Blue Note Records
2008
Avatar
About This Album
As the career of Gonzalo Rubalcaba has progressed, through the trials and tribulations of attempting to move freely from his native Cuba to the U.S. and back, there has never been any doubt as to his monstrous talent. Easily a Top Five pianist in terms of his fleet-fingered ability to stretch the parameters of jazz and Latin musics, he has chosen in recent years to play solo or in trios. Avatar changes that with a long-awaited small-ensemble date, featuring a fellow heavyweight, the saxophonist and composer Yosvany Terry, and the brilliant young drummer Marcus Gilmore. As if Rubalcaba needs any fuse to be lit -- he has that self-contained -- Terry and Gilmore really set sparks flying in this power-packed set of progressive original music. There are instances where New York City neo-bop is heard, with heavy funk rhythms a close second, and echoes of the witty early modern mainstream jazz that established a young Wynton Marsalis. The pianist also ricochets another angular influence, that of Lennie Tristano. The first two pieces, both penned by Terry, reinforce this notion. "Looking in Retrospective" cross-references horn charts of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers juxtaposed against the Brecker Brothers.
Track List

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

 
report abuse