Charls Lloyd Quartet

SF Jazz will present Charles Lloyd's 70th Birthday Celebration on Friday, March 28, 8PM at the Herbst Theatre 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister), in San Francisco. This latest incarnation of the Charles Lloyd Quartet includes the brilliant Jason Moran on piano and Reuben Rogers on bass joining Charles and drummer Eric Harland. Their new live album “Rabo de Nube”, recorded in 2007, was just released - in time for Charles’s 70th birthday on March 15, 2008.

During the early 1960's Charles Lloyd recorded two albums as a leader with other young musicians including Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Following that Lloyd led a quartet with pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Cecil McBee (afterwards, Ron McClure), and drummer Jack DeJohnette whose music was an groundbreaking fusion of straight-ahead post-bop, free jazz, and soul jazz. They also achieved a significant amount of crossover success with rock fans and became the first jazz group to play in the Fillmore. SInce 1989, Lloyd has toured actively and recorded for the ECM label. These recordings reveal Lloyd's depth and sensitivity as a ballad player - particularly on Voice in the Night, The Water Is Wide (featuring Brad Mehldau, John Abercrombie and Billy Higgins) and Lift Every Voice (featuring Geri Allen).

Gonzalo Rubalcaba

“…An exciting new quintet with a striking potential for challenging even his outsize talent…” – Marcus Crowder, San Francisco Bay Guardian 

Blending the traditions and innovations of American and Cuban jazz, 44-year-old pianist/composer Gonzalo Rubalcaba has consistently validated the promise of his prodigious youth, from his “discovery” by Dizzy Gillespie to his collaborations with Charlie Haden to his highly acclaimed recordings and performances with his own bands. Supporting the release of a new recording (Avatar), Rubalcaba and his exciting quintet performs at Yoshi’s on both sides of the Bay, in San Francisco March 10-12 and in Oakland March 13-16.

In Havana, Rubalcaba was literally born into the traditions of Afro-Cuban music. His father Guilhermos helped introduce the cha-cha-cha and still leads Charanga Rubalcaba; his grandfather composed "El Cadete," the well-known processional that the grandson included on his Grammy-winning Blue Note recording, Supernova. Young Gonzalo Rubalcaba studied piano from age eight, and for the next twelve years he continued his studies of the American, European, Russian, and Hispanic classical traditions at Havana’s famed Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, while also playing and absorbing the indigenous themes and rhythms of Havana.  In 1983, he toured France and Africa with Orquesta Aragon, and two years later formed his own band, Grupo Proyecto and came to the attention of Dizzy Gillespie. In 1986, Rubalcaba played with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian at the Havana Jazz Festival, beginning a long relationship with Haden that led to appearances at international festivals, including Montreal and Montreux, and several recorded collaborations, including the highly acclaimed, Grammy-winning Nocturne (2001,Verve) and the acclaimed Land of the Sun (2004, Verve), a tribute to Mexican composer, Jose Sabre Marroquin.