The son of Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés, the winner of seven GRAMMYs and four Latin GRAMMY Awards joined Armando Romeu’s celebrated Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music in 1967, a time when the communist government still considered American jazz anti-revolutionary. He was already recognized as the most formidable pianist of his generation when he launched Irakere in 1973 with a phenomenal cast that included saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

Discovered and introduced internationally by Dizzy Gillespie, the band’s unprecedented synthesis of folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythms, sacred drums, rock, funk, R&B, and jazz opened up vast new frontiers, and helped pave the way for the pervasively popular dance music known as timba. Over the ensuing years, Valdés has concentrated on his career as a solo artist, recording 25 albums and co-writing the landmark 2018 book Decoding Afro-Cuban Jazz in collaboration with SFJAZZ Director of Education Rebeca Mauleón.

A springboard from Valdes’ GRAMMY-winning Afro-Cuban Messengers band, Irakare 50 showcases a blazing new generation of Cuban talent.

Thursday ~ Saturday Performance | 7:30pm

Sunday Performance | 7:00pm

After three superlative releases and collaboration with the likes of Al Green, Mary J. Blige, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, RZA, Herbie Hancock, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bailey Rae presents her boldest and most audacious statement yet.

Black Rainbows was inspired by the artworks collected by artist, educator, and social innovator Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank — a historic bank building on the South Side of Chicago comprising a curated collection of books, sculpture, records, furniture, and problematic objects from America’s past.

From the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia to the journeys of Black Pioneers Westward, Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Inner Space and Outer Space, time collapse, ancestors, the erasure of Black childhood, and music as a vessel for transcendence.