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Jazz Articles about Rubén González
Rubén González: Introducing...Rubén González
by James Nadal
When Cuban piano master Rubén González was brought out of self-imposed retirement, at age seventy seven, in 1996, for a recording by the Afro Cuban All Stars, A Toda Cuba Le Gusta, he had not played in over ten years, and did not even own a piano. After hearing González on those sessions, producer/guitarist Ry Cooder invited him to appear on the Buena Vista Social Club recordings that same year. The rest, is history. Seizing upon the creative ...
read moreRuben Gonzalez: Momentos
by Chris May
This is one of those evenly tempered and prettily mellifluous albums which sound at first like background music, but which reveal a subtle and sophisticated beauty if you pay closer attention. Like guitarist Johnny Smith's transcendental '52 masterpiece Moonlight In Vermont, this roughly contemporaneous compilation of archive recordings by Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez sounds superficially like the output of a hotel lounge band playing politely for the well-heeled tourist trade. It never strays far from tune or pulse and it ...
read moreRub: Indestructible
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Havana... After gazing, throughout the day, at the freshly painted and renovated walls of this city, as complementary backdrop for its equally renovated and painted citizens, haunting melodies enthrall the soul and entice towards a corner establishment. As the bar is approached, things become rather obvious... Beyond the frenetic raucous engulfing the Cuban country after the demise of the revolutionary government, there is a stalwart fringe that refuses to merely follow those who seem to know who, what, and how ...
read moreRuben Gonzalez: Introducing...Ruben Gonzalez
by Derrick A. Smith
Most Cuban releases these days evoke the atmosphere of the dance hall, or the veranda of an Havana dwelling, depending on whether the music is in the big-band dancing format or one of the more folkloric string-oriented styles. This premiere full-length by Ruben Gonzalez, however, brushes the sepia and blues of an early 20th Century salon performance. Gonzalez' virtuosic style, lyric and harmonically-full, reveals the depth of 19th Century Romantic influence on the arc of Cuban music as well as ...
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