Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet

Chucho Valdés was born in Quivicán, Cuba, the son of pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés, with whom he later recorded the duo album Juntos Para Siempre. Irakere, the band he led, was a training ground for players such as Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera, and its mix of batá drumming, jazz and funk shaped Cuban music for decades.

He has won several Grammy awards, and his later projects, including Jazz Batá, return to the sacred Afro-Cuban percussion at the root of his style. In a quartet setting the piano sits at the centre, with long solos that move between dense chords, stride passages and clave-driven rhythm.