Solo: Live in New York

1	A Mi Madre 7:33
2	Munequita Linda 4:38
3	Rumba Quajira 6:22
4	Besame Mucho 7:02
5	El Manisero 4:56
6	Over the Rainbow 5:07
7	Son 4:21
8	Novia Mia 4:01
9	Delirio 3:25
10	Tres Lindas Cubanas 6:19
11	La Negra Tomasa 6:27

Barnes & Noble

One of the best things to come out of the current interest in Cuban music has been the attention paid to pianist Chucho Valdes. One of the great keyboard stylists of our time, Valdes mixes jazz and Cuban music with aplomb, his exuberantly displayed virtuosity always in plain sight. His dancing fingers and gorgeous tone, combined with a taste for florid musical fancies, lend Valdes’s playing an attractively exotic flavor that works particularly well when he approaches Cuban and Latin-flavored material. Valdes is also a committed modernist, his daring pianism shifting easily from Art Tatum-influenced runs to Bill Evans impressionism and Cecil Taylor abstractions. In all, this brilliant musician is a treasure that we in the U.S. have had to wait far to long to discover. William Pearl

All Music Guide

Following up on 2000's ensemble tour de force Live at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note issued this album by Cuban sensation Chucho Valdés -- a solo concert recorded live in 1998 at Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse in New York. Listening to the great pianist in an unaccompanied setting, one is struck not only by his formidable technique but also by the huge sound he gets out of the instrument. His versatility is also something to behold: Valdés has the delicate touch of a jazz pianist, the rhythmic heart of a Latin master, the velocity and technical resources of a classical virtuoso. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Besame Mucho" are the only cuts that will be easily recognized by American listeners. The rest are Latin themes by composers such as César Portillo de la Luz ("Delirio"), José Antonio Mendez ("Novia Mia"), and Antonio Maria Romeu ("Tres Lindas Cubanas"). Valdés also contributes two of his own: "A Mi Madre," a beautiful ballad that segues into a rousing vamp-based section, and "Rumba Guajira," a lively Latin tune with pronounced elements of gospel harmony. David R. Adler