When Dizzy Gillespie discovered him in 1985, the Grammy©-winning pianist and composer Gonzalo Rubalcaba was already a young phenomenon with a budding career in his native Cuba. Since then, the magazine Piano & Keyboard selected him in 1999 as one of the great pianists of the 20th century, alongside the likes of Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich and Bill Evans. He has won two Grammys and two Latin Grammys,16 Grammy nominations and EMPIK Bestsellers. All this has established him as a creative force in the jazz world.
He was born in Havana on 27 May 1963 into a musical family. His father, Guillermo Rubalcaba, was a pianist, composer and orchestra conductor who had played in the orchestra of Enrique Jorrín, the creator of the chachachá. His grandfather, Jacobo Rubalcaba, composed classical danzones, and his two brothers are also musicians.
Gonzalo was a child prodigy who at the age of 6 was already playing drums in his father's orchestra. He began his formal training two years later playing the piano as the main instrument. As he once recalled, "just to please my mother". He graduated in composition from the Institute of Fine Arts in Havana. By his mid-teens, he was already working as a drummer and pianist in Havana's hotels, concert halls and jazz clubs. After graduation, he entered the life of a popular musician. Together with the legendary Orquesta Aragón, he toured Cuba, Europe, Africa and Asia. He also worked as an accompanist in jazz groups. Since 1984 he has led his own Afro-Cuban jazz-rock fusion band called Grupo Proyecto.
His meetings with Gillespie, with Charlie Haden (1986) and with Bruce Lundvall, who by the time was the president of Blue Note Records, laid the groundwork for Rubalcaba's talent to finally be showcased to the American jazz public. These years are documented in a series of recordings in Havana and Frankfurt (Germany), including three superb recordings with his 'Cuarteto Cubano' on the German Messidor label: 'Mi Gran Pasión' (1987), 'Live in Havana' (1989) and 'Giraldilla' (1990). Rubalcaba moved to the Dominican
Republic in 1991 and then settled in Miami in 1996.
His international recording career has earned him 17 nominations, including Grammy and Latin Grammy awards. His most renowned albums include titles such as 'Discovery - Live at Montreux', 'Images - Live at Mt. Fuji', 'The Blessing', 'Suite 4 and 20', 'Rhapsody', 'Diz and Imagine- Gonzalo Rubalcaba in the USA'. He has won Grammys for 'Nocturne' (2001), 'Land of the Sun' (2004), and for the two collections of 'Latin ballads and boleros' recorded with the bass player Charlie Haden. Likewise, he won Latin Grammys for 'Solo' (2006) and 'Supernova' (2002).
In 2010, Rubalcaba and entrepreneur Gary Galimidi, founded the label 5Passion Records. Since then, 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 albums by artists such as Will Vinson, Ignacio Berroa, Yosvany Terry and many more. In addition to the 5Passion label, in 2020 Gonzalo joined the "Top Stop Music" label. They recorded/released the Grammy-nominated 'Viento y Tiempo' life at Blue Note Tokyo with the great singer Aymée Nuviola. As a result of his interest in music education, Rubalcaba joined the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in 2015. In 2020, he founded his own academy ‘Rubalcademy’, which offers distance masterclasses to musicians from all over the world.