• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 11 / 21 / 2010

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HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 20 (acn) Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdes and his seven-member band ‘Mensajeros Afrocubanos’ (Afro-Cuban Messengers), began on Saturday in Spain a short international tour that also includes stops in Switzerland and the Dominican Republic.

Prior to hosting the Jazz Plaza Festival of Havana from December 16 to 19, Valdes will perform with his band at the Voll-Damm International Jazz Festival of Barcelona where he will present his new album Chucho’s Steps.

After Spain, Chucho Valdes will perform on November 24 in Switzerland and, on November 27, he will do it at the Jazz Festival of the Dominican Republic responding to an invitation by local pianist Michel Camilo.

He will later preside over the Jazz Plaza Festival, which this year will be attended, among other guests, by US saxophonist Archie Shepp,Argentinean bandoneon (a type of accordion) player Dino Saluzzi and Arturo O’Farrill and the orchestra of his late father, Cuban musician Chico O’Farrill.

In 2011, Chucho is planning to offer a concert with Cuban diva Omara Portuondo and to work again with his father, Bebo Valdes, 92, after the success of their album Juntos para siempre, which won them a Latin Grammy in 2009.

Only a few days ago, Chucho Valdes won his seventh Latin Grammy, on this occasion in the category of Best Tropical Traditional Album with El ultimo trago, recorded in Havana last year with Spanish singer Concha Buika.

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/119028