Customer Reviews

Supernova

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A common complaint about contemporary jazz is that, despite its harmonic and rhythmic sophistication, it's often not very listenable. Three recent albums, this one, along with Charlie Haden's Nocture and Michael Brecker's Nearness of You, go a long way toward dispelling that criticism. It's almost as if these artists' albums (and Rubalcaba's handling the piano chair on two out of three of them) are purposely seeking to emotionally connect with listeners without compromising the performers' jazz esthetic.

For the most part, each succeds well, with Rubalcaba's working best, Haden's a close second, and Brecker's a fair bit behind. To my ears, the success of Rubalcaba and Haden comes from their amazing assimilation of the slower and more mellow side of Afro-Cuban music. Rubalcaba seems completely at home in this lush atmosphere; remarkably, he manages to evoke its sensuous textures without sinking into sentimentality.

Surely to be among many top 10 jazz album list at year's end.

(...) How bizarre that (educated listeners) can hear this album and be unaware of it's sheer absolute brilliance. Perhaps (they) couldn't hear hear the perfect sense of time, or the inventive harmonies or the sheer originality of every tune(including The peanut vendor) albeit an old standard but never done better than it is here. To sum up, this album is near perfect and to compare it to Gonzalos' previous releases (as some of the other reviewers have done)is to do it a very unfair and unjustified disservice.

...P>This is an excellent CD by one of the most talented pianists in jazz. Melodic and beautiful but easily complex enough to reward repeated listenings.

Excellent CD. I purchased Supernova and Nocturne (Haden & Rubalcaba) and I prefer the former. It's diversity and the inner harmony makes listening a pure pleasure. Supernova and Oro are my favourite tracks.
Strongly recommended.

I was appalled and bemused by Eugene Holley Jr. saying that GONZALO slipped the Stars and Stripes into his grandfather's EL CADETE CONSTITUCIONAL!

Holley, obviously does not know this music at all. That slow version of the Sousa tune has been in there since the piece was composed.

One of my favourite jazz albums of the last ten years is Supernova. What we hear on this album is an extremely talented, but perhaps previously, overtly-virtuosic musician, finally creating a product with great originality and more importantly, soul. This is to my mind is one of the great piano trio albums ever made and I put it up with the very best of Bud Powell, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Phineas Newborn, Oscar Peterson, The Bad Plus, The Necks, or EST, though it is of course very different.

Importantly, it was for me at the time in 2001, a signal of a new direction in so called "Latin Jazz". There was something fresh and new here for me that suggested the unexplored potential of Latin rhythms within the ever-evolving nature of what we call jazz today. This album is therefore unfairly described as simply Latin Jazz, for it would make my list of top fifty jazz albums of all time, and it would be well up on that list. I particularly love the first tune and the title track Supernova is aptly named. It is an incredible example of composition development that does not have a true solo until the bass begins after at least three minutes. Yet following such contemporary settings, Gonzalo is un-afraid to explore much more simple folkloric compositions on this album.

For me Ignacio Berroa on drums is one of the great unsung heroes of modern jazz and his playing on this album is simply some of his best ever recorded.

I heard Gonzalo Rubalcaba with his Quintet for the first time at the Portland Jazz Festival 2/13/2009 introduced by a Blue Note executive before headliner, Terence Blanchard and his "Requiem for Katrina". I was blown away by Gonzalo and his music. It is rare today to hear really original jazz and here I was listening to this music...so unexpected and personal. Gonzalo, who grew up in Cuba, combines on the piano elegant ballads, Cuban folk songs, and explosive, Afro-Cuban percussionist runs that sound a little like Chucho Valdez and Art Tatum. After the one and an half hour concert, he was kind enough to autograph any CDs bought there and so he signed my newly purchased, "The Blessing", that he recorded with Charlie Hagen in '99. This is an early work that captures his unique, personal style and work. This guy will be around for a long time.

Yeah, I know Gonzalo has a lot of CDs out, in various styles, and if you loved one, the next one you tried might have been something totally different...which I respect for a creative artist, but it makes it hard to follow! We all know that he's got killer jazz chops, and has a deep background in Cuban tradition. This is the ultimate blend of the two. A great rhythm section that loves jazz, but also really works some Cuban grooves! And Gonzalo is at his creative best in this trio setting.

When first putting this CD into the player and hearing the first dissonant, disjointed chords, I thought that I had wasted my money in purchasing this recording. The longer I listened, however, the more the music appealed to me, and I found myself actually enjoying the music during the second listening.
Rubalcaba's immense talent and range are evident throughout the recording, and that makes the CD even more worth buying and listening to.

More progressive arranging helps maintain interest but asides for a few distinct melodies, seems to be lacking a certain gel that could have made this latin jazz a truly memorable release.