Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on 2026-09-16
There is nowhere to hide when a pianist sits alone at a grand piano. And in the case of Chucho Valdés' extraordinary new solo studio recording, UNCUT (InnerJazz), there are no edits, no second chances, just one continuous session of spontaneous genius from the acclaimed steward of Cuban music. Arriving a mere three weeks before his 85th birthday on October 9, the album finds Valdés doing what he has spent a lifetime doing: being in the moment.
UNCUT, an eight-track solo piano album recorded by InnerCat Music Group and set for release on September 18, captures a legend in his element, showing why he's among the great improvisers of the modern era. The entire recording was created as a continuous performance, preserving every note, pause, harmonic turn and split-second decision exactly as it occurred. There is no studio reconstruction of the performance afterward. What Chucho played is what the listener hears.
At an age when most artists might reasonably be expected to look back on a revered career, Valdés remains strikingly restless. UNCUT arrives when his career now spans more than six decades. He has made 94 albums as a leading artist, authored more than 295 works, received 15 GRAMMY Awards-including 7 Latin GRAMMYs-and earned 28 GRAMMY nominations. He is an NEA Jazz Master, the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music, the Musical Excellence Award from the Latin Recording Academy and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Longy School of Music, and is an inductee into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Yet the significance of UNCUT lies less in what Valdés has already accomplished than in what he is still willing to risk. 20 years have passed since his last solo piano album: Cancionero Cubano. Returning to the format at this stage makes UNCUT something more than another entry in an immense discography. It is a portrait of an artist measuring himself against the instrument that has accompanied him virtually from the beginning of his life.
Born in Quivicán, Havana Province, Cuba, on October 9, 1941, Valdés grew up inside music. His father, the celebrated pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader Bebo Valdés, was his first teacher. His mother remembered Chucho playing the piano with both hands and in any key by age three; by five, he was formally studying piano, theory and solfège. He graduated from Havana's Municipal Conservatory of Music at 14 and formed his first jazz trio the following year. The ensuing career would change the trajectory of Cuban music.
Classical harmony and Cuban rhythm. The sacred and the secular. Jazz improvisation and formal composition. The music of his father and the discoveries of his own generation. On UNCUT, there is nothing between his brilliant hands and the listener. Zero editing is more than a recording technique. It is the album's artistic proposition. For an improviser, perfection is not the elimination of uncertainty. It is the ability to effortlessly move through it and transform ideas before they dissolve. Valdés has built much of his career upon precisely that instinct. UNCUT is an icon creating in real time.
Valdés' storied career stretches from the musical world of his father Bebo Valdés and Havana's pre-revolutionary nightlife through the experimentation of 1960s Cuba, the formation of his iconic supergroup Irakere, the international emergence of Afro-Cuban jazz, a prolific Blue Note period, symphonic works and collaborations with artists including Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Omara Portuondo, Eliane Elias, Ivan Lins, Leo Brouwer and Pablo Milanés. For UNCUT, all of that history is distilled to its simplest form: one musician and his piano.
The release of UNCUT launches a milestone season surrounding Valdés' 85th birthday. Valdés performs solo on September 14-15 at Blue Note Los Angeles. On October 3, Valdés returns home to Miami for the "Chucho Valdés 85th Birthday Celebration" at the Adrienne Arsht Center's Knight Concert Hall, joined by special guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard. The celebration then travels to New York City, where Jazz at Lincoln Center presents "Chucho Valdés Quintet Plays the Standards: 85th Birthday Celebration" at the Rose Theater on October 16-17. The concerts will feature an all-star ensemble including saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Marcus Gilmore, and percussionist Roberto Jr. Vizcaino Torre, continuing a relationship between Valdés and Jazz at Lincoln Center that has spanned decades.
Valdés has spent a lifetime advancing Afro-Cuban jazz. His creation and leadership of Irakere alone would have assured his place in the history of Cuban music. His work since then-as pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, collaborator and experimenter-has continually expanded an irreplaceable legacy. At 85, Valdés returns to his instrument in the purest form-not to look backward, but to continue discovering what is possible.
ABOUT CHUCHO VALDÉS
A pioneering figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz, Chucho Valdés has spent more than six decades carrying the traditions of Cuban music while inventing new avenues to keep the music alive and well. The pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader created and led Irakere, the groundbreaking ensemble whose fusion of Afro-Cuban ritual music, jazz, classical music and rock transformed Latin jazz and influenced generations of musicians around the world. His career encompasses 94 albums as a leading artist, more than 295 authored works, 15 GRAMMY Awards-including seven Latin GRAMMYs-and 28 GRAMMY nominations. Valdés is an NEA Jazz Master and has received an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music, the Musical Excellence Award from The Latin Recording Academy, induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Longy School of Music. Born in Quivicán, Cuba, in 1941, he is the son of legendary Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés and today remains one of the most consequential musicians in contemporary jazz.
