The power of music on memory. This takes me back instantly to hearing Chucho Valdés at the Boisdale in Canary Wharf in 2011. Read my review run on Jazzwise back then to begin with. I was blown away then just as I now today.
Approaching 85 if you didn’t know that you’d think Uncut was the work of the hippest youngest new jazz gunslinger out there who plays Afro Cuban piano like on a genius level.
The Quivicán, Cuba born Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez has long been a towering figure in Afro-Cuban jazz famed for his leadership of Irakere, yet Uncut is remarkably humble and its vulnerability is part of its super power. The music speaks to you. It is Valdés alone at the piano, recorded in a single session without edits or second takes. No rhythm section, no orchestral colour, just the pianist and the instrument. It gives the playing an immediacy that is not always possible when there is an ensemble around him.
Valdés has been here before. Solo Piano dates from 1991, while Solo: Live in New York, recorded in 1998 was released in 2001. This is just as good. Uncut returns to the format after more than two decades.
The repertoire is mainly Valdés’ own and several pieces have appeared on earlier recordings. It is quite brief. As ever never mind the width feel the quality. ‘Circles In The Air’ gets things under way with a light, open quality.
‘Son Montuno’ (Chucho Valdés) brings the Cuban element more firmly into view. Valdés recorded it on Bele Bele en La Habana (above) in 1998, where the fuller ensemble gives the piece a very different weight. Here he has to suggest the rhythmic framework from the piano.
There is a similar story with the pianist’s ‘La Habanera de Lorraine’ previously recorded as ‘Encore – Lorraine’s Habanera’ on Live at the Village Vanguard and also heard on Clásicos Cubanos (En Vivo). The habanera rhythm is obvious enough, but the solo setting puts more emphasis on the melody and on Valdés’s harmonic movement around it.
‘Ponle la Clave’ (Chucho Valdés) was also recorded on Live at the Village Vanguard. The clue is in the title. Clave is at the heart of Cuban rhythmic thinking, and Valdés manages to keep that sense of pulse alive without percussion actually being present.
‘Pavane’ (Gabriel Fauré) is the first of two pieces here that aren’t by Valdés. Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50, is familiar territory for a pianist with Valdés’ classical interests and he has recorded it before. Here it is pared right back. The melody carries much of the weight and Valdés doesn’t need to do much to make the piano sound spacious.
Check a YouTube stream later this afternoon
‘Son XXI’ (Enrique Ubieta) is the other exception. Ubieta wrote the piece and Valdés previously recorded it as ‘Son XXI (Para Pia)’ on Live at the Village Vanguard.
‘Canción de Cuna para Miguel’ is another returning Valdés piece, previously recorded on Clásicos Cubanos (En Vivo). It is one of the quieter moments here, the piano carrying the lullaby quality without any need for embellishment. ‘Mambo Bianco’ (Chucho Valdés) closes the album with the rhythmic impulse restored.
So returning to thoughts of hearing him live 15 years ago when he was about to turn 70 that time he was with his band the Afro-Cuban Messengers plus guest singer Mayra Caridad Valdés, Chucho’s sister. It was a very strong performance by the pianist, dazzling with his consummate grasp of compound rhythms and intuitive improvising especially on danzón and in montuno sections. This new release however stripped back it just as strong as that memorable evening so long ago. Dear reader, be good to yourself, and soak it all in like mother’s milk today.
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