Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet

The most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz for more than half a century, virtuoso Chucho Valdés celebrates 60 years of musical alchemy with the SFJAZZ premiere of his Royal Quartet project. This is a rescheduled engagement from earlier this year.

Valdés fuses traditional Cuban rhythms with jazz, classical, and rock traditions in ways that only he can achieve. His music operates like "Cuban fire" — an encyclopedic vocabulary of Afro-Cuban rhythms combined with an expansive palette that includes modern jazz and classical repertoire. As The Boston Globe noted, "His mastery as composer and player is on full display."

The Royal Quartet features a masterful lineup of Cuban-born musicians: bassist José Armando Gola, known for his lengthy collaboration with Gonzalo Rubalcaba; the "ambidextrous marvel" Horacio "El Negro" Hernández on drums; and percussionist Roberto Jr. Vizcaino, son of longtime Valdés associate Roberto Vizcaino. Together, they create music that jazz critics describe as operating "like a four-man chain through which surged a communal voltage."

Live, Valdés is a commanding presence at the piano. Critics note his "nimble wrists and fingers with the ease of a man 50 years younger," often leaning so far into the keyboard that the rear legs of his piano bench come off the floor. His performances feature dizzying technical displays — hands "crisscrossing the keys at the speed of a magician's" — combined with his gift for leading musical conversations that build from slow and sultry to "warp speed polyrhythms."

The band's GRAMMY-nominated debut album Cuba & Beyond showcases Valdés' "fiery compositions" as well as inventive takes on works by Chick Corea and Pedro Junco. Expect to hear music that seamlessly weaves together son montuno, danzon rhythms, blues invocations, and avant-garde thunder — all delivered with the kind of elegance and sophisticated improvisation that has made Valdés a seven-time GRAMMY winner and 2025 NEA Jazz Master.