Expectations always run high when Chucho Valdés heads a bill. With well over a half century creating and performing superlative music, the legendary multi-Grammy winning Cuban pianist, bandleader and composer has earned his reputation for unrivaled excellence. Whether performing alone or in groups of any size, the exceptionalism of his musicianship always shines through.
That was certainly the case Wednesday night in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre where he was reunited with Irakere, the groundbreaking band he built in the '70s. Including founding members, and equally sterling virtuosos, saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, Irakere combines a wide variety of musical forms from rumba and other traditional music styles to funk, jazz and classical to create something quintessentially special. And embedded in that milieu is a strong dance esthetic that centers Irakere’s popular appeal. The band's chief distinction, as Valdés has stated in interviews, is that it “brings together jazz and ancestral forms in a coherent fashion and with quality”.
Both of those attributes are what made the Ravinia performance so exciting, distinctive and memorable. With Valdés on piano, Jose’ A. Gola on guitar and acoustic bass, Horacio Hernandez on drums and Roberto Jr. Vizaino Torres on percussions, Irakere can be viewed as a hyper-talented quintet equipped with a killer five-man horn section and an incredible vocalist. That kind of combination can lead to some very interesting places and they were all deeply and beautifully explored during the two-hour set that began ever so softly and ended in rhythmic exuberance.
Transitions in tempos and styles were almost theatrical in their impact and came early and appeared often. Never jolting, they were all received as if they were extravagant gifts full of startling creativity and virtuosic abundance. That’s what the wall of sound felt like when the horns took over the lead from Valdes’s piano during the program’s opening; providing the first taste of what Irakere as a musical phenomenon really is.
Much of it is jazz filtered through a different cultural lens; Irakere’s music becomes a hybrid supremely capable of showcasing new and unexpected facets of an established art form. The expressive clarity and purity that’s so much a hallmark of Valdes’s playing is coupled with intoxicating spontaneity and mind-altering vitality. The juxtaposition of the two captivated the audience immediately and the many variations of similarly complementary contrasts would keep it enthralled all night.
One sequence highlighted the pivotal position drums hold in Cuba’s musical heritage by featuring a jubilant percussive dialogue between a cluster of bongos, a traditional drum set and a single handheld percussive instrument. The composition turned the music being played into a rarely experienced communicative force made more special for the way it shaped nuance, its penetrative drive and the confidence of its power.
The pleasure of that spellbinding display was later complemented with an equally mesmerizing performance sporting a completely different profile. Rendering a ballad distinguished for the beauty of its lyricism and sensuousness, a single horn player enraptured with the sheer magnitude of his talent. Later, Valdés would do the same in a sumptuous medley incorporating Jule Styne’s classic, People.
In a show that kept shifting emphasis and delighting with surprises, the segment placing D’Rivera and Sandoval in the spotlight proved particularly gratifying. Both men embody the spirit of inveterate creatives whose essence is forever youthful. Each sported the equivalent of gleaming new red Lamborghinis for footwear. Sandoval in shiny high top kicks and D’Rivera in elegant red slip-ons, their shoes provided invaluable clues to their outlook on life and how that perspective overflows into their craft. Dashing and ebullient, each delivered classic lessons in showmanship during their much too brief battle of the horns. Earlier self-consciously admitting singing isn’t his strong suite, Sandoval, with his interpretation on When I Fall in Love, still managed to melt more than a few hearts with a rendition bubbling over with emotive resonance.
Classical elements made their way into the evening’s smorgasbord of sound immediately after D’Rivera quipped, “You probably didn’t know Mozart was really from New Orleans”. The band then launched into a variation of a Mozart concerto that would feel right at home in any NOLA second line. That interlude proved a perfect lead-in to the last and very substantial portion of the program dedicated to Cuba’s renowned dance culture.
Fronted by a dynamic vocalist who personified the intense vitality that makes Cuban dance music so distinctive, the feeling he and Irakere inspired was like being instantaneously transported to central Havana on a rousing Saturday night. A night where abandon and personal authenticity are wholeheartedly welcome. Raised in high relief, the freedom, boldness, spontaneity and sultriness of both the music and its expression through dance took a few to the aisles to join in on the party. The joy prompting that response could also be seen in lots of shoulders swaying to the tempo in the theater’s seats. Full of rapid body movements, quick stop-action poses and rhythmic precision, the singer’s own dancing helped make the music flesh and brought another layer of luster to a magical evening of music.
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