concerts every year, as well as performances with artists related to the style of the man who Bebo (and a few others as well) considered 'the best pianist in the world'. But the celebration at the Auditori will be an even bigger deal because you get two parties in one, since it's also a look at 40 years of Irakere, the band Chucho co-founded in 1973 that forever revolutionized the history of music – and not just Cuban music. Have you ever heard 'Bacalao con pan' played live, for example? Well get ready, because Chucho and his Afro-Cuban Messengers, plus special guests making up the brass section, promise a particularly electric night.