"Duets"

Presented in partnership with the Black Cultural Center, Ujima, and the Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and Economy

Savor a rare evening of piano duets with three masters of jazz. Winner of six Grammy and three Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. Five-time Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today—her arsenal of talents is richly on display in each and every song of her limitless repertoire. Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history,” Grammy Award-winning saxophone titan Joe Lovano has distinguished himself as a prescient and pathfinding force in the arena of creative music. Don’t miss the magic when these legends come together on the Fife stage!

Chucho Valdés has pushed boundaries in pursuit of new expressions in Afro-Cuban music in a rich career spanning 60 years. His influence in the genre is immeasurable, his work establishing the standard by which younger generations set out to create their own.

His musical education includes formal studies and countless nights on the best stages in Cuba as the pianist with his father, Bebo Valdés, and his orchestra, Sabor de Cuba, and with the seminal Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. Valdés is perhaps best known as the founder, pianist, and main composer and arranger of Irakere, a landmark ensemble in Cuban music.

Celebrating his 80^th birthday in 2021, Chucho’s technique and creative output are as prodigious as ever. He is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, has been inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received a DC Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, his name joining an illustrious list that includes Kenny Barron, James Moody, Ellis Marsalis, George Wein, and Dave Brubeck.

Dianne Reeves' virtuosity, improvisational prowess, and unique jazz and R&B stylings have garnered her five Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album, an honorary doctorate of music from Juilliard, and the honor of being named a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master. Her magical, timeless voice and exceptional personality mark her as a captivating world-class artist. According to Wynton Marsalis, "She has one of the most powerful, purposeful, and accurate voices of this or any time."

Reeves' Grammy Award-winning album, Beautiful Life, epitomizes the spirit of her storied and extraordinary career, traversing many genres and collaborating with a diverse collection of artists. Adored by audiences and critics alike throughout the world, Reeves is a natural wonder not to be missed.

Joe Lovano is a Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer, and arranger. DownBeat magazine has twice named him Jazz Artist of the Year, and he scored a prestigious trifecta in 1998: nominations for Musician of the Year, Improviser of the Year, and Best Tenor Saxophonist in the New York Jazz Awards. He also topped both the DownBeat readers and critics polls as Tenor Player of the Year in 2000.

Lovano attended Berklee in the early 1970s and received an honorary doctor of music degree from the college in 1998. In the fall of 2001 he began a prestigious teaching residency in the Berklee Ensemble Department, known as the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance.

Lovano has released nearly 40 albums as leader or coleader and has collaborated with many legendary musicians, including McCoy Tyner, Hank Jones, Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, Branford Marsalis, Jim Hall, and Paul Motian.

This is these artists' first performance at the Moss Arts Center.

This performance is supported in part by gifts from Don and Libby Drapeau, Dr. James M. Shuler and Ms. Margaret F. Shuler, and Mr. Edwin H. Talley and Mrs. Melinda P. Talley.