新たな作品がリリースされる度に、美しい旋律と驚異的なテクニックで人々を魅了してきたキューバ出身の実力派ピアニスト、ゴンサロ・ルバルカバが、『GONZALO RUBALCABA SOLO』以来、実に6年ぶりとなるソロ・アルバム『FE…FAITH』をリリース。"Con Alma"(Dizzy Gillespie)、"Blue In Green"(Miles Davis & Bill Evans)と馴染みの楽曲や、祖国キューバでアフロキューバ音楽を本格的に取り入れた革新的作曲家Alejandro Garcia Caturlaの楽曲を取り入れ、そこへ自身のオリジナルを加えた、全15曲。パワフルな超絶テクニックはもはや説明不要ではありますが、前ソロ作より更にフリーな傾向にあり、一音一音に研ぎ澄まされた美しい響きとそれを引き立たせるハイセンスなインプロヴィゼーションを落ち着いて味わうことのできる作品。
■GONZALO RUBALCABA 2011 NEW■ FÉ … Faith, the premiere release from Gonzalo Rubalcaba on his newly founded independent 5Passion label, marks an important milestone in the career of one of contemporary music’s most compelling artists. Boasting an imposing discography of more than 25 critically acclaimed albums as a leader (including a dozen choice dates for Blue Note) featuring the virtuoso pianist in the company of some of modern music’s best players, it is Rubalcaba’s distinctive keyboard work that is the consistent hallmark of his prodigious talent. On FÉ … Faith his incomparable sound, pristinely recorded and mastered, comes to the fore in the creation of a truly impressive solo outing.
Guided by a long abiding faith in the Creator that has persistently informed his life, Rubalcaba has produced a masterful work that is simultaneously introspective and universal in its expression of his mind, heart and soul. His profound belief “that we are all one, one with each other and one with God regardless of what we call Him or Her” significantly informs his approach to music, which seeks to expunge the divisions between the jazz, classical and popular genres that are essentially the product of ultimately inconsequential labels. Drawing upon a wealth of musical experiences that includes conservatory training in his native Cuba and countless appearances on festival stages throughout the world, Rubalcaba here makes music of intense beauty that knows no earthly constraints in its desire to reach a diversity of people.
The fifteen tracks on FÉ … Faith clearly demonstrate Rubalcaba’s musical process, one in which the simple and the intricate are of equivalent importance to the deliverance of his message. The opening “Derivado 1” serves as a stirring ambient prelude to the music that follows, revealing the pianist’s vibrant sound within a terse improvisation stemming from a fragment of the composition that follows – his “Maferefun Iya Lodde Me.” On the Lucumi language titled song (praise be to the orisha Ochun) the pianist thoughtfully develops the lyrical rhythmiccadence of the sanctified three bata drum ensemble that is at the center of the sacred music of the Cuban Santeria religion. The spiritual character of thepiece is evident in the meditative mood that remains constant throughout its harmonic evolution.
