Gonzalo Rubalcaba Solo

In 1999, the multi-Grammy® Winner, pianist, and composer Gonzalo Rubalcaba was selected by Piano & Keyboard Magazine as one of the great pianists of the 20th century, alongside figures such as Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich and Bill Evans. He has won three Grammys® and Three Latin Grammys, 18 Grammys nominations and EMPIK Bestsellers. All of which has established him as a creative force in the jazz world.

He was born on May 27, 1963 in a musical family in Havana. His father, pianist, composer and bandleader Guillermo Rubalcaba, had also played in the orchestra of Enrique Jorrín, the creator of cha-cha-cha; his grandfather Jacobo Rubalcaba, was the composer of classic danzones, and his two brothers are also musicians. Gonzalo, a child prodigy who by the age of 6 was playing drums in his father’s orchestra, started his formal training two years later, with piano as his main instrument to, as he once recalled, “just to please my mother.” He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Havana with a degree in composition and by his mid--teens he was working as both, drummer and pianist, in the hotels, concert halls and jazz clubs of Havana. Following graduation, he stepped right into the life of the popular musician, touring Cuba, Europe, Africa and Asia with the fabled Orquesta Aragón and also as a sideman in jazz groups and, beginning in 1984, leading his own Afro-Cuban jazz rock fusion band, Grupo Proyecto.

The encounters with Gillespie and, in 1986, with Charlie Haden and then Blue Note Records president, Bruce Lundvall, set the stage to finally showcase Rubalcaba ́s talent before jazz audiences in the United States. These years are documented in a series of recordings in Havana and Frankfurt, Germany, including three superb recordings with his Cuban Quartet on the German label Messidor: Mi Gran Pasión (1987), Live in Havana (1989) and Giraldilla (1990). Rubalcaba moved to the Dominican Republic in 1991 and settled in Miami in 1996.

His international recording career, which includes titles such as Discovery – Live at Montreux, Images-- Live at Mt. Fuji, The Blessing, Suite 4 y 20, Rapsodia, Diz and Imagine – Gonzalo Rubalcaba in the USA, has garnered him 18 nominations including both Grammys and Latin Grammys. He won Grammys for Nocturne (2001) , Land of the Sun (2004), two collections of Latin ballads and boleros recorded with bassist Charlie Haden and SKYLINE (2022), and Latin Grammys for Solo (2006) and Supernova (2002).

in 2010 with the businessman Gary Galimidi, founded 5Passion Records and since, the label has not only released Rubalcaba’s latest recordings such as Fe (2011), XXI (2012), Volcan (2014), Live Faith (2015), the Latin Grammy nominated Suite Caminos (2015) and Charlie (2016), but also album by artists such as Will Vinson, Ignacio Berroa, Yosvany Terry and many more. In addition to 5Passion, Gonzalo joined the "Top Stop Music" record label family in 2020 to record/release the Grammy-nominated Viento y Tiempo live at Blue Note Tokyo with the great singer Aymée Nuviola. Reflecting his interest in music education, Rubalcaba joined the

This virtuoso musician and considered one of the leading artists in Afro-Cuban jazz, has received worldwide acclaim from outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Downbeat, the Chicago Tribune, and others, faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2015. In 020, he founded his own academy Rubalcademy, offering remote Masterclasses to musicians across the world. Another of his nominations was with singer, pop and soul music Jon Secada with the album "SOLOS" was for the 2021 Latin Grammy® Awards, under the Oleta Music record label.