Bebo Valdés
Pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader: Bebo Valdés was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music. After forty years of silence he became world famous again late in life.
About
Bebo Valdés's full name was Dionisio Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro. He was born on 9 October 1918 in Quivicán, near Havana. His son is the pianist Chucho Valdés.
- In the 1940s he played piano in Havana's nightclubs, among others in Julio Cueva's band.
- From 1948 to 1957 he was pianist and arranger for singer Rita Montaner at the Tropicana cabaret.
- In 1952 he created the batanga, a rhythm that premiered at the Tropicana. That same year he played in the jam sessions Norman Granz had recorded in Havana.
- In 1957 he started his own orchestra, Sabor de Cuba.
Exile and comeback
In 1960 he left Cuba. Via Mexico he ended up in Stockholm, where he lived until 2007.
- 1994: he recorded again, with Bebo Rides Again, together with Paquito D'Rivera.
- 2000: the film Calle 54 showed his piano playing to a wide audience.
- 2003: Lágrimas negras, with flamenco singer Diego el Cigala.
- Grammys: seven in total, including the one for Juntos para siempre (2010) with his son Chucho.
He died on 22 March 2013 in Stockholm, aged 94.
📝 Sources
Cuban Dances Originating in Havana
Havana, the cultural heartbeat of Cuba, played a central role in the creation and evolution of several iconic Cuban dances. Some were born directly in the capital, while others were transformed there into the forms we know today.
Lees meer >Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.
Lees meer >The Tropicana is Havana's most famous cabaret and one of the great entertainment venues of the 20th century. Opened in 1939 in the Marianao neighborhood, it became a symbol of Cuban showmanship — elaborate choreography, live orchestras, and spectacular staging performed under an open-air canopy of trees.
Lees meer >The Tropicana is Havana's most famous cabaret and one of the great entertainment venues of the 20th century. Opened in 1939 in the Marianao neighborhood, it became a symbol of Cuban showmanship — elaborate choreography, live orchestras, and spectacular staging performed under an open-air canopy of trees.
Lees meer >Mexico, and above all Mexico City, was where mambo conquered the world in the late 1940s. Here Pérez Prado recorded his mambos and Benny Moré became a star. Danzón is still danced there.
Lees meer >The piano is the harmonic and rhythmic heart of Cuban popular music. In timba, it is one of the most demanding and expressive instruments in the ensemble.
Lees meer >The batanga is a dance rhythm that pianist Bebo Valdés launched in Havana in 1952. What was new was a batá drum playing in the orchestra: a sacred drum of Afro-Cuban religion that until then had not been heard on the stage of dance orchestras.
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