Chucho's Steps
| Chucho's Steps | ||||
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| Studio album by Chucho Valdés | ||||
| Released | August 31, 2010 | |||
| Recorded | November 23, 2009–November 30, 2009 at Abdala studio, Havana, Cuba | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 65:57 | |||
| Label | Four Quarters | |||
| Producer | Chucho Valdés | |||
| Chucho Valdés chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Chucho's Steps is an album released by jazz pianist Chucho Valdés and his band, the Afro-Cuban Messengers. The album was released in 2010 by Four Quarters Entertainment and was produced by Valdés himself, who also composed all of the music. It won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.
Some of the tracks were written in honor of various jazz musicians including the late Joe Zawinul, "Zawinul's Mambo", and the Marsalis family, "New Orleans". In addition to his regular sidemen, Valdés employed several additional musicians including singer/percussionist Dreiser Durruthy Bombale. Critics gave favorable reviews of the release.
I love this album, it is a sample of the new work we are doing, the new artistic combinations of Afro-Cuban music and jazz. It is a tribute to many musicians and the audience and reviewers have responded very well to it.
Chucho's Steps is Valdés's first solo album since 2003's New Conceptions. Recorded at Abdala studio in Havana, the all-acoustic album incorporates jazz, bebop, swing and Afro-Cuban ritual music.
In February 2011 Chucho's Steps won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. The other nominees in the category were Tango Grill by Pablo Aslan, Second Chance by Hector Martignon, Psychedelic Blues by Poncho Sanchez, and ¡Bien Bien! by the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet.
Valdés expanded his band, the Afro-Cuban Messengers, the name a reference to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, from a trio to a sextet for this recording. In addition to his regular sidemen, percussionist Yaroldy Abreu Robles, bassist Lazaro Rivero Alarcón, and drummer Juan Carlos De Castro "Rojo" Blanco, are a horn section, trumpeter Reynaldo Melián Álvarez and saxophonist Carlos Miyares Hernández, and singer/percussionist Dreiser Durruthy Bombale.
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Wikipedia