Chucho Valdés Plays La Creación – Presented by medici.tv

For a limited time, medici.tv offers a free video replay of La Creación, Chucho Valdés‘ new work for big band, Afro-Cuban percussion and vocals. Performed with the Yoruban Orchestra, featuring Hilario Durán and John Beasley as musical directors, La Creación [a suite in three movements] explores the story of creation according to the Regla de Ocha, the Afro-Cuban religion known as Santería. It is an extraordinary testament to an extraordinary career.

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Live from the Philharmonie de Paris, spend a jazzy evening in the company of the extraordinary Chucho Valdés—renowned composer, dynamite pianist, expert arranger, and legendary pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz. After 60 years on the scene, the veteran knows how to light up the stage as a soloist or bring his ingenuity into perfect harmony with an ensemble.

Valdés opens the festivities with an incredible recital, with more and more musicians coming to join him onstage in the leadup to act two: La Creación, a composition by Valdés through which he recounts the emergence of West African Yoruba culture in the Caribbean. Under the direction of the man himself, piano, drums, bass, Batà drums, Creole choir, trumpets, and saxophones present a captivating and vibrant homage to Afro-Cuban fusion, of which Valdés is one of the greatest representatives.

• Venue: Grande Salle Pierre Boulez, Philharmonie de Paris (Paris, France)
• Broadcast date: Saturday, November 20, 2021 2:30 PM EST
• Production date: 2021
• Replay available until: February 20, 2022
• Production: © Oleo Films

• Chucho Valdés | Composer, Pianist
• Hilario Durán | Keyboards, arranger
• John Beasley | Keyboards, arranger
• José A. Gola | Bass guitarist, Double bassist
• Dafnis Prieto | Drummer
• Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno | Percussionist
• Erick Barbería | Principal Batá drum, singer
• Yosvani González Franco | Batá drum, singer
• Felipe Sarria Linares | Batá drum, singer
• Yeni Valdés | Singer
• Brian Lynch | Trumpeter
• Etienne Charles | Trumpeter
• Marcus Strickland | Alto saxophonist
• Carlos Fernandez Averhoff Jr. | Tenor/saxophonist