Irakere

Thanks to pianist Chucho Valdés’s impulse, the Cuban group known as Irakere, took flight in 1973. The band brought together a solid handful of musicians, who mastered their instruments and thus allowed for some of the most daring innovations and most inspired improvisations. Their modern arrangements, with a distinct Latin jazz style, use electrical instruments but are essentially based on more familiar Afro-Cuban rhythms. To this blend, they also added the pianist’s amazing riffs, influenced by Thelonious Monk’s bop.

Throughout its various formations, this historical group of variable composition has managed to maintain an unmatchable quality. The group has also been a collector of talent, shaping budding stars before they spread their wings and flew off on their own.: flautist José Luis Cortés, who would go on to create NG La Banda; and Anga Diaz, the excellent percussionist who chose to settle down in the French Riviera and who has had a very prosperous career. Saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera left Irakere and Cuba in 1980 during a tour of Spain, before settling down in U.S. Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval also went into exile and arrived in U.S. in 1990.

Irakere was formed under that name in 1967 but had begun working long before; in that year the group attended a selection in Havana to organize the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna with the best musicians of that time. In 1972 they were close to what they named Irakere in 1973, which in yoruba means woods or forest and that is how, focusing on their name, they based their work on their Afro-Cuban musical roots. In this way, through the combination, mixture and interaction of the classics, impressionism, jazz and rock and various composition techniques they managed to touch down on all possible styles such as dance music, concert music, traditional music and contemporary Cuban music.

Instruments such as batá drums, abacuá drums, arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras, güiro, were added to the conjunto which have given Cuban rhythms such a unique flavor, and which give the group a touch of originality. Vocal contrasts, be they in chorus or with single singers were also added, using phrases in African dialect, looking back on a tradition which bequeathed Cuban music with one of its main attractive features.

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