Tune in Sunday, February 2 2025 for the 67th Annual Grammy® Awards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Kiki Valera's VACILÓN SANTIAGUERO is nominated for Best Tropical Latin Album. 

The 2025 GRAMMYs will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT. Prior to the telecast, the 2025 GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony will be held at the Peacock Theater at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on live.GRAMMY.com and the Recording Academy's YouTube channel. The Best Tropical Latin Award will be presented during the Pre-Telecast (Premier Ceremony).  

Click here to listen to VACILÓN SANTIAGUERO (full album).

¡VACILÓN SANTIAGUERO! is Kiki Valera’s second US solo release after many distinguished years as director of La Familia Valera Miranda in Santiago de Cuba. It reaches beyond his core performing group to present collaborations with some GRAMMY® award winning musicians and to feature his favorite trumpeters, some Cuban-born, others US-born, but all with justified reputations for playing Cuban music out of love if not from DNA.

“Vacilón” is one of those words that doesn’t have a perfect English equivalent to Cuban Spanish, but something that is a REALLY good time (a little rum or aguardiente always helps) comes close.

So what sets this apart from the vast mountain of excellent traditional albums already out there? Not only is there Kiki’s custom-built Cuban cuatro, which brings a unique texture to the sound, rather than a tres, but in his jazz-influenced hands, you will occasionally hear twists and turns in the solo work that you probably weren’t expecting when you first glanced over the song titles, which are mostly Cuban evergreens. Thanks to Kiki’s creative arrangements, this is no mere recycling of cover versions of these classic songs.

Kiki is as demanding about the recording, mix and mastering work as the arrangements. Much of the recording and mix was done in Kiki’s custom-built home studio and GRAMMY® winner Michael Lazarus mastered the project. The result will be a pleasure for audiophiles - a reason, I might add - to want the physical disc for your collection. —Bill Tilford 

Click here to read Bill Tilford's record review of VACILÓN SANTIAGUERO.

Son cubano, uno de los estilos musicales más populares en Cuba, encuentra en Kiki Valera a uno de sus exponentes más destacados. A lo largo del último siglo, este estilo de música tradicional cubana ha influido en diversos géneros musicales, incluyendo el jazz, el cha-cha-chá, el mambo, la salsa, el songo y la timba. El son cubano es la música que llevó al Buena Vista Social Club a la fama mundial a finales de la década de 1990, pero la conexión de Kiki Valera con esta tradición musical se remonta décadas atrás, gracias a su familia de músicos.

Kiki Valera es el hijo mayor del famoso septeto La Familia Valera Miranda, un grupo de música tradicional multi-generacional originario de Santiago de Cuba. Desde el siglo XIX, La Familia Valera Miranda ha desempeñado un papel significativo en la cultura cubana al recolectar y preservar las profundas tradiciones de la legendaria región montañosa de Sierra Maestra. Su álbum debut, "ANTOLOGÍA INTEGRAL DEL SON", lanzado en 1982, contribuyó a desencadenar el interés explosivo por la música tradicional cubana. 

Released March 29, 2024
All music arranged by Kiki Valera

Kiki Valera - cuatro cubano, guitar, bass, clave, maracas and coros
Pedro Vargas - congas, bongos and coros
Steve Guasch - coros
Carlos Cascante – lead vocal (1,4,5,7,9,10,12)
Francisco “Coco” Freeman – lead vocal (2,11)
Joshuah de Jesus – lead vocal (3,8)
Raquel Zozaya – lead vocal (6)

Special Guests:
Alexis Baró - trumpet (1,3,4,6,9,11)
Steve Mostovoy - trumpet (1,3,6,11)
Michael Rodriguez & Jonathan Powell - trumpet (8)
Pete Nater & Dennis Hernandez - trumpet (2,5,7,12)
Bryan Lynch & Thomas Marriott - trumpet (10)
Leon Q Allen - trumpet (4)

Recorded by Kiki Valera at FVM Studios, Seattle, WA
Mixed by Kiki Valera at FVM Studio, Seattle, WA
Mastered by Michael Lazarus, Latin Music Mastering
Graphic design by Michelle Holme
Produced by Naomi Bierman and Kiki Valera
Executive Producer, Naomi Bierman

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The first report will focus on the Afro-Caribbean Music groups at the festival and some time in the future a feature story on the Pedrito Martinez Group by Kevin Moore will be posted.

Traditionally the Afro-Caribbean Music presented at the festival has been either jazz groups or orchestras which play dance music for listening such as Tito Puente. This year for the first time I am aware of, the festival had a salsa dance group every night where the audience was encouraged to dance. The group was Christian Pepin &. Orquesta Bembé, a Bay Area All Star group which played every night of the festival, each night being a different set of music. Pianist Jonathan Montes was the only musicain who was not from the Bay Area - originally from Puerto Rico now residing in Los Angeles. [Tom Ehrlich]

Friday's group consisted of:

Christian Pepín - leader, percussion and coros

Karl Perazzo - percussion and coros

Ernesto Mazar-Kindelán - bass and coros

Jonathan Montes - piano and coros

Christelle Durandy - vocals

Braulio Barrera - vocals

Bill Ortega - trumpet

Oscar Soltero - percussion and coros

*This year's report on the Monterey Jazz Festival is presented late due to problems with the timba.com website.

Christian Pepín leader, percussionist and coros

Ernesto Mazar-Kindelán bass and coros

Karl Perazzo percussion and coros

Christelle Durandy vocals

Braulio Barrera vocals

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We're currently experiencing some technical difficulties preventing us from posting new photos, so the review and photos from PMG's incredible show at Monterey Jazz has been delayed, but for SF fans, be sure not to miss the free Pedrito Martínez concert at 2:00, this Saturday at Yerba Buena Gardens. CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

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Pedrito at the 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival

At long last, the Pedrito Martínez Group returns to the Bay Area as part of the 2024 Monterey Jazz Festival. Pedrito plays at 3:30 on Sunday. 

The festival goes from Friday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Sept. 29. Here's the full schedule, which also includes Herlin Riley & the New Orleans Groove Masters, Christian Pepín, Miguel Zenón, Luis Perdomo, Joshua Redman, Mavis Staples, Joel Ross, and many others.

https://montereyjazzfestival.org/schedule/

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