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• Arts and Culture
• Music
• 10 / 14 / 2006

The disc will have a romantic focus featuring the warm voice of Aznavour, 82, fused with the tropical rhythms of Cuba. Aznavour arrived to Cuba on Sunday and is rehearsing 11 songs with Valdés to prepare for recording, starting next week.

The disc is scheduled for release in February or March of 2007 and features an instrumental piece, reported Granma newspaper.

Chucho Valdés arranged all the songs on the álbum that will be recorded in Havana's Abdala studio. A monster in his own right, Valdés, with five Grammies under his belt, turned 65 last Monday.

During an interview with AFP, Valdés said the songs are about love and life. "They are new songs, lovely, beautiful, that carry the hallmark of Aznavour but with a Latin, Cuban touch.

Aznavour, the son of Armenian immigrants and whose real name is Aznavourian, collaborated with another Cuban musician in 2002, Compay Segundo (Francisco Repilado, d. July 13, 2003), with whom he recorded the song Morir de amor (Dying from love) on the album Duets.

Aznavour was born in Paris on May 22, 1924. Edith Piaf, who called him "the stupid genius," gave him his first big break when he accompanied her on piano from 1946 to 1954.

He has 740 songs in his repertoire including 350 in French and 150 in English.

The songwriter-composer, who has also been an actor both on television and the silver screen, is well known for English hits like She, Dance in the Old Fashioned Way, and the French hits, Apres l'amour, J'Ai Perdu la Tete, J'en Deduis Que Je t'Aime and Bon Anniversaire.

"He's a giant. It has been a great honor to be asked to participate in this very original project. We have chosen rhythms from the Cuban romantic genres and adopted them for him," said Chucho Valdés.

Aznavour came up with the idea to record with Valdés when he was in France this year playing a concert with French composer-pianist Michel Legrand.

Chucho Valdés said that the record will feature many different converging rhythms: "We can't say that there are Cha cha chas, boleros, habaneras, because the sound we are making has nothing to do with these rhythms; instead, it is romantic music with a Cuban rhythm."

Jesús (Chucho) Valdés is considered one of the best pianists in the world and is a renowned orchestra director and composer of such masterpieces as Mambo Influenciado and Misa Negra.

He is also one of the most transcendental figures in jazz and Cuban music today and is putting the finishing touches on an album called Chucho Sinfonico and another that he recorded along with singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés. Both albums are scheduled for release this December.

Source: Radio Cadena Agramonte