The story first looks like a table, on the left hand side stands the singer, guitar in hand, in front of him, a bassman navigating between his fingers and a bow. The first looses himself singing a blues, deeply inspired by the powerfull sound of the upright bass. The song comes from far away, it has a taste of nostalgia, the remembers of a father, of the past times on the road, the song couldn’t sound better than ten thousand miles from home. Trough the hotel’s window, they can see Tokyo in movement, nobody out there can imagine that time is suspended in that very room. A third character is there, recording that simple moment, and he doesn’t guess what he lives is the first building rock of this new album.
The idea of a new solo album started to germinate after that moment, shared by Canut and the Boclé brothers during a Gipsy Kings tour in Japan. Canut wanted to share his intimate world, pay tribute to those who shaped his personality, his father Jose Reyes of course, but also other great artists such as Atahualpa Yupanqui. He also wanted to bring to light the diversity of his musical passions that go far beyond the gypsy style in which we have been accustomed to see him evolve.
His meeting with Gildas & Jean Baptiste Boclé was decisive. Those ones have built a solid reputation in the jazz world, and the number of great figures they played with is countless.
They created an indefinable style combining jazz and pop to Celtic cultures, fusion is one of the hallmarks of their musical universe. Gildas on bass and Jean Baptiste on keyboards brought to the project the richness and musical diversity that Canut wanted to highlight. They both have a strong composing and arranging background as well, which is obvious in the pieces that include a Symphonic String ensemble (The Cappellen Ensemble in the Czech Republic).
These are the ingredients of this opus, the singular voice of Canut, heir to the great tradition of gypsy song, carried by rich and unexpected compositions and arrangements. This album is the reflect of the musicians who made it, diverse and inspired. We find the love of Canute for classical music, the requirement and the subtlety of jazz music, solos both febrile and powerful of the bagpipes, a universe that varies from a song to another, each is a surprise.
Recorded between Tokyo, Paris, Arles, New York and Prague, this album was recorded as a journey, a musical journey, carried by Canut’s poetic and dreamlike universe. 20 years after his tribute to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero through a disk acclaimed for its originality, Canut comes back, offering an album that looks like him, he offers a bare vision of his soul, a view he actually never revealed.
Canut Reyes EN 