A Long Way

Description

Jany McPherson is an extremely talented Cuban pianist, singer, and composer. The innate rhythmic sense that comes from her homeland, the unpredictable harmonic and melodic progressions present in her music, the touching interpretative intensity of her ballads, and the originality of her phrasing and improvisational language unequivocally define the unique and recognizable character of her pianistic style and composition.
Jany McPherson quickly attracted the attention of the international jazz scene, and rightly so, by collaborating with JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, who chose her as a "Special Guest" for several concerts of his summer 2022 tour: North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and others. Jany McPherson and JOHN MCLAUGHLIN also performed as a duo at the Teatro Real in Madrid on July 30, 2022, as part of the Universal Music Festival, in tribute to Paco De Lucia. An artistic partnership that the British guitarist wished to strengthen by re-inviting her for the eight concerts of "The Liberation Tour," scheduled from October 6 to 20, 2023, in Europe.
"A LONG WAY" is a jazz album where various styles and influences meet. It contains all original compositions by McPherson, recorded in trio. You will discover and appreciate all the strength, talent, passion, and infinite range of colors that this artist puts into what she writes, plays, or sings, never falling into clichés or predictable stereotypes, but rather showing her ability to evoke the sounds of her country with great modernity.
"This album is a tribute to everything that has been my life from my childhood to today. It has been 'a long way' full of different things, as happens in everyone's life. I was born and raised in Cuba, a land I love, full of sounds, but sometimes difficult if you have expectations for a different future," says Jany McPherson. "I had to make difficult and painful choices, but I felt I had to change to grow, and I could only do that by leaving Cuba. I took with me all the history, tradition, and culture that had shaped me until then and moved to France. My whole life is in this album. The melodies, the harmonies, the rhythms, the way I conceived and developed the arrangements, the sound and direction this work took: everything came to my mind with unexpected simplicity. Sometimes, I close my eyes and while listening to this music, I imagine moments from my life, as if they were scenes from a movie."
If I had to summarize the album in a few words, I would summarize it like this: 'Music of the soul, for the soul.'
Jany McPherson will present “A LONG WAY” to the French public on June 20, 2024, during a trio concert at "Baiser Salé."
This new album follows her previous discographic work “SOLO PIANO!" (2020 Glider Media Group Ltd produced by Gianluca di Furia). A work that, by depriving McPherson of the comfort of a rhythm section, placed all the responsibility for the eleven tracks of the album in her hands, of which ten were original. In Italy, the album is included as a physical CD with issue 110 of the specialized magazine JAZZIT.
Chucho Valdés, one of the greatest Cuban pianists of all time, said of McPherson and her album "SOLO PIANO!": "This young Cuban artist has done an excellent recording job; her expressive freshness, the imagination displayed, a high-level technique, make this CD something wonderful for me, and I can only rejoice in it. I am sure of your success. Keep going!"
Born in Guantánamo, after an excellent career in Cuba, where she received the prestigious "Adolfo Guzmán" award and collaborated with artists such as Omara Portuondo and Buena Vista Social Club, the Orchestra Anacaona, Alain Pérez, and many others, McPherson chose France as her place of residence. A true show woman and extraordinary performer, she has collaborated with artists such as John McLaughlin, Mino Cinelu, Andy Narell, André Ceccarelli, Didier Lockwood, Orlando "Maraca" Valle, Pierre Bertrand, Nicolas Folmer, to name just a few. Invited to numerous international festivals such as the Trinidad & Tobago Jazz Festival, Kathmandu Jazz in Nepal, Montreux Jazz Festival, Grenoble Métropole Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam, L'Atrium Scène Nationale/Martinique, Auditorium P-E Decimus/Guadeloupe, Cotton Club Tokyo, Nice Jazz Festival, Jazz en Baie, Annecy Jazz Festival, Palermo Classica, etc. https://youtu.be/YsMAkb50bg4 (Live in Palermo -Jany McPherson Trio), Jazz en Tête in Clermont-Ferrand, Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome, Toulon, Monza Palazzo Reale, etc…