EntertainmentMusicArthur Hanlon travels to the past of Latin music

Arthur Hanlon travels to the past of Latin music

The Irish-American pianist, considered one of the most successful instrumentalists of his generation, released “Piano y mujer,” an album in which he performs timeless works, sung by female Latin music talents.

Irish by name, American by birth and Latin American at heart, he is Arthur Hanlon. He is the son of Irish parents, was born in Detroit, Michigan, but his true passion is Latin music. At the age of 17 he began to play the piano and from there came the inspiration to name the album Piano y mujer. Remember that he played in restaurants, bars, parties or anything to earn “twenty pesos.” Normally, if people can’t afford to pay the whole band they say: “We’re going to send Arthur (Hanlon) with his piano and his wife.”

His taste for the Latin sound is the product of his time in New York , where he obtained his master’s degree as a concert pianist from the famed Manhattan School of Music. In addition, Latin clubs became his first stages, where he fell in love with music and culture from Mexico to Argentina.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Arthur Hanlon Piano (@arthurhanlon)

His name is synonymous with a piano virtuoso, composer, arranger, and a renowned Latin instrumental musician. His artistic life has always been surrounded by female voices, for that reason he decided to dedicate a single album to those artists with whom he has worked throughout his career. In 2018, he featured No Guilt Along with ChocQuibTown, a hit that stayed on the Billboard charts for 16 weeks.

Piano y mujer has as guests Kany García, Natalia Jiménez, Goyo (from ChocQuibTown), Nella Rojas and Evaluna Montaner. Each performs a version of a classic and a song from their own repertoire, with the exception of Evaluna, who sings two emblematic songs from the Anglo songbook: Hallelujah and Amazing Grace.

Arthur Hanlon not only plays the piano, but feels every note, every melody; This is how he achieves a record work with a varied repertoire of timeless music, ranging from pop to salsa. Although the original idea was to record everyone from home alone, in the end they decided it was impossible.

“That was a rare thing about the pandemic. I feel like it created such a weird energy, I was running around and suddenly I found myself in the house with a lot of time. Typically a studio session is three to four hours. So I organized with Goyo . We said: ‘There is no one in the studio, we are going to record’ and we started talking. I told her that one of my heroes in music is Jairo Varela and she told me that this is her older cousin ”, says the pianist.

At that moment, Hanlon thought he was joking … out of nowhere he started playing the intro on the piano. “And she started to tell me: ‘Let’s add this reggaeton to a part and we started like this, we do it this way …’. It was an album with which I had a lot of time to think and to perfect things, so I think it turned out to be something very interesting ”.

Follow the news of El Espectador on Google News
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Arthur Hanlon Piano (@arthurhanlon)

Synergy and compatibility were there, it was for that reason that Hanlon called her friends to develop a project that lasted a total of a year and a month. “We started this project in March, it took about five months to present only the audio and in October we recorded a special that comes out on HBO and Sony,” he says. Time was an accomplice for a period that allowed him to connect deeply with what he wanted to develop. Simultaneously, he prepared a television special.

“It is a project that we recorded in a closed space of a hotel with ten women from a band. I feel like I’m surrounded by women, because there are also those on the album with whom we made the thirteen songs. We talk about music; I played, taught them, asked them what they thought. It was very organic, “he says.

The encounter of his piano with Latin voices has been a project that the author considers to feel “incredible” with. Although it is a mixture of iconic songs clinging to the past, the pianist also develops current projects that look to the future.

Let’s go compadre (intro), Evidences (Kany García), Red sky (Natalia Jiménez), Raindrops (Goyo), They call me Nella (Nella), Paraíso (instrumental), Amazing Grace (Evaluna Montaner), Believe in me (Natalia Jiménez), Nuquí – I love you for me (Goyo), Hallelujah (Evaluna Montaner), Caballo viejo (Nella), I’m leaving today (Kany García), Hey how it’s going (outro) were the songs chosen by the pianist to perform his reinterpretation.

Even Hanlon himself found it crazy that in the middle of the pandemic, when everything was closed, he decided to start an album that he had dreamed of for a long time. “It was very hard to record when the pandemic was present, but Piano and woman came out . I always remember that when we started the project I was wearing two masks (face masks) and I saw Goyo. We both just look into each other’s eyes and I feel like we connect thinking: ‘what are we doing? We are crazy, it’s in the middle of a pandemic! ‘ When we took off the mask and started the session, a very rare special energy emerged ”.

That sensation is also felt when he plays and plays each key of his sacred instrument. He has become known as a pianist who does not sing with his voice, but performs perfectly with his hands. “When I am with the piano I feel that I am with my best friend, my girlfriend, my lover, my wife and my psychologist. It’s everything and more than when I say that I’m going to play a song, it’s not like I get on and start playing and that’s it, but it’s a vehicle. I also want to transport people when they hear them, be it the future or the past. That is my challenge ”, he adds.

Each part of Piano y mujer is a journey back to its beginnings, nearly twenty years ago, when it managed to connect with Spanish in a neighborhood of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Colombians. His inspiration was born with merengue, salsa and bachata. Today brings together in a single album a Puerto Rican, a Mexican, a Venezuelan and a Colombian. Artists who for Hanlon have talent in common, even if they are different, and that is where the magic of a record like Piano and Woman is born.

More