A magic flute with crossover tones.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: Flutist Dave Valentin

The setting may be a modern apartment in the South Bronx, but the ritual is as old as the Spanish presence in the New World. Atop a refrigerator in the small kitchen, a makeshift alter glows to life as the candles are lit. Dave Valentin has just returned home from his first tour to Venezuela, and a moment to reflect on his extraordinarily successful life and its fruits is his first priority. It is a highly personalized observance. A feather from his per bird Pepe, a photo of family members, a cigar and some pocket change are among objects the candlelight reveals.

At 40, the New York-born musician has a great deal to be thankful for. For over a decade, he has been widely recognized as one of the masters of the flute. His recordings have topped sales and popularity polls and his growing stardom has prompted tours from the Far East to Europe and most points in between. And although his culture has produced generations of supremely talented musicians who have won wide fame with Latin American audiences, the Puerto Rican is virtually alone when it comes to translating that talent into a commodity eagerly sought by the non-Hispanic mainstream audience in the United States.

A percussionist when he auditioned and was accepted for enrollment in New York's High School of Music and Art, Valentin's first interest in the flute came not through some noble desire to expand his knowledge of music, but through the prospect of a teen romance. "I wanted to meet this girl who played the flute," he laughs, "that's how the whole thing started! It had nothing to do with the flute--I just wanted to talk to her, and say something like, |Hey, show me a scale."

The ploy may not have led to love, but it did lead him to take the instrument seriously. When he played something for the young woman, she complimented him. "I really got excited," Valentin recalls today. "She said, |Gee, it takes people weeks to do what you just did.'" It was all the positive reinforcement he needed. Serious work at home, listening to recordings by jazz masters like Herbie Mann (with whom Valentin recorded a recent album), and private lessons with Hubert Laws, a popular jazz flautist known for his classical technique, soon placed the youngster in the vanguard of up-and-coming musicians in New York.

In the early 1970s, he was playing with leading Latin bands in the city. But it was his ability to "crossover" that won him work with big name jazz artists like singer Patti Austin, guitarist Lee...