Bebo Valdes News

Contact between father and son had been rare and publicly cool for nearly 50 years, and few thought they would ever see Bebo Valdes, 89 in October, and his son Chucho, 66, on tour together.

And yet the Cuban jazz pianists are not only playing 10 concerts in Spain, but on July 10 they finished recording their first collaborative album. The currently untitled release is set for an October launch on Madrid-based Calle 54 Records, with distribution by Sony BMG Spain.

The tour, which includes Chucho's vocalist sister and Bebo's daughter, Mayra Caridad, began July 6 in Tenerife and ends August 5 in Huesca after passing through seven cities including Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza.

"The tour means not only the re-encounter of father and son, but a review of the history of Cuban music in the 20th century," said tour promoter Joan Anton Cararach, who has been the director of the Barcelona Jazz Festival for four years.

"We put on one of their extremely rare concerts together last year and proposed a joint tour," Cararach said. "Working with them is a blessing."

Beginning in 1959, Chucho played in Bebo's Sabor de Cuba band in Havana, but Bebo left Cuba for good in 1961 after differences with Fidel Castro's revolution. Bebo had been a star in 1950s Cuba, but he spent nearly 40 years unrecognized, playing in piano bars in Stockholm.

He was rediscovered in 2000 by Spanish film director Fernando Trueba for his Latin jazz documentary "Calle 54." Trueba, who won the 1992 Academy Award for best foreign-language film for "Belle Epoque," co-produced the new album with Miami-based fellow Latin jazz specialist Nat Chediak.

At the Madrid tour launch, Chucho said, "Bebo is my hero and my 'maestro,' and on this tour I will rediscover things he taught me when I was a kid."

Bebo responded, "This is a dream come true. Nobody in the world plays better than Chucho."

Reuters/Billboard