Gonzalo Rubalcaba

A night of exiciting music from two jazz piano masters is instore as SFJazz presents “Generations of Jazz Piano” featuring the Herbie Hancok Quartet and Gonzalo Rubalcaba solo piano performance at the Nob Hil Masonic Center 1111 California Street (at Taylor), San Francisco, at 8 PM on Saturday, November 10th. Tickets run from $25 to $87 and are avaiable at sfjazz.org.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba is a prolific virtuoso and composer who brilliantly fuses Cuban with American jazz influences. Gonzalo has to his credit eight Grammy nominations, including four for Jazz Album of the Year (Rapsodia in 1995, Antiguo and Inner Voyage in 1999, and Supernova in 2002.) Among other recent honors, in June 2001 Gonzalo received the SFJAZZ Leaders Circle Laureate Award, and in 2002 he performed as Artist in Residence at Montreal Jazz Festival together with Chucho Valdez. In 2002 he won both a Latin Grammy for Jazz Album of the Year, Supernova, as well as a Grammy for co-production with Charlie Haden of Nocturne, a Verve release of Cuban and Mexican boleros and ballads.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba was born in Havana, Cuba, May 27, 1963, into a musical family rich in the traditions of the country’s artistic past. During his childhood, in addition to the standard fare of elementary schools, Gonzalo was absorbing his Cuban musical heritage through personal contacts within his family, notably his father, pianist Guillermo Rubalcaba, and leading musicians who were frequent house guests: Frank Emilio, Peruchin, Felipe Dulzaides and others. He also assimilated through scarce and treasured recordings the tunes and styles of 40’s – 70’s US jazz masters: Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson among pianists; and instrumentalists Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey. A U.S. resident since 1996, Rubalcaba has released a string of celebrated discs on Blue Note Records, including his 2006 CD, Solo.

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock's 40-year career embraces a remarkable body of work with unparalleled artistic and commercial triumphs. He has received six Grammys, an Oscar, and countless music magazine poll awards. Whether playing in Miles Davis’ quintet or his own acoustic groups in the 1960s, exploring electrified funk-jazz in the ’70s, crafting early hip-hop and electronic sounds in the ’80s, or redefining the concept of jazz standards for the 21st century, Hancock has always matched his conceptual and instrumental brilliance with a broad sense of adventure.

Hancock has also revivified the jazz tradition of drawing on pop songs as springboards for improvisation. His new album, River: The Joni Letters (Verve) is an all-star vocal and instrumental tribute to singer-songwriter-guitarist Joni Mitchell, which features contributions from Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Wayne Shorter, Norah Jones and Mitchell herself.

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