“Reality and fantasy” is the debut album of Sugar’s brand new talent Raphael Gualazzi, the eclectic pianist, composer and performer from Urbino with an all jazzy and stride piano outlook on the world.
Produced, composed and arranged by Raphael Gualazzi himself, “Reality and Fantasy” is a Caterina Caselli project comprising 14 tracks plus one bonus track, the lot boasting contributions by the likes of world-renowned artists such as Gilles Peterson (“Reality and fantasy remix”), James F. Reynolds and Pete Glenister (“A three second breath”), Vince Mendoza (“Follia d’amore), Fabrizio Bosso (trumpet in “Follia d’amore”, “Icarus”, “Behind the sunrise”, “Love goes down slow”, “Empty home”), Fio Zanotti (co-composer in “Tuesday”, “Sarò sarai”, “Love goes down slow”, “Empty home”) and Ferdinando Arnò (co-producer in “Follia d’amore”)
The album’s fifteen tracks were recorded in a region of our dimension so timeless and are so abundant in diverse stylistic influences as to make it almost impossible to accurately decipher one by one. And yet they unmistakably make up the framework to a stunning record, whose evolution springs from a forthright and strenuous search for the right path, skirting many a musical border and huddling up many a passion, in search of the one and only never to be let go. Raphael achieves this great album also playing live, constantly, anywhere and through loads of sacrifice, countless sleepless nights, with a bag full of promises and no income to go along with them, investing everything in an interest-free dream.
Raphael Gualazzi’s musical dictionary is a rich bundle of experience, of sounds absorbed throughout the years of piano studies at the Conservatorio Rossini in Pesaro. Aged nine, Raphael falls in love with classical piano only to soon give his heart and soul away to blues. Raphael soon loses himself in blues, in the buoyant and yet desperate soul of black music. But he also discovers, and instantly falls in love with, the magic of stride piano, the very magic that struck Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. Raphael soon also embraces the music and sounds of ragtime and New Orleans blues, so drenched in African pain and so eloquent in depicting the wrath of suffering.
The album features a highly original blend of tradition and novelty. It is almost impossible to listen to it without perceiving the vibes of the likes of Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai and Ray Charles. Yet, their presence is just hinted at, as everything seems to be distilled by a passion so unlike anything else listened to before as to result in absolute novelty.
After all, the originality of “Reality and Fantasy” lies in a new light springing from tradition. This light happens to be a 30 year old musician who has already managed to go totally sold out at Paris’ Sunside Club, performing before a highly prestigious crowd, and who is about to land on stage at this year’s Sanremo Giovani with “Follia d’amore”.
Sugar