Amadito Valdés

Amadito Valdés ( b. 1946 ) is a Cuban percussionist. He gained worldwide fame through the album " Buena Vista Social Club" as well as by the eponymous film by Wim Wenders.

Valdés studied at the Musikhochschule in Havana, where he began to develop his own style timbales, based on Afro-American rhythms in 6/8-measure and on classic Cuban son rhythms in 2/4-cycle.

Valdés was one of the Cuban musicians who took part in 1996 in the project "Buena Vista Social Club" the American guitarist Ry Cooder. There he played the timbales both in the recordings of the album and the movie.

Since the success of these recordings he played with the Afro Cuban All Stars and Rubén González together. During his long period as an active musician he also worked with the greatest Cuban musicians such Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Compay Segundo.