Concert review: Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers animate the Sheldon, Saturday, February 11

Chucho Valdés

facebook.com/valdes.chucho

A year and six months after the release of his Latin Grammy award-winning album “Chucho’s Steps,” Chucho Valdés continues to leave an indelible impression on Latin jazz.

His performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall was more than proof that he and his band the Afro-Cuban Messengers make music that will most certainly be recalled by future musicians as a landmark in the progression of Afro-Cuban jazz.

The 70-year-old Cuban pianist, composer and bandleader describes the Afro-Cuban Messengers as being between Irakere and a quartet in size. This flexibility allows the Messengers to add members as the sounds they want go outside the immense talent and ability already present in the band. Such as the case with the addition of Dreiser Durruthy, who at one time toured with the French Young Ballet but was called upon by the Messengers for his vocal, batá and percussion abilities. Chucho himself is a an eight-time Grammy award winner (five Grammy awards and three Latin Grammys). The rhythm section is comprised of drummer Juan Carlos Rojas, percussionist Yaroldy Abreu and bassist Lázaro Rivero. The horns, or metals as they are referred to in Cuba, are manned by Reinaldo Melián Alvarez on trumpet and Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez on tenor sax.

As I drove home after the concert, I couldn’t help but think of the enormity of the task I had taken on. How would I be capable of describing what I had just witnessed? I was still in awe and felt as if I had been at ten concerts all wrapped into one.

The Afro-Cuban Messengers are most definitely Latin jazz with a focus on Afro-Cuban rhythms; however, the band seamlessly shifted between rock, swing, bop, classical and countless other styles throughout the set, while yet retaining their own sound. Every song they played had a particular feel, theme and style transitioning through several rhythm changes, none feeling odd or out place. Early in the set, during a softer portion of a song, the band halted and Dreiser leapt up from his stool and moved over the batá like lightning. When he finished, the house erupted in excitement. Jazz concerts are usually somewhat reserved, but in this case the audience could not sit still or contain themselves.

The night continued in similar fashion with each performance showcasing the amazing group Valdés has assembled. Not one song performed failed to hold everyone’s attention, and the only disappointment of the night was that it could not go on indefinitely. I left the concert feeling gorged with music, elatedly still trying to process it all and wanting to go back to hear more. This was a performance I will recall for the rest of my life; it redefined the borders of all music styles for me.

In the music of Valdés and the Messengers, the old, the new, the in-between and their boundaries are all present and accounted for. In a recent documentary called “The Making Of,” Chucho indicated (paraphrased from the Spanish), “This is our best work to date, which makes me very happy because I feel our music is still progressing and we have not stagnated.” Drummer Juan Carlos Rojas in the same documentary said (paraphrased from Spanish), “Between the percussionist and myself, we are doing new things in Afro-Cuban rhythms that the next generations of musicians will find and use.”

These claims were more than validated by Valdés and the Messengers’ astounding performance at the Sheldon.

Posted by | February 12, 2012 | Concerts | Comment 

Comments