Artist: Chucho Valdes
Album: Jazz Batá 2
Genre: Latin Jazz, Jazz
Release Date: 2018
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 48 kHz
Duration: 56:05
Total Tracks: 8
Total Size: 605 MB

Tracklist:

1-1. Chucho Valdes – Obatala (12:53)
1-2. Chucho Valdes – Son Xxi (07:35)
1-3. Chucho Valdes – Luces (04:53)
1-4. Chucho Valdes – Ochun (06:13)
1-5. Chucho Valdes – Chucho’s Mood (07:12)
1-6. Chucho Valdes – 100 Anos De Bebo (06:56)
1-7. Chucho Valdes – El Guije (04:11)
1-8. Chucho Valdes – The Clown (06:09)

Download:

‘Jazz Batá 2′, Cuban composer, pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdés’ first album for Mack Avenue Records, marks a new peak of creativity for the artist, even as it revisits the small-group concept of his 1972 album ‘Jazz Batá’.

That album upon release was originally considered experimental at the time, but the trio project – featuring no drum set and two virtuosi who would subsequently be charter members of Irakere: Carlos del Puerto (bass) and Oscar Valdés (batâ: the sacred, hourglass shaped drums of the Yoruba religion in Cuba) – would now be considered contemporary.Recorded in two and a half days at John Lee’s studio in New Jersey, ‘Jazz Batá 2′ is both rhythmic and lyrical at once. The six-hand complexity of the batá repertoire – the deep classical music of West Africa – permeates Valdés’ piano solos throughout the album. “I applied to my solos the different rhythms of the batá,” he says. “The piano is of course a harmonic instrument, but it’s percussive too, and you can play percussion with it.”

It’s an exceptionally tight band. All of the three supporting musicians – Yaroldy Abreu Robles, Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé, and Yelsy Heredia – are from the Guantánamo region and have deep roots in Cuban musical culture as well as being conservatory-trained. Yaroldy, who plays a wide variety of drums – congas, batá, bongó, orchestral percussion – has been working with Valdés for twenty years. “He always knows what I’m going to want to do,” says Valdés.