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Sonidos Latinos: Bebo Valdés's Incredible Comeback

Ed Morales

May 11, 2008

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Sometimes, the end of a documentary reveals itself to the director long before he is finished. That's how it was for Carlos Carcas, who had been filming 89-year-old Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés as he played a moving rendition of "Old Man River."

"He had just played a contradanza, and I was thinking, 'How can he just switch from one genre to another like that'?" recalled Carcas. "I was like, wow, this is the end of the film - I don't know what happens in the middle, but this is the end. Then [producer] Fernando Trueba walks in and says, 'Hah! Old Man Bebo!' and I had the title as well."

Carcas' lyrically informative documentary "Old Man Bebo" had just been screened at the TriBeCa Film Festival and received thundering applause. He had been Trueba's cameraman on two films: "Calle 54" and "El Milagro de Candeal" and then decided to tackle the task of telling Valdés' life story.

"I'd worked as a journalist covering stuff like wars," Carcas said. "I started shooting music on 'Calle 54' and decided this was better, so I'd stick to it. I began when Bebo was recording the album 'El Arte de Sabor,' and every time Bebo came to Madrid I always managed to be there with a camera. Nobody at the time could imagine the success he was going to have."

Valdés, who was a major figure in the development of Afro-Cuban music through the '40s and '50s, had exiled himself to Stockholm after the Castro revolution. He had been rediscovered in the '90s through the efforts of his fellow exile, saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, and released a series of albums that would return him to prominence. In one of the segments of "Calle 54," he was finally reunited with his internationally known son, Chucho Valdés, who had remained in Cuba, to play the classic bolero "Lágrimas Negras."

"Old Man Bebo" tells the story of Valdés' rise to prominence, his exile into obscurity and his magnificent comeback. Many of his accomplishments, such as the centrality of his role in the development of "filin," a genre that merged jazz and soul with Cuban bolero; his invention of "batanga," a big-band genre featuring Bata and conga drums, and his musical direction of Nat King Cole's "Cole Español" are celebrated.

Most importantly, the movie documents his period as the leader of the house band at the Havana's Hotel Tropicana in its peak in the '50s. With consummate versatility, he was able to instantly adapt to genres as varied as tango, samba and jazz.

But beyond the documentary's rivetingly thorough recounting of socio-historical detail about one of the greatest musical traditions of the 20th century, "Old Man Bebo" is a moving portrait of the man himself. Carefully avoiding shrill political posturing over Valdés' decision to leave his homeland, Carcas evokes the pain of separated families, the universality of the struggle to come to terms with one's own life and the deep love Valdés has of his music, as well as the one his friends and family have for him.

"I hadn't really planned on even making a documentary," Carcas said. "I thought maybe the footage would some day wind up in a Cuban archive. It was just a privilege to watch him play the piano."

E-mail Ed Morales

at sonidoslatinos@nyc.rr.com.

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