Global Hit

Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes

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For today’s Global Hit, the story behind a song. Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes’ celebrates the connection he feels between Cuba and New Orleans with his composition ‘New Orleans’, one of the tracks on his new recording ‘Chucho’s Steps’.

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MARCO WERMAN: New Orleans has been in the news this week, with the fifth anniversary of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. For our Global Hit today, we head to Cuba, via New Orleans. This is “Winin’ Boy Blues,” performed by New Orleans’ best known living pianist Allen Toussaint. The song was composed in the early part of the 20^th century by New Orleans’ most famous pianist, Jelly Roll Morton.

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WERMAN:  Cuba’s best know living pianist, Chucho Valdes, told me recently that Jelly Roll Morton was one of those New Orleans musicians who’s influenced his own playing. Jelly Roll Morton is one of the quintessential figures of jazz, said Valdes. Chucho Valdes is also keenly aware of the cultural connections between New Orleans and Cuba.

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WERMAN: Valdes says New Orleans, practically speaking, is in the Caribbean. In Cuba we feel those roots. We feel the French roots especially he says. Valdes says he personally traces ragtime back to French culture. And in Cuban styles like the Habanera he says, you can hear that. So we Cubans are connected to New Orleans through those European roots. Which brings us to Chucho Valdes’ composition “New Orleans,” on his new recording Chucho’s Steps that came out this week. Valdes dedicates the song to the artists of New Orleans, in particular to the Marsalis family. Valdes’ song doesn’t try and mimic straight-on ragtime or Dixieland. It’s pure Cuban jazz from inside the mind of one of the planet’s most dynamic piano players.

SPEAKING SPANISH

WERMAN: Chucho Valdes explains that his one visit to New Orleans was in 2000. He went to a jazz festival. And he says he was blown away by the sheer number of musicians in New Orleans. And the soul that imparted to the character of the city. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Valdes says Cubans’ hearts went out to the people of New Orleans. Cuba itself is often hit during hurricane season. So Cubans have a pretty good sense of what New Orleaneans went through five years ago. Given the embargo on Cuba, there wasn’t a lot they could do to help out. Chucho Valdes did what he could though. The results can be heard on the track “New Orleans.” He’ll also be touring the US for the first time in several years starting early October. So you can hear in person Chucho’s own piano lineage, from his own radical latin jazz sound, all the way back to Jelly Roll Morton. New Orleans, the name of the song, from Havana, Cuba, the home of the composer and performer Chucho Valdes. It brings this edition of the program to a close. From the Nan and Bill Harris Studios at WGBH, in Boston, I’m Marco Werman. Thank you for tuning in.

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