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By Mar Roman, Associated Press Writer.
Yahoo! February
5, 2003.
HAVANA, 5 (AP) - Four decades after being handed his first pair of sticks at
the Hotel Nacional, Cuban drummer Amadito Valdes was back, this time to launch a
solo album.
Long known among musicians in Cuba, Valdes was catapulted to international
fame in the late 1990s by Wim Wenders (news)' documentary "Buena Vista
Social Club," which featured him among a group of veteran Cuban musicians.
His first solo album, "Bajando Gervasio," is also aimed at an
international audience, having recently been released in Spain, Portugal, Japan
and the United States.
On stage in late January at the Hotel Nacional, playing the little drums
known as timbales, the 67-year-old Valdes became a man possessed, eyes tightly
shut, face grimacing as the beat flowed through him.
"I've never forgotten that night," he said, thinking back to his
debut here.
"Someone even told me then that I would become a good timbalero."
Timbales frequently accompany the Caribbean island's mix of Spanish melodies
and African rhythms.
Valdes, soft-spoken and contemplative, is known as the Golden Sticks of the
Buena Vista Social Club. In the movie, he sits at a deserted Havana bar, sipping
a soft drink and talking about his love of Cuban music.
"Thanks to `Buena Vista,' Cuban music is everywhere now, even in
uncommon places like Iceland or Japan. People are eager to rediscover the roots
of our music," Valdes says.
"For me Cuban music is the greatest thing in the world."
The documentary followed American guitarist Ry Cooder on a trip to Cuba in
the late '90s in search of veteran performers who helped make pre-revolutionary
Havana one of the world's music capitals. Cooder formed a group of musicians,
and they called themselves the Buena Vista Social Club after one of the few big
Havana nightclubs that admitted blacks before the 1959 revolution.
The film documented the group's recording sessions and a triumphant concert
at New York's Carnegie Hall.
Cooder later produced several albums with the group, including the
Grammy-winning "Buena Vista Social Club," which sold more than 2
million copies.
Cooder has called Valdes "one of the major figures of the drums still
alive." Valdes' recent concert drew several hundred fans, most of them
tourists but also a few Buena Vista celebrities such as diva Omara Portuondo,
and vocalists Ibrahim Ferrer and Pio Leiva.
The audience interrupted constantly with applause, while TV cameras swirled
around the musicians and Valdes pounded out different rhythms: bolero, danzon,
cha cha cha.
"Amadito proves with this personal work why he is one of the most
successful Cuban contemporary percussionists," said composer and musical
director Juan de Marcos.
Valdes said he was grateful for the Buena Vista phenomenon.
"I've finally been given recognition," he said. "But I'm the
same person I ever was. The only thing that has changed is that I now have a
better car."
On the Net: www.amaditovaldes.com | 
