National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Legendary Cuban pianist Jesús Dionisio "Chucho" Valdés took the stage at Carnegie Hall for the first time in 34 years this past Saturday, presiding magisterially over a night of top-shelf Latin Jazz at the venerable New York venue.

Though he didn't make too fine a point of it - simply stating "It's been 34 years since I was here" during his introductory remarks - there was a whole lifetime of musical growth and innovation, reflecting one of the most storied careers in music, packed into those intervening years; and the lucky audience was about to hear the best of it.

For those who don't know, the last time that Valdés played Carnegie Hall was in 1978, leading Cuba's dynamic jazz fusion ensemble Irakere in their New York debut. While that night was a revelation for New Yorkers, it was an emotional one for Valdes, who was reunited backstage with his famous father, Cuban pianist Ramón "Bebo" Valdés, who'd been living in exile in Sweden since the early 60s.

In the intervening years, Chucho, now 70, has evolved from brash young innovator to one of the grand old men of Latin Jazz - with four Grammy Awards under his belt to prove it. But Chucho's creativity and imagination haven't waned with age - if anything his playing is more seasoned and nuanced than ever, as his most recent album, 2010's Grammy-winning Chucho's Steps attests.

That album was conceived as an homage to the American jazz artists that Chucho holds dearest: Cole Porter, Joe Zawinul, John Coltrane, etc. And it was also at the heart of last Saturday's show, with its core songs - "Yansa", "Zawinul's Mambo", "Begin to be Good" and "Chucho's Steps" providing a framework suite for other material from various phases of Chucho's long career.

The evening kicked off with "Ellington" - an invocation of one of Valdés heroes, and a reminder that Chucho has his feet as firmly planted in the straight ahead mainstream jazz tradition as he does Afro-Cuban idioms. And, dressed in a blue-black, crushed velvet suit, Valdés looked as clean and elegant as a New York jazz player should - Duke Ellington would definitely have approved.

The opener also gave Chucho's crack band - The Afro-Cuban Messengers - room to stretch out and heat up the room. An all-star sextet consisting of bassist Larazro Rivero Alarcon, tenor saxophonist Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez, Trumpeter Reinaldo Melián Alvarez, trap drummer Juan Carlos Rojas Castro, percussionists Yaroldy Abreu Robles and batá drummer Dresier Durruthy Bambolé, this is the same band with which Chucho recorded Chucho's Steps, and they perform it masterfully.

As a bandleader, Chucho is all business, putting these magnificent musicians through their paces with a minimum of fuss and a few deft movements of his hands. The percussion section shifts easily from a subtle percolation to a rhythmic roar while the horns provide a bright counterpoint to Chucho's melodic elegance, with the bass adding texture and depth to the ensemble's sound. The sheer joy of playing with these cats propelled Chucho off his piano bench and onto his feet at the end of more than one song.

Of course Chucho's own playing is the main attraction, and he didn't let the audience down. Deft and elegant, Chucho is a master of melodic phrasing, teasing out hidden nuances and resonances while keeping melodies crisp and free of unearned sentimentality. Hearing him quote phrases from Gershwin, Ellington and even Sondheim is like seeing a newly restored painting, with decades of sediment and goop cleanly removed. And Chucho's melodic genius hides a powerful rhythmic attack, always lurking beneath the surface - during the evening's final encore, as the audience clapped along on the one, Chucho quietly shifted his solo to guide the audience into the traditional Cuban clave rhythm, barely missing a beat.

One of the evening's other highlights was the appearance of Spanish singer Concha Buika, who accompanied Chucho and the band for "Soledad" and "Santa Cruz", as well as the encore "Andariego". Two of these songs came from Buika's 2009 collaboration with Chucho, El Ultimo Trago, an album that brought the duo's prodigious talents to bear on the songbook of legendary Mexican torch singer Chavela Vargas.

Buika, whose parents originally hailed from Equatorial Guinea, was raised in Mallorca, Spain - where she grew up singing in the flamenco tradition. Now 40 and a bona fide pop star in Spain, Buika brings just the right balance of African soul and flamenco duende to this material. Though diminutive in stature, she's every inch Chucho's musical equal - her big, warm, vulnerable voice the perfect counterpoint to Chucho's precision pianowork. When the two take on the hauntingly lovelorn songs of Chavela Vargas, they tease out every last drop of passion, drama and world-weary humor, bringing something transcendent and almost operatic to earth performance.

The only drawback to Buika's shining performance was that it was impossible to top. Later in the show, when Chucho was joined by his own sister, Mayra Caridad Valdés, for the Afro-Cuban classic "Obatala," it almost felt like an afterthought, and it was hard not to feel that Ms. Valdés would have been better served with an earlier slot in the show. Luckily, Buika was on hand for an encore, and the house rewarded her and Chucho with a well-deserved standing ovation.

Still, it was Chucho's night, and in the evening's final encore - a Gershwin medley that gave way to the venerable Cuban chestnut "El Manisero" - Chucho held the rapt audience in the palms of his big hands, leading us through a tempo-shifting clap-along, smiling like an imp and never missing a beat.