Rubalcaba Strikes a Chord of Harmony With Contrasts

The question before the capacity house at Catalina Bar & Grill on Tuesday night for the opening of a six-night run by Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba was simple: Which Rubalcaba would show up?

Would it be Rubalcaba, the fiery technician who has sometimes turned audiences off with his sheer profusion of notes? Or would it be the lyrical, rhapsodic melodist who very nearly stole a Hollywood Bowl show from Wynton Marsalis and Joshua Redman last summer?

The answer is: both--and more.

Initially, the contrasting sides of his musical personality were on full display. Rubalcaba opened his performance with a lovely prologue tinged with elements of richly harmonized melody, while occasionally making a few forays in directions that threatened to reach into the realm of virtuosity for its own sake.

But when his band--with Reynaldo Melian, trumpet; Felipe Cabrera, bass; and Julio Barreto, drums--joined in, the true extent of Rubalcaba’s talents began to reveal itself. As appealing as some of his recordings with American players have been, none has come close to the music produced by Rubalcaba with his regular Cuban ensemble, which was making its first L.A. appearance. The band clearly provides the most felicitous environment for the complete expression of Rubalcaba’s wide-ranging abilities.

This is a group with the kind of uncommon interactivity--virtually symbiotic interactivity--rarely seen in jazz since Miles Davis’ classic band of the mid-’60s and the Wynton and Branford Marsalis’ quintet of the ‘80s. Every piece teemed with a stunning array of rhythmic phrasing between musicians that sprung from the beat without having to articulate it. Sudden shifts of tempo, doubling and quadrupling of the meter, dynamic crescendos and decrescendos were executed flawlessly, always retaining a tremendous forward rhythmic surge.

Rubalcaba was at the center of the action, energizing it, then harnessing its power in a series of brilliant solos. Two Dizzy Gillespie bebop tunes--”Groovin’ High” and “Woody ‘N’ You”--performed in tribute to one of his important mentors, were transformed into contemporary musical vehicles, with rhythms twisting in and out of hyperdrive and Rubalcaba’s choruses projecting seamlessly through the ensemble sound.

On other numbers, both slow and fast, he moved easily from smooth lyricism to the finger-blurring articulation of notes. And, in this context, each expressive form made sense, part of a collective in which four distinct voices come together to produce a perfectly interlocking, organic musical entity.

Counterbalancing Rubalcaba’s upfront piano was Barreto’s astonishing drumming. Blessed with a technique equal to that of his leader, he seemed capable of playing anything at any speed, and his sudden bursts of rhythmic explosiveness--incredibly rapid bass drumming, for example--brought frequent gasps of appreciative delight from the audience. Barreto is a performer who should figure prominently in the jazz percussion of the future.

Melian and Cabrera, each gifted with the skills that the music of the Rubalcaba quartet demands, played mostly supportive roles, with Melian’s high-speed trumpet soloing bringing a bright, Gillespie-styled bebop coloration to the proceedings.

* Gonzalo Rubalcaba Quartet at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $13 cover tonight and Sunday, $16 Friday and Saturday, with two-drink minimum. Rubalcaba performs two shows nightly, at 8:30 and 10:30.