Skyline

Skyline Trio stems from Rubalcaba’s long-standing ambition to reunite with the mentors of his youth. It’s his eighth album on 5 Passion, the imprint label that he launched with the 2010 solo piano album Fé, and the first of a trilogy of trio encounters intended for release in September 2021.

 “I’m lucky that both Ron and Jack said yes,” Rubalcaba says. “They are very different personalities, which I mention because coming into the studio with them – or touring or playing a live concert – is not only a matter of playing together but living together humanly in the moment. Ron has a humor that is unique to him; I think of him almost as an English guy, even in the way he dresses. Jack is a storyteller; he loves to tell stories about everything – not only music. All these factors – the elegance, the eloquence, the smarts, their solutions to certain harmonic and rhythmic moments – you can hear in the way we play together. We had a four-hour rehearsal at Power Station studio NY, and then recorded the music in two days.”

  Ted Panken