Born and bred in Stockholm, Sweden.Halfcuban and halfswedish.The youngest member of the Valdés family, son of the legendary 7-times grammy winner pianist/composer/arranger Bebo Valdés, and brother of the great pianist/composer/arranger Chucho Valdés(a 5 times grammy winner), leader and creator of the legendary Cuban band Irakere. His sister is one Cuba's best jazzsingers: Mayra Caridad Valdés, and his nephew: Roberto Carlos "El Cucuruchu" Valdés plays the piano with Cuba's greatest band: Los Van Van. He is a member of a musical family-dynasty that spans 4 generations and counting.He was born with music all around him and started playing (trap)drums when he was around 7 years old and continued throughout his school years but stopped playing when he was around 16 yrs old. Then he stopped playing for about 12 years, only to pick it up again and start once again, but this time with percussion as his main instrument. After a couple of years of study he started working locally as percussionist and after a couple of years or so he began working with his father, both recording albums and touring. He has performed on albums that has won 3 grammys, the critically acclaimed albums of Bebo & El Cigala, "Lagrimas Negras" ( with the flamencosinger "El Cigala", which sold triple platinum in Spain and has sold platinum and gold in many other countries in Latin America) and Bebo Valdés, "Bebo de Cuba".He has performed at the Latin Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles, sept. 2004 with Bebo & El Cigala also featuring Paquito D'Rivera and Alex Acuña and at the prestigous Olympia in Paris several times. He has played at most of the major festivals in Europe.He has toured extensively internationally since 1998 and has had the honor of playing or recording with such great international artist and musicians such as:
Paquito D'Rivera, Diego "El Cigala", the late Patato Valdés, Jose Luis "Changuito" Quintana, Giovanni Hidalgo, the late Tata Güines, Bebo & Chucho Valdés, Carlhiños Brown, Alex Acuña, Andy Gonzalez, Dafnis Prieto, the late Juan Pablo Torres, Milton Cardona, Joe Gonzales, Jerry Gonzales, Fransisco Aguabella,Jimmy Delgado, Luis Bonilla, Ray Vega, Papo Vasquez, Eric Figueroa, Arturo O'Farill, Diego Urcola, Pablo Calogero, Michael Mossman, Steve Berrios, Raul Agraz, John Benitez, Mario Rivera, Hector Lopez, Javier Colina, Israel "El Pirañha" Suarez, Sabu Suarez, Octavio Kotan, Edgardo Miranda, John Walsh, Douglas Purviance, Bob Francheschini, Eladio Reinon, Matthew Simon and Norman Houge and many more great musicians.And he has also had the honour of having Alicia Keys coming up to the stage to do a couple of tunes together during the tour with Bebo & Cigala.He has been Bebo Valdés recording and tour percussionist since 1998.He is an Official endorseé of Meinl Percussions.And in Sweden he has worked with artists like: Calle Real, The Ark, Darin, Sarah Dawn Finer, MoneyBrother, Salem Al Fakir, Latin Kings, Pauline, Stephen Simmonds, Carl-Johan Vallgren, SUMO, Hoffmaestro, Thomas Gylling and Mosquito crew, Melo, Rasmus Faber, Rickard Wolff and various Dj's.In 2000 he became a member of a tradicional Son-group that was called Los Magnificos, the band changed the name in 2001 to Calle Real, due to the fact that the band had grown in popularity and also changed the style of music to a more modern version of contempory cuban salsa. A change that was very much necessary to further widen the audience.In 2003 the band went to Cuba with a famous Swedish rapper, Dogge Doggelito(Latin Kings) to perform at the Beny Moré festival in Cienfuegos an Santa Isabel de Las Lajas(the birth town of Beny Moré) and they were received with astonishment at that a group that weren't from the Island could play their music with the right nuances and the right feeling. In 2004 Rickard played on two tracks for the Latin Kings album Omerta(one of the most famous hiphop groups in Scandinavia and the first pioneers in Swedish rap.) and with the growing cooperation between the 2 groups it became natural for Calle Real to record their album at the Studio of the HipHop-label RedLine in Norsborg. They also started their own label (Calle Real Records HB). In late 2005 was the album finished and was released in march through EMI in Sweden, and in Europe through Galileo MC, and in the U.S and Puerto Rico through Pimienta Record.The recently released debut album "Con Fuerza" have won the french www.fiesta.net best album of the year 06 award as well as best newcomer of the year 06 award, and have been praised by descarga.com, timba.com just to name a few.
And among other praisings, the band receieved a pre-round nomination to the prestigious Latin Grammy Awards in nov 06. The first european band ever to be granted such honour!!!!They have also had 2 of the songs that are on the album released on a compilation album, "La Noche Cubana,Vol 23" through the label Ala Bianca. They also have a old song "Hoah" that's not on their album that has been released by the label Putumayo, "Putumayo Baila Latin Party". Check their websites for more details. They have also been on top playinglists(from 1st to 5th place)of the Salsa Dj's of Europe.So far "Con Fuerza" been released in the USA, Puerto Rico, Spain and Germany and they are working on getting it released in the rest of Europe, Asia and Latinamerica.They have also been the house band of the talkshow "Stina" of Stina Dabrowski Lundberg, who is Swedens most famous and prestigous journalist. She have made interviews with Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Madonna, Arafat, Khadaffi, Hilary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger just to name a few.
Where they composed the theme of the the program and played with many of the major popstars of Sweden...
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