Trance: Chucho Valdes & Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Trance, with pianists Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, is a concert that brings together two leading champions of the Cuban piano tradition.

The title Trance refers to a deep collaboration seeking the unifiers of the music’s changing languages and dialects. The title also points to the musical dialogue that arises between two brilliant pianists whose friendship and mutual admiration has existed for decades. 

The best known of the two is probably founder of the Afro-Cuban jazz rock band Irakere, Chucho Valdés. He has been focusing on his solo career for ten years and has appeared in a wide variety of constellations. Rubalcaba, who listened to Valdés when he was growing up, hit the jazz scene in the 1980s with Grupo Proyecto, whose explosive jazz fusion pushed the evolution of the Afro-Cuban musical style.

The legendary Chucho Valdés has won five Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, and is the leading musician and inspiration in Afro-Cuban jazz. With sixteen Grammy nominations and four wins, Gonzalo Rubalcaba is also without a doubt a star of the jazz world.