Introducing...Rubén González
| Introducing...Rubén González | ||||
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| Studio album by Rubén González | ||||
| Released | September 16, 1997 | |||
| Recorded | April 1996 | |||
| Studio | EGREM, Havana, Cuba | |||
| Genre | Danzón, cha-cha-chá, canción, guaracha, son, bolero | |||
| Length | 45:54 | |||
| Label | World Circuit, Nonesuch | |||
| Producer | Nick Gold | |||
| Rubén González chronology | ||||
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Introducing... Rubén González is the second studio album by Cuban pianist Rubén González. It was recorded at EGREM studios in Havana, Cuba, during April 1996, as the last of the sessions that also yielded the albums A Toda Cuba le Gusta and Buena Vista Social Club. It was released on September 16, 1997, through World Circuit, thus becoming González's international debut. The album reached number seventeen on Billboard Top Latin Albums.
This album was made at the end of World Circuit's three week recording session at EGREM Studios in Havana that had started in March 1996. Every morning during the recording of A Toda Cuba le Gusta (produced by Juan de Marcos González), Rubén would wait for the studio's doors to open and would rush to the piano and play. The same would happen throughout the recording of Buena Vista Social Club (produced by Ry Cooder). After these two albums were completed, Rubén was still at the piano.
It was such a beautiful piano and I had to play it. They were all my friends around so I went and started playing a tumbao. Then, Cachaíto joined me on the bass, then the rhythm started to play and it was good. But then someone turned up the lights. I thought they wanted me to stop because I was interrupting. Then I saw Nick put his thumb up and they asked me to stay.
Not only was he asked to stay, but he was invited to record his own album, to choose his own repertoire and to play for as long as he wanted. With virtually no rehearsals, the band played this collection of classic Cuban tunes, as a series of descargas (Cuban jam sessions).
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Wikipedia