Bebo Valdés

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Bebo Valdés, full name Dionisio Emilio Valdés Amaro (born October 19, 1918 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban jazz musician. Considered one of the central figures of Cuban's golden age of music.

Born in Quivicán, Cuba, he started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1950s, and since then has achieved significant popularity as composer and arranger. He is the former director of the famous Tropicana Club in Havana.

Valdés played a major role in the development of the mambo during the pre-Revolution years. The mambo, rooted in the "ritmo nuevo" combining syncopated son motifs and improvised flute variations. By adapting the mambo and innovative jazz arrangements of the mid-1940s, composers such as Valdés managed to free the mambo's syncopated mode from the danzón structure.

He was married to Pilar Valdéz, and is the father of the pianist Chucho Valdés.

Valdés left Cuba for Mexico in the early 1960s and briefly lived in the United States before moving to Sweden, where he resided until 2007. Nowadays he lives in Málaga, Spain.