Late Cuban Pianist Rub N Gonz Lez Sounds As Fresh As Ever On A New Reissue Of His 1997 Solo Album

Two decades ago Ry Cooder and Nick Gold produced a series of recordings with long-forgotten veterans of Cuban music under the now familiar name “Buena Vista Social Club,” but for me the greatest product of that effort wasn’t the acclaimed all-star band that spent years touring the globe. It was the spin-off recordings from some of that band’s strongest members, among them Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Orland “Cachaíto” Lopez, Omara Portuondo, Manuel Galban, and Eliades Ochoa. They got the chance to share their dazzling musical personalities alongside some of the greatest accompanists possible. Next to Ferrer’s superb 2003 album Buenos Hermanos, my favorite solo album to arise from the BVSC phenomenon was Introducing . . . Rubén González (World Circuit), whose title slyly alludes to the fact that the pianist was 77 when it dropped. (He died in 2003 at age 84.)

Mirror Mind Rose, Papaver (Umlaut) Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Giya Kancheli: Symphonies 2 & 7 (CPO) Dirty Projectors, Dirty Projectors (Domino) Glenn Mercer, Incidental Hum (Bar/None) Lovedale, Green Sounds (ILK)