1. Hot House
2. Autumn Leaves
3. Donna Lee
4. I Remember Clifford
5. Ah-Leu-Cha
6. Smooch
7. Bouncing with Bud
8. Woody’n You
9. A Night in Tunisia
10. When Will the Blues Leave
Gonzalo Rubalcaba – Piano
Ron Carter – Bass
Julio Barreto – Drums
With
a pianist and drummer who both come from Cuba,
you might expect a disc dominated by Cuban
rhythms. However, as you can see from the
playlist, the repertoire is predominantly
bebop, although this trio plays with the abandon
that is often characteristic of Cuban music.
In fact the repertoire reflects that of the
Blue Note album Diz, which this same
trio recorded the year before this concert.
The fact that the concert was recorded in
1994 may account for the DVD being in black-and-white.
Gonzalo
Rubalcaba is a phenomenal pianist, as I discovered
when I saw him in concert in the 1990s. He
has such brilliant technique that his playing
continually surprises, although he certainly
doesn’t show off all the time. In fact he
introduces many of the tracks in a meditative
style reminiscent of Erroll Garner’s habit
of mysterious introductions which could seemingly
lead anywhere. This happens at the start of
Autumn Leaves, for instance, and leads
into an adventurous exploration of the familiar
theme which takes us on a voyage of discovery
around the chord sequence.
Donna
Lee, again, begins enigmatically and the
melody never quite emerges fully from the
enterprising improvisation, which uses Gonzalo’s
impressive technique to the full. I Remember
Clifford is taken extremely slowly, so
as to become a thoughtful elegy. In all these
numbers, Ron Carter follows Rubalcaba sympathetically
but never slavishly, adding his own surprises
to each tune and matching the pianist in daring.
And his resonant tone provides a reassuring
base to all the music, however many byways
it explores.
Rubalcaba’s
fingers are so mobile in Bouncing With
Bud that you expect them to fly off his
hands at any moment. Latin-American rhythms
finally come to the fore in a breakneck interpretation
of Woody’n You, which merges into a
mix of a Cuban beat and straight four-four.
Julio Barreto (Rubalcaba’s regular drummer
for much of the 1990s) ends this track with
a long but measured drum solo.
A
Night in Tunisia is introduced by Ron
Carter with an extended bass solo which subtly
hints at the tune while cleverly dislocating
it, a process which continues when the piano
and drums enter – underlining the way that
the tune naturally shifts from one pulse to
another. The concert ends with some more startling
pianistics in When Will the Blues Leave
which, although hardly a conventional blues
performance, suggests that the spirit of the
blues endures in groups like this – as well
as the spirit of adventure. Marvellous!
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
TDK DVWW-JGRU
