IF YOU WONDER WHY YOU KEEP buying Rainier Beer instead of microbrew, and why you constantly chase mini-bargains with your Safeway Club Card, look no further than Cuban pianist Jesus "Chucho" Valdes. At $25 a pop, his show at the King Cat Theater is not cheap, but this is what you've been saving for. The founder of Irakere, a world-famous Afro-Cuban group which has featured such superstars as Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera, Valdes is not just a band leader, but also a brilliant genre-hopping improviser. His father was the luminous Cuban musician Bebo Valdes, but don't let the cute names fool you--Chucho, like Bebo before him, is gargantuan: well over six feet, with huge shoulders and hands that dwarf the piano keyboard. When he plays, Valdes crushes the keys with such dexterity that you hardly notice as he moves from bright salsa-style montunos to dense thickets of bop lines and clustered, altered chords. But don't take my word for it: When Art Tatum died in 1996, plenty of critics felt compelled to name Valdes as the most gifted jazz pianist the world had left.

Artistic genius, however, is something that surfaces with statistical regularity, and talent alone does not demand your attendance at this show. The real reason why you need to see Jesus "Chucho" Valdes is that he brings the amazing Afro-Cuban musical tradition with him to Seattle. In Cuba, African slaves were only liberated near the turn of the century, so that country remains closer to African culture than just about any in the New World. Afro-Cuban music is the greatest product of those influences: Mix a heavy dose of the religious rhythms of Nigeria's Yoruba people with the flamboyance of the trickster god Eshu Elegba, and the result is a bold, spiritual musical heritage. The Afro-Cuban message is bright, brash, and endlessly grooving, and Valdes makes a captivating messiah. Go to the King Cat Theater and see for yourself why they named him Jesus.