Speaking of virtuosos and prodigies…
Gonzalo Rubalcaba is, as far as I can tell, universally venerated for his technical prowess on the piano
I’ve seen people comment that sometimes his flair and chops are a bit too much
That he sacrifices musicality for showmanship
This seems odd to me, since virtuosity and technical wizardry are pretty much par for the course in hip hop art forms
Can you imagine someone complaining that QBert’s cuts are just too complex?
Anyway, I was introduced to Rubalcaba by my college advisor
He has dedicated a couple of his books to the Cuban king’s “creole modernism”
Like several other artists featured here, he came from a professional musical family
He was “discovered” by Dizzy Gillespie, one of several big names in jazz who drew inspiration from the music of the isle
He’s since gone on to contracts with Blue Note and numerous awards
Today’s dose is atypically subdued
A duet with Polish chanteuse Anna Maria Jopek
She got that airy, throaty sound characteristic of the classic cabaret
This is a Polish love song that I don’t know much about
https://youtu.be/ydCq-e7oIQk
But did find an earlier version (presumably 30s) where the rhythm swings more militarily, or perhaps like a tango
In any case, more straight leg than the sultry curves in evidence in Jopek and Rubalcaba’s rendition
Hanka Ordonowna was a singer and actor from the interwar period, who sang in a bunch of Polish films
One site says she was one of the first women in Poland to wear pants in public, and her sexy costumes were quite the scandal at the time
She was arrested by the Gestapo and spent time in a gulag and in Siberia
She died of tuberculosis in 1950
