JAZZ

The twoGrammy winners, who live in South Florida, are promoting their first album together, “Viento y Tiempo” (“Wind and Time”), recorded before a live audience at the BlueNote Tokyo club in August 2019. Released earlier this year on the Top StopMusic label, the album is their love letter to a shared musical past.

“Our biggest dreamwas towork together on a project thatwould showcase the music, the songswe grew up with, the soundtrack of our neighborhood and our youth,” saidNuviola, whowon her first Grammy Award for “Best Tropical Latin Album” this year and had earned a 2018 Latin Grammy. She is also known for portraying the adult Celia Cruz in a 2015 television series.

The new album “goes back to a time whenwe were children developing our art and dreaming about becoming musicians,” she added.

The Coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a “Viento y Tiempo” concert tour that had included Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The virus also struckNuviola and her husband and manager, Paulo Simeon, who have since recovered and are awaiting new concert dates.

“We’re hoping it will be this summer,” said the singer fromtheir Miami home.

Rubalcaba, the recipient of twoGrammys and two Latin Grammys, is enjoying his first album in decades dedicated entirely to popular Cuban music.

“It’s a debt that Aymée and I had, not only for ourselves but also for our families,” said Rubalcaba, who lives in Coral Springs with wifeMaria Gonzalez and has three children, now adults. “It’s important to return to one’s roots.”

The two performers have their roots in central Havana, where they studied classical piano, but they carry Afro-Cuban rhythms in theirDNA.

Rubalcaba played percussion is his father’s band, starting at age 5. Guillermo Rubalcabawas a popular pianist, composer and bandleader, and several family memberswere also musicians.

Nuviola started playing piano at age 3, encouraged by her mother, Adelaida Elisa Suárez, a piano teacher.

“We both came from homes where itwas common to see rehearsals, jam sessions and long conversations about music and art,” Rubalcaba said.

Nuviola recalled meeting Rubalcaba when she was 7, on the day she auditioned at the conservatory. A few years older, Rubalcabawas at a more advanced level. She became his biggest admirer.

“Whenever I heard he was jamming with his friends, Iwould be there. Even then, I sawhis talent, the speed with which his fingersmoved over the keys. Iwould say tomyself, ‘Oh, my God.’”

The two performers also view “Viento y Tiempo” as a tribute to their mothers, who bonded over their musically gifted children and pushed them toward excellence.

“We couldn’t play popular music at school, so it wasmymother who taught me to play all the Cuban songs,” Nuviola said. “And Gonzalo’smom convinced him to study piano when hewanted to become a percussionist.”

Rubalcaba said his mother, Yolanda “Chiquitica” Fonseca, didn’t have to do much convincing: “I did it to please her. We always had a special relationship.”

MidtownHavana in the mid-1970s and early ’80s – when theywere growing up – was a hub of live and recorded music.

Rubalcaba said the environment helped launch a newwave of Cuban musicians, among them Juan Formell – his longtime neighbor – who created the iconic dance band Los Van Van, and Chucho Valdes’ internationally acclaimed Afro-Cuban jazz group Irakere. Both Cuban bands rose to fame in the early ’70s.

“When you’re transitioning fromchildhood to adolescence, the songs you hear stay with you throughout your life … they become part of who you are,” Rubalcaba said.

Part of who Rubalcaba andNuviola are can be heard on “Viento y Tiempo.”

The album includes “El Guararey de Pastora,” an early Van Van hit, along with Cuban standards “El Manicero” and “Lagrimas Negras” – all infused with Rubalcaba’s jazz arrangements andNuviola’s fiery improvisations.

The danzonete “Rompiendo La Rutina” is a nod to Rubalcaba’s father, who performed the song with his band La Charanga Tipica de Concierto. Rubalcaba calls the piece “a gem of an encounter between European music and AfroCuban music.”

“Bemba Colora” is the album’s one song that wasn’t played in Cuba when the twowere growing up. The songwas associated with Celia Cruz, whose musicwas banned in Cuba after she defected.

“It’s one of Aymée’s best interpretations fromCelia’s repertoire,” Rubalcaba said. It’s also, he added, one of Cuba’s first songs to mix two genres: rumba and son.

The opening track, “Rumba Callejera,” written byNuviola, is a duet with her sister and former band member, Lourdes.

“If Aymée hadn’t lived in the neighborhood and experienced everything she did, shewould not have been able to write a song like that,” Rubalcaba added.

The album’s only nonCuban song is “El Ciego,” a haunting bolero byMexican composer Armando Manzanero, whowas popular in Cuba. The song givesNuviola a chance to showa different side as a vocalist – that of a jazz singer.

“Aymée can do a lot more than she’s known for,” said Rubalcaba. “She sawan opportunity to go beyond a bolero … itwasn’t somethingwe talked about, it happened naturally.”

Working together brought back memories, but it also made them realize something: Both are survivors of a totalitarian regime where lack of freedom and resources makes it hard for any artist to grow.

“We have lived similar experiences, we have the same emotional baggage,” saidNuviola, who arrived in Miami in 2004 viaMexico. “We have a certain chemistry, and thatwas important for whatwe sought to achieve [in ‘Viento y Tiempo’].”

Rubalcaba agreed.“We fully lived the Cuban reality, where it’s difficult to achieve a space as an artist because everything is so politicized and full of ideology, which youmay or may not agree with.”

Their shared experience impacted theirwork together “spiritually, emotionally and intellectually,” Rubalcaba added.“We understand each other, we speak about the same things – and musically, this has strengthened us.”

“Viento y Tiempo” is available on all digital platforms. For more information on Gonzalo Rubalcaba, go to G-rubalcaba.com. Formore information onAyméeNuviola, go toAymeenuviola .com.

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