South Florida jazz artists send love letter to Havana childhood

ArtburstMiami.com

As music prodigies growing up inHavana, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and AyméeNuviola studied the classical masters, like Beethoven and Bach.

Theywere children when they entered Cuba’s competitive Manuel Saumell Conservatory, where they trained to become classical pianists.

But in CentroHabana, where the two schoolmateswere born and raised, theywere exposed to a different playlist. Their neighborhood provided a constant mix of boleros, ballads, guarachas, danzonetes, son montunos and other tropical rhythms that blared fromradios, television sets, record players and local bars.

Through the years, Nuviola, an acclaimed Afro-Cuban singer, songwriter, bandleader and actress, and Rubalcaba, a virtuoso jazz pianist, have talked about one day recording a tribute to their childhood, their mothers – who became close friends - and the musical environment that shaped them as young aspiring artists.

That day is now.

“Viento y Tiempo” (“Wind and Time”) is a love letter to a shared musical past.