Irakere
Irakere’s contemporary Afro-Cuban jazz situated them at the vanguard of music in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. Founder and director Chucho Valdés assembled a group of talented and adventurous compatriots in 1973, drawing inspiration from Afro-Cuban folklore. The name Irakere means forest in the Yoruba language of West Africa. The core of the group included reedman Paquito D’Rivera, drummer Enrique Pla, guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales, and bassist Carlos Del Puerto, who all had worked together with Chucho since the mid-1960s as the Orquesta de Música Moderna. That ensemble recorded the soundtracks for virtually every Cuban film made during their seven-year tenure, and thus honed their skills with sight reading and working with... Read More
- Genre:
- World, Jazz, Latin Jazz
- City Of Origin:
- Havana, Cuba
- Formed Date:
- 1973