Word: pasionaria
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Afro-Cuban flavor permeates Rubalcaba's playing, placing his virtuoso stylings in an effective and distinctive context. This world music influence is most evident on the Spanish-style waltz "La Pasionaria," but is apparent throughout the album's six tracks. Often there is a dance-like and regular feel to his solo lines, accompanied by percussive comping; other times he will simply transplant wholly Cuban figures into his improvisations...
...Vignette" is tastefully executed, but seems to meander and lose a little steam toward the end of its 11-minute span. The excitement picks up again with Haden's bluesy "Bay City," which leads into the centerpiece of the album, "La Pasionaria." The most extended performance on the album at 14 minutes, it also is the most ambitious in its incorporation of diverse musical idioms. Another Haden original, the mellow "Silence," and an appealing version of Ornette Coleman's "The Blessing" pass before Rubalcaba and company leave the audience with an impressive, incendiary rendition of Miles Davis' "Solar...
...hard to find anyone who thinks the women should have turned themselves in. It is equally hard to find anyone who detects a note of triumph in their suicide. Novelist Alix Kates Shulman quotes La Pasionaria on this point: "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees." But as Brooklyn Law School professor Elizabeth Schneider points out, the message here is that "self-assertion and awakening lead to death." Or, as film scholar Annette Insdorf puts it, "When death is your only choice, how free...