AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Artist:Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Song:Here's That Rainy Day
Album:Solo





One of the best things to happen to jazz in the 80s was the influx of Cuban musicians to mainstream jazz in the US. Call it Dizzy Gillespie's dream as he was a big Cuban jazz booster going back to the 40s. Most of these musicians hadn't been heard before as the music was unavailable for political reasons. Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba emerged in the 80s and he's been going strong ever since. He was born May 27, 1963 in Havana, Cuba. His father Guillermo Rubalcaba was a pianist and many musicians were guests in their home. And he listened to classic jazz like Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Rubalcaba played the drums and piano but chose piano at age 9 and studied at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory. He played local clubs as a teen and toured with Orquestra Aragon in the early 80s. Then he formed his own band Grupo Proyecto and played the 1985 Havana Jazz Festival. He was spotted by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Haden. Haden got him a record deal with Blue Note. Rubalcaba released his first Blue Note album Discovery: Live At Montreux in 1990 and since then has wowed jazz fans with his technique. Rubalcaba writes his own songs but also records standards. Here's That Rainy Day was written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen for the 1953 Broadway musical Carnival in Flanders. The show flopped but Frank Sinatra recorded Here's That Rainy Day on his 1959 album No One Cares. Since then it has become a jazz standard. Bette Midler sang Here's That Rainy Day to Johnny Carson on the final episode of The Tonight Show in 1992. Apparently it was Carson's favourite Sinatra ballad. Rubalcaba first recorded Here's That Rainy Day on his 1999 album Inner Voyage featuring Michael Brecker. He recorded it again on this 2006 CD Solo where he plays solo piano. Solo is available as a budget CD. Rubalcaba started his own label Passion5 in 2010 and his latest CD XXI Century was released in 2011. Here's Gonzalo Rubalcaba performing Here's That Rainy Day at the 1999 Heineken Concerts in Sao Paulo, Brazil.