Home » Jazz Musicians » Kiki Valera
Kiki Valera
Son cubano is one of the most popular musical styles in Cuba and Kiki Valera is one of its foremost exponents. Over the last century, this style of traditional Cuban music has contributed to many other genres of music including jazz, cha cha cha, mambo, salsa, songo and timba. Cuban son is the music that made the Buena Vista Social Club worldwide stars in the late 1990s but Kiki Valera comes from a family of musicians whose involvement with Cuban son pre-dates the BVSC by decades.
Kiki Valera is the oldest son of the famous La Familia Valera Miranda septet, a multi-generational traditional music group from Santiago de Cuba. Since the 19th century, La Familia Valera Miranda has played a significant role in Cuban culture by collecting and preserving the deep-rooted traditions of the legendary Sierra Maestra mountain region. Their debut album, ANTOLOGÍA INTEGRAL DEL SON, released in 1982, helped initiate the explosion of interest in traditional Cuban music.
Kiki, like most of his family, is a virtuoso. A multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, sound engineer and producer, he’s best known as one of the world’s greatest players of the Cuban cuatro, a mid-size guitar with 8 strings grouped in sets of 2.
Kiki picked up the Cuban tres under the guidance of his father Felix when he was a child. He later attended one of the most prestigious music schools in Cuba, the Conservatorio Esteban Salas, in Santiago de Cuba and by age 15 was touring internationally.
During his years as an electronic engineering student, Kiki co-founded the Cuban group Septeto Turquino. In the early 90s, he played cuatro & keyboards in the popular orchestra Los Karachi. By the mid-90s, Kiki was busy recording and touring with La Familia Valera Miranda across Europe and the rest of the world.
Kiki continues to direct, compose, arrange and perform internationally. He also performs and teaches in Seattle, Washington where he contributes to the vibrant music scene of the Pacific Northwest. His current project features several other internationally acclaimed recording artists including Coco Freeman (former lead singer of Adalberto Alvarez y su Son and NG La Banda), vocalist Carlos Cascante (3x Grammy Award winning vocalist of Spanish Harlem Orchestra), trompetista Alexis Baró (Cubanismo and Omara Portuondo) and bongocero Pedro Vargas (Barbarito Torres band).
Tags
Kiki Valera: Vacilón Santiaguero
by Paul Rauch
Son Cubano, the music and dance from the hill country of eastern Cuba, may be a mystery to some readers of these pages. Though the form is rooted in both Spanish and Bantu traditions, its modern day practitioners, embodied and popularized by the music of Buena Vista Social Club, have broadened the music's view. In the United States, particularly in this case, the Pacific Northwest, there are pockets of enthusiasm for Latin music of all sorts. Yet upon attending a ...
Continue ReadingKiki Valera: Vivencias En Clave Cubana
by Paul Rauch
Son Cubano is a genre of music and dance originating from the hill country of eastern Cuba during the 19th century. Its origins are a blend of African and Spanish influences. Son vocal style and meter are of Spanish tradition, while its identifiable clave rhythm, call and response, and percussive elements are of Bantu origin. Over the past century, the form has evolved, spreading its influence as the music was performed internationally by touring musicians. It manifested itself ...
Continue Reading
