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When Herbie and Chucho Take the Cuban Stage, It’s a Glimpse of Jazz Heaven

By  Graham Bleasdale, Cuban Adventures, Inc.

Herbie Hancock and Chucho Valdez sharing the same stage together: quite the musical concept. What was so pleasantly surprising was just how well the collaboration worked in practice. 

Chucho took the stage first as the informal host of the evening. His set with his band, Iraquere, was definitely of Grammy caliber (as his being awarded a Grammy at the recent awards show confirmed). His virtuosity on the keyboard is matched by very, very few of his contemporaries. Chucho's hands appear to hover over the piano like some Identified Flying Object. It is certainly a mysterious but patently potent force.  Fingers fly through runs that seem to defy the logic of human physiology. All of this, but with feeling, too.

Herbie Hancock's reception by the Havana audience was only made warmer by his own introductory remarks made in Spanish. The fact that he was a famous U.S. performer openly "breaking" the still-in-place-after-all-these-years U.S. trade embargo, or "blockade,” as the Cubans call it, only added to the mystique of the occasion.  He walked on stage, insouciantly dressed in a gorgeous mauve suit.

His "up close and personal" touching, feeling, and hugging of his grand piano in one worldly meditation left me a little cold. But once he commenced to tickle the ivories, I want you to know that I started to melt quite quickly. As someone who remembers the artist's first popular work, "Watermelon Man,” it was gratifying to see him return to his first love affair with the acoustic piano. His pianistic expressiveness shone sans the need to impress with technique alone. 

I digress.

The  Havana International Festival of Jazz, now an annual event held each December, is to a music buff such as I an intoxicating thing. The after-show jams at the Riviera (where, fortunately, we were staying ) were often as entertaining, and in some ways more interesting, than the concerts themselves, often lasting until the wee hours of the morning.

Cuban jazz is unique. It is a blend of African rhythm -- percussion is always a critical part of the sound – and, of course, Western influences, especially American jazz. It’s a little different from the Buena Vista Social Club sound, which the Cubans call "son," having its roots in Oriente Province in eastern Cuba in the early part of the 20th century.

Most of the Cuban son music is vocal, although not all by any means, with the superb pianist Ruben Gonzalez coming easily to mind as one of its greatest practitioners. Son is Cuban country music and pop music all rolled into one. Ry Cooder produced Buena Vista's first CD in l996, recording some of the "lost" legends of Cuban music at the vintage Egrem studios in Havana. The world-wide success of that CD, combined with the quirky but riveting film, “The Buena Vista Social Club,” by Wim Wender, has helped propel Cuban music  to a level of popularity not seen since the l950s.

Again, I digress. A number of festival concerts were standouts, most notably Tony Perez. But in the end, it was Chucho and Herbie who stole the show. To hear these two jazz greats actually "play" together was pure magic. The Cuban and the American seemed to possess an innate sympathy for each other. Their performance together at the farewell concert was and will continue to be, unforgettable.                                          

Graham Bleasdale is the founder of Cuban Adventures Inc. Both a musician and music aficionado, he has been leading specialty tours to Cuba for some time, focusing almost exclusively on a U.S. clientele.