Gonzalo Rubalcaba/Aymée Nuviola: Viento y Tiempo – Live at Blue Note Tokyo

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Gonzalo Rubalcaba (p)

Label:

Top Stop Music!

September/2020

Media Format:

CD

RecordDate:

August 2019

Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the astonishing Cuban piano virtuoso whose balletic lightness of touch and awesome chordal power drive resources as packed with classical music as with Afro-Cuban rituals and dances, reconvened a childhood relationship with his country's incendiary vocal star Aymée Nuviola on this scorching Tokyo gig. From the off, Nuviola's own ‘Rumba Callejera’ instantly establishes the one-touch empathy with which she and Rubalcaba converse, and the teasing drama with which they repeatedly build casual openings to roaring finales. ‘El Guararey de Pastora’ is a staccato, stop-start theme that becomes a swaying call-and-response dance between Nuviola and her backing singers, the famous hook of ‘The Peanut Vendor (‘El Manisero’) is introduced in disarming trickles and whispers by the two leaders before unleashing a beautiful Rubalcaba solo of gliding runs, hypnotic looping figures and chord-punching drama, and the delicate ballad ‘El Ciego’ showcases both Nuviola's lyrical eloquence and the airy soprano sax sound of Yainer Horta. Quiet danzón sways mingle with a staccato Latin-jazz ensemble uproar reminiscent of Irakere, and the closing title track winds up to a melee of percussive piano, clamouring vocals, and galloping drumming. Rubalcaba has understandably remarked on his ‘joy, satisfaction, melancholy, and pride’ in this venture – he and the jubilantly spontaneous Aymée Nuviola could hardly have celebrated their country's musical past and present with more inventive passion.

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