Chucho and Paquito D’Rivera, two Cuban stars at the Palau de la Música Catalana

The Palau de la Música Catalana opened its doors on Friday to two internationally recognized idols of Cuban music: chucho valdes and Paquito D’Rivera, who presented songs from the album I missed you too (I Missed You Too), which marks the musical reunion of both maestros after four decades.

According to review of The vanguard, in a packed Palau de la Música, the reunion between these two titans of jazz was celebrated. Before the concert began, Paquito D’Rivera was awarded the gold medal at the Barcelona Jazz Festival by the director of the competition, Tito Ramoneda.

The concert began with two pieces by Chucho («Mambo influenciado» and «Lorena’s tango») “embellished with brilliant solos by Paquito on sax, as well as an explosive Diego Urcola on trumpet. After I missed you too!, the song that gives the album its name, the sextet tackled Paq-man, an interesting song by Hilario Durán that had its main soloist in the great drummer Dafnis Prieto”, the article added.

“We have officially returned to play after 42 years. I arrived in Spain on May 5, 1980 and I have not returned to Cuba. And now we decided to do this reunion, we’ve made an album and we haven’t stopped touring in just one year. And now at the Palau de la Música, which is one of my favorite places”, declared Paqman, who received the Special Award from the Board of Directors of the Latin Recording Academy a few days ago.

The multi-award-winning Cuban saxophonist and clarinetist also received a tribute at the Liceu Conservatory for the presentation of the album Fantasias barcelónicas that he recorded together with The Barcelona Clarinet Players.

Paquito has just premiered a very important symphonic work with Yo-Yo Ma titled The journeya concerto for cello, clarinet and orchestra.

Paquito D’Rivera receives the Excellence Award at the Latin Grammys

For his part, Chucho Valdés, winner once again of the 2022 Latin Grammy Award in the category of best Latin jazz/jazz album for Mirror Mirror Along with Eliane Elias and Chick Corea, he continues his European tour, which will take him to Germany (November 24 and 25), France (November 26 and 27), Switzerland (November 30) and Belgium on December 1.