Aymée Nuviola and Gonzalo Rubalcaba Nominated for Duo of the Year at the JJA Jazz Awards

May 5, 2023

Cubans Aymée Nuviola and Gonzalo Rubalcaba have been nominated for the award given by the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA Jazz Awards) in the "Duo of the Year" category.

Finalists are chosen from those who receive the most nominations from professional journalists who evaluate the excellence of hundreds of musicians from around the world.

The JJA Jazz Awards, as explained on their website, represent a numerical consensus of the personal evaluations made by the association's voting members, and are based on work performed in the year prior to the awards ceremony.

In November 2022, Nuviola and Rubalcaba won the Latin Grammy in the Best Traditional Tropical Album category with the album they share as a duo: Live in Marciac, a recording that captures the magic of a live concert and includes classics of Latin jazz along with other original works.

The album includes songs such as "Bésame Mucho," "Lágrimas Negras," "El Manisero," and "Dos Gardenias," performed during a concert at the Jazz in Marciac Festival in France, which took place at the Chapiteau Concert Hall.

Rubalcaba and Nuviola first joined forces as musical collaborators in 2020, when they released the now-acclaimed live album Viento y Tiempo – Live at Blue Note Tokyo, a work that earned them a Grammy nomination in 2020 in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, highlighting the influence of jazz and Afro-Cuban music in the work of both musicians.

Live in Marciac was Aymée Nuviola's fourth nomination and second Latin Grammy award, an artist who was previously nominated in 2014 in the Best Salsa Album category for her album First Class to Havana.

In 2018, she won the award for Best Tropical Fusion Album for the album Como anillo al dedo. A year later, the pianist and composer was again nominated for the awards for the album A Journey Through Cuban Music in the Best Traditional Tropical Album category; with which she also won a Grammy Award in 2020.

For his part, with the Academy's recognition of Live in Marciac, Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba has accumulated three Latin Grammys. He won it in 2002 for his album Supernova and in 2006 for the album Solo. The jazz composer also has two Grammy Awards in his music career.

The Jazz Journalists Association is an international organization of all types of media professionals who document, promote, or appreciate jazz. It has approximately 250 members, including professional journalists, students, industry partners, and supporting institutions from around the world.

In addition to Rubalcaba and Nuviola, this year the musician of Cuban descent Arturo O'Farrill is also nominated for the JJA Jazz Awards, competing in the Big Band of the Year category.