HAVANA, CUBA.-  Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdes won his fourth Grammy award to the Best Latin Jazz Album on the 53 annual awards ceremony of the American Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Valdes won the award for his album Chucho’s steps recorded with his new band Mensajeros Afrocubanos. The band is made up of his former quartet plus wind instruments and folkloric percussion.

According to Granma newspaper Chucho steps has been well received by critics worldwide.

Valdes has won four Grammy and one Latin Grammy awards: in 1978 for the album Live at Newport by Irakere; in 1998 for his two songs Mr. Bruce and Mambo para Roy on the recording Havana by his band Crisol (formed in 1997); in 2003 for his album Live at the Village Vanguard; and in 2011 for his album Chucho's Steps. In 2009 he won a Latin Grammy with the album Juntos para siempre, sharing the honors with his father Bebo Valdes.

Valdes’ talent and career has also been recognized worldwide with distinctions that include a Doctor Honoris Causa granted by the University of Havana and the University of Victoria, Canada; in Cuba he also received the Felix Varela Order; and he has been given the keys to the U.S. cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Madison.