Bebo Valdés, a Force in Cuban Music, Dies at 94

By Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Bebo Valdés, a pianist, arranger and composer who was a musical lightning rod in Havana during the evolution of the mambo and, after a long fallow period, a million-selling success in his last two decades, died on Friday in Stockholm, his primary residence since 1963. He was 94.

During the postwar and pre-Castro boom years for tourism and popular dance-band music in Cuba, Mr. Valdés — 6 foot 4 (his nickname was El Caballón, or “The Big Horse”) and possessed of protean energy — was often the right man in the right place. His conservatory learning, his love of jazz and his curiosity about the extensions of African and European roots through Cuban music since the late 19th century put him in great demand.

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