Gonzalo Rubalcaba is steps away
Gonzalo Rubalcaba and most of humanity are within 6 degrees of each other. This matrix combines the small-world principle behind this fact with inter-artist recommendations-in-series. By this m.o., writers, musicians, filmmakers, quiltmakers, dancers, painters, multimedia artists, architects, sound designers, chefs, producers et al (see categories) across the planet are within close, discoverable steps of each other, and most of the world as well. 100% AI FREE
I RECOMMEND people (do you?)
Why again is Gonzalo Rubalcaba mere steps away from all other artists in here, and by extension, everybody on the planet?
WHO IS CURATING FROM HERE?
- Vertex/Edges Out by: The Matrix
Artist & Where
- Name: Gonzalo Rubalcaba
- City/Place: Coral Springs, Florida
- Country: United States
- Hometown: Havana, Cuba
Life & Work
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Bio:
Pianist and composer Gonzalo Rubalcaba was already a young phenom with a budding career in his native Cuba when he was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie in 1985. Since, Piano & Keyboard Magazine selected him in 1999 as one of the great pianists of the 20th century, alongside figures such as Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich and Bill Evans; won two Grammys and two Latin Grammys, and established himself as a creative force in the jazz world.
He was born on May 27, 1963 in a musical family in Havana. His father, pianist, composer and bandleader Guillermo Rubalcaba, had also played in the orchestra of Enrique Jorrín, the creator of cha-cha-cha; his grandfather Jacobo Rubalcaba, was the composer of classic danzones, and his two brothers are also musicians. Gonzalo, a child prodigy who by the age of 6 was playing drums in his father’s orchestra, started his formal training two years later, with piano as his main instrument to, as he once recalled, “just to please my mother.” He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Havana with a degree in composition and by his mid–teens he was working as both, drummer and pianist, in the hotels, concert halls and jazz clubs of Havana. Following graduation he stepped right into the life of the popular musician, touring Cuba, Europe, Africa and Asia with the fabled Orquesta Aragón and also as a sideman in jazz groups and, beginning in 1984, leading his own Afro-Cuban jazz rock fusion band, Grupo Proyecto.
The encounters with Gillespie and, in 1986, with Charlie Haden and then Blue Note Records president, Bruce Lundvall, set the stage to finally showcase Rubalcaba ́s talent before jazz audiences in the United States. These years are documented in a series of recordings in Havana and Frankfurt, Germany, including three superb recordings with his Cuban Quartet on the German label Messidor : Mi Gran Pasión (1987), Live in Havana (1989) and Giraldilla (1990). Rubalcaba moved to the Dominican Republic in 1991 and settled in Miami in 1996.
His international recording career, which includes titles such as Discovery – Live at Montreux, Images– Live at Mt. Fuji, The Blessing, Suite 4 y 20, Rapsodia, Diz and Imagine – Gonzalo Rubalcaba in the USA, has garnered him 16 nominations including both Grammys and Latin Grammys. He won Grammys for Nocturne (2001) and Land of the Sun (2004), two collections of Latin ballads and boleros recorded with bassist Charlie Haden; and Latin Grammys for Solo(2006) and Supernova (2002).
In 2010, Rubalcaba and businessman Gary Galimidi, founded 5Passion Records and since, the label has not only released Rubalcaba’s latest recordings such as Fe (2011), XXI Century (2012), Live Faith (2014), the Latin Grammy nominated Suite Caminos (2015), and Charlie (2016) but also albums by artists such as Yosvany Terry, John Daversa and Ignacio Berroa, Jose Armando Gola, Will Vinson, Seamus Blake and Volcan.
Reflecting his interest in music education, Rubalcaba joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2015.
Contact Information
- Email: gggrbooking@gmail.com
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Management/Booking:
TEMA
The European Music Agency
Mr. Enrico Iubatti
Office: +39 0744 983431
Enrico Iubatti – mobile +39 347 5744516
Andrea Scaccia – mobile +39 339 2980936
Email address: theeuropeanmusicagency@gmail.com
For the United States and Canada:
Maria Matias
Email: Office@MariaMatiasMusic.com
Phone: 831.625.0344
Website: www.MariaMatiasMusic.com
Media & Markets
- ▶ Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://www.5passion.com/blog/2434-2/
- ▶ Twitter: grubalcaba
- ▶ Instagram: gonzalorubalcabaofficial
- ▶ Website: http://www.5passion.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3l7qxqb2OlMflZrVJrRq0g
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCyb0dwvERrd0VvkA101oCJw
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/5pFwRNwK2PYbqduqfoXDmj
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/3Sy3gbqmSbLUs0zGYznSD1
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/67F4jQSzz2CvGNfYpZFems
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/5QhyHJOr8X4raajbuziObn
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/6w1eONC5VfD8c3wKi0SPzt
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/1jYocXlD8sLjUCAhdlv2bO
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Sir Simon Rattle has called the Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba… “the most gifted pianist on the planet” …
Dizzy Gillespie’s remarks (1985) on first hearing Gonzalo “…the greatest pianist I’ve heard in the last 10 years”…
Charlie Haden once remarked… “Gonzalo is the master of musical structures, he is a smart heart”…
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times “… Meticulous Jazzman of the World”
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune “… Gonzalo Rubalcaba ranks among the most accomplished jazz pianists in the world today and perhaps stands at the top of that elite group, thanks to a colossal technique and an unfettered musical imagination”
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune “… Rubalcaba’s pianism is something of a quasi-classical recital, Rubalcaba draws as much from his classic idioms as his jazz lexicon, eradicating barriers between the two, albeit in decidedly contemporary terms. Only a pianist with Rubalcaba’s footing in both classical and jazz orthodoxies could have pulled it off”
ABOUT THE MATRIX
This matrix is dedicated to creative artists and non-algorithmic discovery.
It was described (to some degree) and can be accessed via this article in British journal The Guardian (which named our radio of matrixed artists as one of ten best in the world):
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/17/10-best-music-radio-station-around-world
While the Brazilian musicians I work with now you may not know, I formerly worked (chasing unpaid royalties!) on behalf of Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Jim Hall, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Philip Glass, The Cadillacs (Earl Carroll), The Flamingos (Zeke and Jake Carey), and others, including Oscar-winning world-class great-guy Robb Royer. I was interviewed by David Dye for broadcast on U.S. National Public Radio several years ago ... about the Brazilians:
- Randy "Pardal/Sparrow" Roberts
All is more connected than we know.
w/ David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio
The matrix was inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' El Aleph, that in the pillar in Cairo's Mosque of Amr, where the universe in its entirety throughout all time is perceivable as an infinite hum from deep within the stone...
Our logo, per the "spirit" above, is a cortador de cana, a cane cutter. It was designed by Walter Mariano, professor of design at the Federal University of Bahia to reflect the origins of the music the shop specialized in. The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it dances and sings.
