09/29/2026
Chucho Valdés Marks His 85th Birthday With UNCUT and Concerts Featuring Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard
The NEA Jazz Master’s first solo piano album in 20 years captures eight performances in one continuous session, without edits or second takes.
Alone at the piano, Chucho Valdés has only the music and the moment. His new album, UNCUT (InnerJazz), preserves both. Recorded in one continuous session without edits or second takes, its eight solo performances capture the pianist’s ideas as they unfold: every turn, pause and spontaneous decision intact.
Released September 18, UNCUT is Valdés’s first solo piano album since Cancionero Cubano 20 years ago. It arrives as he prepares to turn 85 on October 9 and begins a season of birthday concerts in Miami and New York.
The unedited session gives the album its character. Valdés moves among Cuban rhythms, jazz improvisation and the harmonic language he has developed over more than six decades. With no ensemble or studio reconstruction to shape the result, the listener hears the performance as it happened.
Born in Quivicán, Cuba, in 1941, Valdés learned first from his father, the pianist, composer and bandleader Bebo Valdés. He studied piano, theory and solfège as a child, graduated from Havana’s Municipal Conservatory of Music at 14 and formed his first jazz trio the following year. He went on to create and lead Irakere, the groundbreaking group that brought Afro-Cuban traditions into conversation with jazz, classical music and rock.
Across his career, Valdés has made 94 albums as a leading artist and authored more than 295 works. He has received 15 GRAMMY Awards, including seven Latin GRAMMYs, and 28 nominations. His honors include recognition as an NEA Jazz Master, an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, the Musical Excellence Award from the Latin Recording Academy and induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The birthday celebrations continue October 3 at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, where Valdés will be joined by special guests Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard. On October 16 and 17, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents his 85th birthday celebration at Rose Theater in New York. There, Valdés will perform with Blanchard on trumpet, Lovano on saxophone, John Patitucci on bass, Marcus Gilmore on drums and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino Torre on percussion.
For a musician whose career has encompassed Irakere, orchestral works and collaborations across generations, UNCUT offers an intimate setting: Valdés at the piano, following the music wherever it leads.
About Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés is a pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader whose work has shaped modern Afro-Cuban jazz for more than six decades. Born in Quivicán, Cuba, he is the son of pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés. Chucho created and led Irakere and has continued to record, compose and perform internationally as a solo artist and collaborator. A 15-time GRAMMY winner and NEA Jazz Master, he turns 85 on October 9, 2026. Learn more at https://chucho-valdes.com/
