“Chico and Rita” and Bebo Valdez

“The [Academy Award nominated] animated film Chico and Rita is set in 1940s Havana, at a time when Cuban musicians were starting to leave the country and join the jazz scene in New York. It was also a time when musical styles were fusing — and changing the Afro-Cuban jazz scene entirely.” Co-director Fernando Trueba [also nominated for an Academy Award for this film] chose Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes, now 94, to play the musical parts for Chico in the film and modeled Chico after him. Valdes was a key bandleader and arranger in the Cuban music scene in the ’40s and ’50s. Click here to listen to Trueba’s interview about the film on Fresh Air.