Antiguo – Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Cuban Quartet

In Antiguo, Gonzalo Rubalcaba breaks away from the inertia of virtuosity to enter infinitely more complex territory: living memory. Released in the late nineties, the album functions as a manifesto where academic piano avant-garde, electronic synthesis, and the liturgical roots of Yoruba Santería coexist within a single pulse. Rubalcaba abandons the comfort of the traditional acoustic piano to integrate Roland synthesizers that dialogue with the pulse of Felipe Cabrera's double bass and the relentless rhythmic architecture of Julio Barreto on drums.

A common trap of Afro-Cuban jazz is often self-indulgence in speed. Here, the quartet—anchored by Reynaldo Melián's trumpet—operates with the precision of a chamber ensemble and the raw force of an ancestral ritual. Tracks like "Circuito III" and "Circuito IV" project a futuristic language with clear echoes of Weather Report's or Chick Corea's electronic eras, while cuts like "Ellioko" and "Eshun Agwe" invoke the direct spirituality of the Orishas, thanks to vocal contributions from master Lázaro Ros, the voice of Maridalia Hernández, and the percussive fire of Giovanni Hidalgo.

Cabrera's double bass and the brass section do not seek to fill space, but rather to sustain the tension between harmonic abstraction and swing. 

Antiguo is not a nostalgic gaze at the island's past; it is a rhythmic exercise applied to Afro-Cuban tradition. Gonzalo Rubalcaba crafts a treatise in which contemporary jazz does not merely pay homage to its roots: it inhabits them, strains them, and projects them into the future.