Gonzalo Rubalcaba

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Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Gonzalo Julio González Fonseca , known by his stage name Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963 in Havana ), is a Cuban jazz pianist . In addition to Cuban-Jazz-Rock projects, he maintains the classical piano trio.

Life

Rubalcaba comes from a musical family and is the son of the pianist Guillermo Rubalcaba (1927–2015) and grandson of the composer Jacobao Gonzales Rubalcaba . He started out playing the drums and started performing at the age of five. Between 1971 and 1983 he underwent classical music training. He studied percussion, piano and composition at the Conservatory and then at the Havana Institute of Fine Arts (graduated in composition in 1983).

In addition to European concert music , he was also influenced by popular Cuban music , in which there were opportunities to improvise and thus incorporate your own musical ideas. Rubalcaba first traveled outside of Cuba in 1980 - at the age of 17 - to Panama and Colombia ; then he toured in 1983 with the salsa band Orquesta Aragon to Africa and Paris.

Dizzy Gillespie was the first North American musician he worked with in Havana in 1985. His collaboration with the German music producer Götz Wörner led to the first international publications and tours in Europe. Gonzalo married in November 1986. He and his wife Maria moved to Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic , in 1990 (they have lived in Florida since 1996 and now have three children).

In the USA he was able to perform for the first time in 1993 after the advocacy of Wynton Marsalis and the widow Dizzy Gillespies.

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During his studies he played with Frank Emilio , Chucho Valdés , Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval . In 1985 he presented his own Grupo Projecto at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the JazzFest Berlin , with which he worked on a fusion of jazz rock , bop and the Cuban son . He made his first recordings in the Egrem studios in Havana in the early to mid-1980s (including “Inicio” - a solo piano album and “Concierto Negro”). In early 1986 he released three albums on the Frankfurt label "Messidor" with his Cuban Quartet: "Mi Gran Pasion", "Live in Havana", and "Giraldilla". These recordings show his temperament, his virtuosity and that he was already influenced by jazz at this point. The jazz elements were part of his music back then, but he worked even more with percussion, rhythm - elements of the Afro-Cuban tradition.

In 1986 Gonzalo Rubalcaba convinced with his appearance at the Havana Jazz Festival. He performed in a trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian . In 1989 Charlie Haden brought him to the Montreal Jazz Festival to play in this trio again. (The recordings were only released in 1997 under the title "The Montréal Tapes: Charlie Haden with Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Paul Motian".) A later recording of the trio from the 1990 Montreux Jazz Festival was released in 1991 as "Discovery". The first released studio album "The Blessing" (with Haden and Jack DeJohnette ) already shows the jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

In 1992 he recorded his "Suite 4 Y 20" with his newly formed band Proyecto Latino . Over the next few years, together with Felipe Cabrera and Julio Barreto , new records followed, such as a homage to Dizzy Gillespie (“Diz”) or the huge Latin jazz suite “Antiguo”, on which he summed up his previous play and all of his Influences Drew (2000 Grammy nominee ). His captivating, yet seemingly natural virtuosity is striking again and again. If you listen carefully, you will also notice some great peculiarities in the melody, a melody that jumps back and forth between the styles - starting in the language of modern jazz, then seamlessly transitioning into classical or Cuban forms, as if the pianist made no distinction between them .

With “Inner Voyage” Gonzalo Rubalcaba made a journey inside, researching the nuances. In “Nocturne” - also a very intimate album, Charlie Haden and Rubalcaba recorded Cuban and Mexican boleros in 2002 - a kind of tribute to the older generation of Cuba for Rubalcaba.

In 2001 he toured with four different formations, including as a duo with Chick Corea , in 2002 he explored the possibilities of the trio cast in the very contrasting “Supernova”. The album “Paseo” now ties in with his more electric fusion excursions from “Antiguo” - Latin fusion, improvised modern jazz , a return to Cuban roots.

style

Despite his wide range, Gonzalo Rubalcaba is clearly considered a jazz pianist today. Due to his Afro-Cuban background and his previous percussion training, rhythm plays an important role in his playing. He himself also sees the piano “as part of the percussion family”. He also showed tremendous rhythmic, melodic and harmonic inventiveness in “The Trio” with Brian Bromberg and Dennis Chambers by 'breaking down' jazz standards and reassembling them as completely new pieces of their own.

Discography (selection)

  • Live in Havana (1987)
  • Mi Gran Pasion (1989)
  • Giraldilla (1990)
  • Discovery - Live At Montreux (1991)
  • The Blessing (1991)
  • Images - Live At Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival (1991, August 24th & 25th)
  • Diz (1994)
  • The Trio (1997)
  • Flying Colors (1998)
  • Antiguo (1998)
  • Inner Voyage (1999)
  • Supernova (2001)
  • Nocturne (2002)
  • Land Of The Sun (2004)
  • Paseo (2004)
  • Solo (2006)
  • Avatar (2008)
  • Fé (2010)
  • XXI Century (2011)
  • Volcan (2013)
  • Suite Caminos (2015)
  • Tokyo Adagio (with Charlie Haden , 2015)
  • Minione (with Anna Maria Jopek , 2017)
  • Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola - Viento Y Tiempo: Live at Blue Note Tokyo (Top Stop Music, 2020)

Web links

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