Skyline (5 Passion Records)
Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette & Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Released September 17, 2021
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2022
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nv3wHn0CQKVGJDm9Bg5Kq4cLHm5FzO7vc
Spotify:
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About:
Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s latest album, Skyline, marks his eight release on his co-founded label, 5Passion Records. Skyline is the first release from a planned trilogy of piano trio albums for 5Passion.
Rubalcaba — raised and educated in Havana, where he played professionally as both a drummer and a pianist before emigrating first to the Dominican Republic in 1991 and then to Miami in 1996 — tells celebrated jazz journalist Ted Panken in Skyline’s liner notes that early gigs with the giants of the artform like bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette turned out to be his, “real school, [his] portal to a different relationship with American musicians and American music.” So when Rubalcaba had a new trio project in mind, one rife with Afro-Cuban rhythms but informed by years studying what musical conversation between musicians should sound and feel like, he knew he needed sidemen who could pull off both elements with equal parts feel and erudition.
Carter and DeJohnette had to round out this trio.
“No matter what music you put in their hands,” Rubalcaba tells Panken in the liners, “at the end they convert that music into something personal. That to me has an amazing value.
“But at the same time they understand their function at every moment…. Ron and Jack know how to keep their sound, their spirit, while fulfilling at a very high level your request as a producer or musical director or composer. They combine a special talent and a strong personality with a high level of consciousness of responsibility—everything together.”
While there’s never any doubt Rubalcaba is the lead sonic architect here, it’s evident on all nine cuts, as Panken notes, that he “didn’t want this to be a “Gonzalo record per se; he wanted to create a conversation from multiple points of view.” New perspectives are applied to the familiar, as each musician offers up a pair of his own previously recorded tunes to the trio’s (re)interpretive lens. For an illustration of the group’s methodology, take Carter’s “Gypsy,” a tune originally released on 1979’s Parade with Chick Corea (piano), Tony Williams (drums), and Joe Henderson (tenor sax). After a newly constructed preface, Carter reprises a walking bass line that calls to mind the original—though this version is at a slightly more relaxed tempo. Less frenetic and in ways steadier and more self-assured, this one retains the original’s probing, prodding and exploratory nature. If Parade’s was a showcase for Henderson, Skyline’s version is a showcase for Rubalcaba, as he plays both Joe Henderson’s lead lines and Chick Corea’s comping lines. The latter third of the tune spotlights DeJohnette and, secondarily, Carter—before Rubalcaba returns for one last lightning run. It closes with a sparse, contemplative dialogue that hits like a deep, awakening stretch—the musical manifestation of end-stage savasana.
Hypnotic and wistfully circular, “A Quiet Place” is the other contribution from Carter’s seemingly infinite catalogue. It holds special meaning because DeJohnette also played on the first incarnation, from 1978’s A Song for You. But perhaps more meaningfully, this one speaks to the risks Rubalcaba—who’s always had the insane facility to play at breakneck speeds—took to develop as both a player and composer. “I put myself in contact with different spaces and musical visions,” he tells Panken in the liners. “Even where you are not totally comfortable with [different] ideas, you can always learn. Life is a palette with many tastes and flavors and colors and moments.” Carter’s playing makes the visceral richness of this piece possible; his framing allows Rubalcaba to plumb not just depths of feeling but also to communicate the kind of breadth of emotion that separates really good art from everything else.
The first of DeJohnette’s offerings is “Silver Hollow,” a tune the drummer recorded first in 1978 with his New Directions group, then 13 years later, with Rubalcaba, on the latter’s The Blessing. Deliberate and inherently narrative, this one tells a story, but that story’s construction is left to the imagination of the listener—almost as if the musicians leave it to you to choose your own noirish adventure. Then there’s “Ahmad the Terrible,” inspired by DeJohnette’s formative years in Chicago, when, as a young gigging pianist—that’s right, Rubalcaba isn’t the only multi-instrumentalist here—he learned by watching Ahmad Jamal at his fabled Second City haunts. Presented almost scenically, like a theatrical number, this one displays the combination packages—the sweetness and muscly melodicism, the tension and release, the insouciance and the sober weightiness—for which Jamal is so beloved.
Rubalcaba sources his original offerings from a pair of his ’90s releases for Blue Note. “Promenade” is the first, a most appropriate selection that originally appeared on 1998’s Inner Voyage as a dedication to Ron Carter. No doubt the hope was that, one day, Carter himself would be able to play this one. That day has come, and the result proves worth the wait. Rubalcaba and DeJohnette both take turns out front, but, mostly here, they accompany Carter, whose ideas are many, never superfluous, and always expressed with an elegant authority that need not be explicitly stated. With “Siempre Maria,” Skyline’s penultimate tune, Rubalcaba presents a comprehensive harmonic and structural overhaul of the ballad/bolero that originally appeared on 1992’s Suite 4 Y 20. It’s both meandering and focused, as though Rubalcaba and co. are hard at work at deciphering that foundational Latin American mystery, amor.
Two Cuban standards occupy coveted slots; “Lágrimas Negras,” a bolero from the ’20s, opens the album, and “Novia Mia” sits square in the middle of Skyline’s nine tracks. On the former, Carter hops out front early, soloing with a series of playful, referential riffs, which includes a memorable nod to Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” On the latter, Rubalcaba bears his soul, with a capacious solo rendition of this iconic Cuban ballad that lends credence to the old cliché that the space between notes can communicate just as much as the notes themselves.
The bluesy closer, “RonJackRuba,” testifies to the notion that it takes a little luck to make a great record. This one’s the product of a spontaneous collective improvisation that the trio didn’t even know was being recorded. The engineer Jim Anderson had left the room to tend to a tech issue but had the good sense to keep the tape rolling. “One of us played a note, and then we followed that sound, that line, and continued playing for seven minutes,” recalled Rubalcaba. “We didn’t know Jim was recording until we stopped and he told us.” Over nine tracks presented, what Panken astutely dubs, “an equilateral triangle aesthetic,” a fusion of distinct personalities and sensibilities from three master musicians who know when to speak and when to listen. Skyline, he says, continuing to unspool this thread, is “an immersive album that is unique in Rubalcaba’s discography for its unendingly dialogical quality, in which no topic, idea or motif is off-limits to kinetic, soulful investigation.”
Track Listing:
1. Lagrimas Negras 06:51
2. Gypsy 09:02
3. Silver Hollow 06:41
4. Promenade 06:43
5. Novia Mia 03:26
6. Quite Place 04:45
7. Ahmad the Terrible 07:36
8. Siempre Maria 07:54
9. RonJackRuba 07:36
Personnel:
Gonzalo Rubalcaba: piano
Ron Carter: bass
Jack DeJohnette: drums
Recorded October 2018, at Power Station at Berkleenyc, by Jim Anderson
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Mixed by Akihiro Nishimura
Edited by Mario Garcia Haya
Photography by Haveseen
Producers: Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Ariel López
Executive-Producer: Gary Galimidi
Graphic Design: Giovanni Nésterez
Review:
Substantial yet
serene, sophisticated yet soothing, Skyline oozes with the earthiness
of New York City. Here, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, and Gonzalo
Rubalcaba merged their broad skills into an assemblage of erudite
conversations, each package wrapped with beauty and delicate care. Of the many
common threads heard in this collection, none could be more precious than time.
Yes, of course, the trio had a wealth of rich pockets, but the reference is
made to time of another nature. They were in no rush. They let the music
develop at its own pace. Good things come to those who wait. In the case
of Skyline, that would be great things.
Befitting a long overdue reunion, the trio chose to play with old friends.
Familiar tunes were reimagined and reenergized with the clearly abundant joy of
playing together. A snareless DeJohnette created the necessary Afro-Cuban
bolero feel for the timeless standard “Lagrimas Negras.” Rubalcaba
crescendoed softly and again vigorously, while Carter deftly raised the
conversational bar. Carter then reached into his hip-pocket for
“Gypsy.” A tune first recorded some forty years ago with Chick
Corea and DeJohnette, had a luster to it, a shiny new coat. Carter’s
walking bass allowed Rubalcaba to freely move about. Articulating every note,
Rubalcaba again took his time, and explored the boundaries of Carter’s stellar
composition. It was time for DeJohnette to look into his treasure trove. Out
came “Silver Hollow.” Well sequenced, Rubalcaba was now able to move
deeply in turnabout. The mesmerizing tune heightened his emotional scale,
eliciting a heartfelt dive, anchored by Carter’s steady, sturdy core. Years
before, Rubalcaba wrote a piece dedicated to Carter. There was an entirely different
vibe this time around with Carter actually playing on “Promenade.”
The circumstances and the depth of composition coupled to keep the sentiment
and warmth of the recording session intact.
After a return to the Afro-Cuban sound of “Novia Mia,” the trio transitioned
to “A Quiet Place.” This vintage Carter work of art was given a
makeover. Its appeal, however, was mostly steeped in the grace of connectivity.
The trio had reached a zenith of collective happiness and ease of conversation.
In 1984, DeJohnette had honored Ahmad Jamal in song with his
composition, “Ahmad the Terrible.” Rubalcaba had both the pleasure
and the challenge of adding his own voice, while capturing a screen shot of
Jamal. With DeJohnette’s groovy patterns and flair to play off, Rubalcaba moved
brightly and boldly, succeeding on both counts. While Carter, forever the
centerpiece, the rock, the engaging conversationalist, propelled the
vocabulary. After the recording session was finished, or so they thought, the
trio stayed in the studio and continued to play. They weren’t recording
anymore, just having fun noodling around together. Well, perhaps accidentally
on purpose, it was still recording. It turned out to be the final track.
“RonJackRuba” is the epitome of improvisation. Completely off the
cuff, just messing with some grooves. It resulted in a cool fly-on-the-wall
moment to be shared by all.
Skyline is a breath of fresh air, the very definition of jazz. Three cool
cats chilling out and digging on each other. Skyline is a
Grammy-worthy project.
Jim Worsley (All About Jazz)
