page_title: Chucho's Steps
section_title: Selected tracks
hierarchical_section_title: Chucho's Steps / Selected tracks
caption_attribution_description: Joe Zawinul (famous jazz musician) live with his "The Zawinul Syndicate" in Freiburg i. Br., Germany, at "Jazzhaus" - March 28, 2007
context_page_description: Chucho's Steps is an album released by jazz pianist Chucho Valdés and his band, the Afro-Cuban Messengers. The album was released in 2010 by Four-Quarters Entertainment and was produced by Valdés himself, who also composed all of the music. It won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.
  Some of the tracks were written in honor of various jazz musicians including the late Joe Zawinul, "Zawinul's Mambo", and the Marsalis family, "New Orleans". In addition to his regular sidemen, Valdés employed several additional musicians including singer/percussionist Dreiser Durruthy Bombale. Critics gave favorable reviews of the release.
context_section_description: The album's opening track, "Zawinul's Mambo", is dedicated to Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul. Valdés, who had been playing the piece as early as 2007, thought that Zawinul had died before ever hearing it, but in 2010 a Zawinul interview surfaced that contained him hearing a recording of the piece from a jazz festival in Marciac. The track "Begin to Be Good" is a nod to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" and George Gershwin's "Lady Be Good". American musicals were a part of Valdés's childhood, and "Begin the Beguine" became a favorite song of his.
  The track "New Orleans" is a homage to the musical Marsalis family. Valdés's relationship with, Ellis Marsalis, the Marsalis patriarch goes back to 1979. In October 2010 Wynton Marsalis travelled to Havana for a week-long series of shows with an aim of easing Cuba – United States relations.
  "Yansa" was inspired by the Yoruba religion, specifically a call to the deity Orisha, the track is highlighted by the vocals of Dreiser Durruthy Bombale. "Julian" is an ode to Valdés 3-year-old son. The title track, "Chucho's Steps", references John Coltrane's composition "Giant Steps".
caption: "Zawinul's Mambo" is dedicated to the late Joe Zawinul
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