Chucho Valdés--son of the great pianist Bebo Valdés, leader of the Cuban supergroup Irakere, and a Grammy Award-winning artist--is one of the most acclaimed musicians from Cuba. This CD highlights the third dimension of his talents and shows off his classical chops. Trained by Zenaida Romeu, Cuba"s answer to Nadia Boulanger, Valdés"s Liszt-like technique, sprinkled with dashes of Art Tatum and McCoy Tyner, explodes on the CD"s 14 tracks, which includes works by Ravel and Debussy. On "Chopin: Three Faces of Lecuona" and "La Comparsa," which also pays tribute to the great Havana composer Ernesto Lecuona, Valdés"s technique is matched by his lyrical ideas. Of his own compositions, the Afro-pulsed "Wakamba" best shows how Valdés"s jazzy, percussive touch transforms the classical idiom into something like a New World of keyboard complexity. --Eugene Holley Jr.