• Submitted by: admin
• Music
• 04 / 07 / 2010

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A Frith Street regulars will recall that, back in the 1980s, the Ronnie Scott's bandstand served as an alternative home for Irakere, one of the great big bands of modern times.

With the mercurial pianist Chucho Valdés at the helm, the Cuban ensemble
gave British audiences a glimpse of the riches of the island's traditions long before Ry Cooder knocked at the door of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Watching Valdés accompanied by only a bassist, a drummer and a percussionist, you could not help longing for the glory days of his massed brass section.

On the other hand, the small-scale format gave us more of an opportunity to savor his effortless keyboard fusion of bebop and Afro-Latin rhythms.

Even on the over familiar Duke Ellington tune Satin Doll he managed to wrong-foot his listeners with an extended improvisation that seamlessly shifted into In a Sentimental Mood and Caravan.

The rest of the set maintained that mood of a playful anthology, Valdés returning to Ellingtonesque territory with Dave Brubeck's standard The Duke, a composition that Irakere used to enjoy turning into a platform for their acrobatics.

The Brubeck connection resurfaced in the second set when the quartet suddenly introduced the theme from Blue Rondo and la Turk.

Poinciana blended with Debussy and earlier, in homage to Cuba's past, the musicians switched from a loose-limbed jazz pulse to a punctilious danzón.

If the rhapsodic approach had a drawback, it was that the pieces generated tension that was sometimes left unresolved. Still, Valdés can turn himself into a tasteful accompanist, too, as he demonstrated last year on the series of duets he recorded
with that magnificent Spanish newcomer, Concha Buika.

In Soho his partner was his sister, Mayra Caridad Valdés, who briefly emerged from the wings. Besame Mucho may be conventional fare, but her rendition lit up the house.

By: Clive Davis

Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk