Keyboardist of contemplated spontaneity.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: Cuban keyboardist Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Life in the jazz world's fast lane can take one to the spotlight of a Grammy Awards nomination and the prestige of a Lincoln Center debut. Along the way, if that traveler is Cuba's keyboard wunderkind Gonzalo Rubalcaba, it can also mean an increasingly busy performance schedule and quick dashes to the closest airport to catch flights to Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Toronto, and a host of other cosmopolitan destinations.

And, a trip to the auto body repair shop. The thirty-three-year-old virtuoso's residency in Santo Domingo, the sprawling capital city of the Dominican Republic, has brought with it the kind of problems he was unlikely to face in his hometown of Havana.

"I'm sorry, Gonzalo won't be able to make it to the interview," the pianist's personal manager, Jose Forteza, telephoned to inform. "A trip came up. We're leaving for Japan, and he had to rush off to the consulate and got into an accident."

However, the appointment is honored a year later when Rubalcaba, again tempting fate and the chaotic byways of Santo Domingo, arrives at the door of my hotel in his gleaming white Honda Prelude. Soon we're off to visit the city's history-drenched colonial neighborhood for a chat in one of the open-air cafes. Whether he has significantly enhanced his driving skills or the traffic on this breezy June day is more forgiving, Rubalcaba is at ease and in control, talking softly about his life in this colorful metropolis and his ever-more demanding career.

Not surprisingly, his skill behind the wheel quickly reminds me of the qualities of his playing: instantaneous decisions and quick bursts of energy as he gears down and darts around a lumbering delivery truck; a pensive interlude as we skirt a university campus, thick with impetuous pedestrians; intense concentration when we enter the maze of narrow cobblestone streets with their unpredictable twists and turns.

Santo Domingo is currently home for the pianist, his wife Maria, and sons Joao and Joan, as well as manager Forteza, his brother Luis, and their families. With its Spanish and African-derived culture, the country provides an inviting and supportive living environment for the Cubans while facilitating the communications and transportation needs that have become critical to meet the ever-increasing demands of the pianist's international career.

Born in Havana in 1963, the pianist is the son of Guilhermo Rubalcaba, a well-known Cuban musician who played piano in the famed Enrique Jorrin Orchestra. His...