For almost 60 years, Chucho Valdés and Paquito D’Rivera have been widely recognized as distinguished players and composers in the worlds of Afro-Cuban music, jazz and classical. In their youth, Valdés and D’Rivera cultivated a friendship inherited from their fathers, Bebo Valdés and Tito Rivera, prominent musicians in the dynamic artistic life of 1940s and 1950s Havana. Trained in classical music, Valdés and D’Rivera were attracted to great jazz improvisers such as Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. They developed their craft in Havana theaters and in the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, which D’Rivera conducted for two years. In 1973, Valdés invited his friend to co-found Irakere, one of the most transcendent groups in Cuban music.

In May 1980, D’Rivera left his beloved homeland to go into exile in New York, the city of his childhood dreams. Separately, he and Valdés have amassed more than 25 Grammys and Latin Grammys, among many other distinctions.

Now, they are reuniting for a new recording and tour that will include trumpeter Diego Urcola, bassist José A. Gola, drummer Dafnis Prieto and percussionist Roberto Junior Vizcaino.

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