Shani Diluka - Road 66 (2014) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. China Gates
02. My Wild Irish Rose
03. Lullaby
04. Pas de deux
05. Young Birches
06. Waltz for Debby
07. Etude No. 9
08. For Felicia Montealegre
09. In a Landscape
10. I Love Porgy
11. Interlude
12. Chandeliers
13. Danza de la mozo donosa
14. For Aaron Copland
15. Piano Blues No. 1 “ For Leo Smit ”
16. Peace Piece
17. Love walked in



From the incandescence of life to the Zen of Buddhism is just one small step . . . And so it is that Jack Kerouac, in his indefatigable search for the infinite, takes us on the roads of America, from the canyons to the stars. Here is an America caught between fantasy and reality, depicted through the metaphor of a journey on a long road, the legendary ‘Route 66’, like a specific musical odyssey traversing the United States both geographically and musically: ‘ . . . between the East of my youth and the West of my future’ (Kerouac).

This entire album was built on the idea of following in his footsteps, in a quest for the infinitely large within the infinitely small.

America represents a form of freedom in its expression and its immensity. Emerging from those wide open spaces in search of new worlds, its music is the fruit of its diversity, taking us from the repetitive and minimalist avant-garde to the dawn of Electro music, from the Woodstock Festival to the lands of Blues and Latino, without neglecting a contemporary scene indelibly marked by the dramatic events of 11 September 2001.

In my quest, I discovered hitherto unknown landscapes: Amy Beach, a female composer of genius, or Percy Grainger who became American by adoption; the world premiere of the piece by Hyung-ki Joo, who composed Chandeliers in New York in the aftermath of 7/11; the hypnotic meditations of John Adams, John Cage, and Philip Glass; the fascinating filiation between Bernstein, Copland, and Ginastera, who studied with Copland at Tanglewood and introduced a South American influence; the close links between Gershwin and jazz, which were an inspiration to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. To conclude the journey, Natalie Dessay offers us her exceptional presence in a new Cole Porter arrangement made especially for this disc by Raphaël Merlin of the Quatuor Ébène. The thrilling multiculturalism that – among so much else – engendered jazz, born from suffering to become a powerful, indispensable musical identity, accompanies Jack Kerouac throughout his book On the Road. He and the Beat Generation burnt out their short existences to reach the stars, nurtured by the mythical Eldorado that is America.

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