Valdés brings modern Afro-Cuban jazz to Orchestra Hall with a lively program to celebrate the start of the 2024–25 Paradise Jazz Series
Subscriptions starting at $102 and single tickets starting at $19.95 on sale now at dso.org/jazz
Detroit, (October 10, 2024) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will open its 2024–2025 Paradise Jazz Series with a performance by Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet. Valdés will be joined by Horacio El Negro Hernández, José Armando Gola, and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino for this one-night-only performance on Friday, October 18 at 8 p.m. at Orchestra Hall.
Grammy award-winning Valdés has been a steadfast creator and performer for over 60 years. He has remained loyal to his Cuban roots, infusing Afro-Cuban style characteristics to jazz and other genres of music to create his signature sound. Over the course of his career, Valdés has spread his musical influence to audiences as a bandleader, soloist, composer, producer, and arranger.
On stage at Orchestra Hall Valdés will be joined by members of his Royal Quartet. In August of this year, the group released Cuba and Beyond, an eight-song album that tastefully features musical elements from jazz, rock, blues, dance, and classical, all united by Valdés’s distinctive musical voice.
Please note: the DSO will not be featured on this performance, and program duration and the inclusion of an intermission are subject to change depending on the program.
Tickets for this performance start at $19.95. Tickets can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Subscriptions are on sale now for the 2024–2025 Paradise Jazz Series at dso.org/jazz, beginning at $102 for the entire season.
Prior to the Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet performance in Orchestra Hall on October 18, the Civic Jazz Orchestra, part of the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles, will give an opening performance in the Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube (The Cube) at 7 p.m., directed by Vincent Chandler. Click here to purchase tickets.
Currently in its 26th season, the Paradise Jazz Series is named for and honors the legacy of the Paradise Theatre, the historic Detroit jazz venue that was on the site of Orchestra Hall from 1941–1951. The DSO is one of few major American orchestras to present regular jazz programming on its main stage. Learn more about the series at dso.org/jazz.
The Paradise Jazz Series is supported by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Huntington, MGM Grand Detroit, and DownBeat Magazine.
Paradise Jazz Series
Friday, October 13 at 8 p.m. Orchestra Hall
Chucho Valdés, piano
Horacio El Negro Hernández, drums
José Armando Gola, bass
Roberto Jr. Vizcaino, percussion
Program to be announced from the stage, artists subject to change.
About Chucho Valdés
Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. In a career spanning more than 60 years, both as a solo artist and bandleader, Valdés has distilled elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, rock, and more, into a deeply personal style.
Winner of seven Grammy and six Latin Grammy Awards, Valdés received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Science. He was also inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Born in a family of musicians in Quivicán, Havana province, Cuba, on October 9, 1941, Dionisio Jesús “Chucho” Valdés Rodríguez has distilled elements of the Afro-Cuban music tradition, jazz, classical music, and rock into an organic, deeply personal style.
His first teacher was his father, the pianist, composer, and bandleader Ramón “Bebo” Valdés. By age three, Valdés was already playing on the piano melodies he heard on the radio—using both hands and in any key. He began taking lessons on piano, theory, and solfege at the age of five. He continued his formal musical education at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música de la Habana, from which he graduated at 14. A year later, Valdés formed his first jazz trio. In 1959, he debuted professionally with the band Sabor de Cuba. The ensemble, directed by his father, is widely considered one of the great orchestras in modern Cuban music.
Fittingly, Valdés made his early mark as the founder, pianist, and leading composer and arranger of another landmark ensemble: the small big band Irakere (1973–2005). With its audacious mix of Afro-Cuban ritual music, Cuban dance, jazz, classical music, and rock, Irakere marked a before and after in Latin jazz. Irakere’s self-titled debut recording in the United States won a Grammy as Best Latin Recording in 1979.
While he remained with Irakere until 2005, Valdés launched a parallel career in 1998 as a solo performer and a small-group leader. It marked the beginning of an enormously fruitful period highlighted by albums such as Solo Piano (Blue Note, 1991), Solo: Live in New York (Blue Note, 2001), as well as quartet recordings such as Bele Bele en La Habana (Blue Note, 1998), Briyumba Palo Congo (Blue Note, 1999), New Conceptions (Blue Note, 2003), and Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 2000), which won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album.
After leaving Irakere, Valdés also won Grammys for Juntos Para Siempre (Calle 54, 2007), the duet recording with his father, Bebo, and Chucho’s Steps (Comanche, 2010), which introduced his new group, the Afro-Cuban Messengers.
In 2022, Valdés won a Grammy and a Latin Grammy for Mirror Mirror, an album of duets by pianist and singer Eliane Elias with Valdés and the late great Chick Corea.
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a performance schedule that features the PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in metro area venues, as well as eclectic multi-genre performances in its mid-size venue The Cube, constructed and curated with support from Peter D. & Julie F. Cummings. A dedication to broadcast innovation began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.