JANY McPHERSON
Originally from Cuba, pianist, singer and composer Jany McPherson built a brilliant career in her land performing with some of the most prestigious names in Latin music, including Omara Portuondo & the Buena Vista Social Club, Alain Pérez, and Tata Güines.
She’s gifted with a highly original phrasing and improvisational language that make her pianism instantly recognizable and give her a decidedly unique signature. Her music is a synthesis of various styles and languages bordering and akin to jazz, which she expresses through a chromatic range rich in nuances, sometimes exotic, showing an ability to evoke the sounds of her land with great personality, originality and modernity.
She recently came to the attention of the international jazz scene for her collaboration with JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, who invited her as his “Special Guest” at prestigious festivals such as the North Sea and the Montreux Jazz Festival, and later made her a permanent member of the John McLaughlin Quintet, as pianist and singer. John McLaughlin’s new album “Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 2022” with Jany McPherson as Special Guest , released on August 8, 2025, has debuted at #3 on the Official UK Jazz & Blues Charts and reached top positions in the jazz download charts in several countries worldwide.
After receiving the esteemed Adolfo Guzmán Award in Cuba, she relocated to France, where her talents quickly caught the attention of producer Yves Chamberland (Nina Simone, Michel Petrucciani, Richard Galliano, Henri Salvador) who produced “Tres almas” (2011), her debut French album featuring legendary jazz musicians such as Didier Lockwood, Andy Narell, and Michel Alibo, and received widespread acclaim, including a nomination for Cubadisco Internacional. Her follow-up, “Blues Side Live” (2014), continued this momentum receiving another nomination at Cubadisco. Her third album, “SOLO PIANO!” (2020), is an album composed of 10 original instrumental tracks that also showcase McPherson’s remarkable skill as a composer. This album marks the beginning of her collaboration with Italian producer Gianluca di Furia, and received another Cubadisco nomination, accolades and praise from iconic figures such as Chucho Valdés.
Her last discographic work “A LONG WAY” (2023) is an album of eleven original compositions. It has been recorded in trio, through which you will be able to appreciate all the strength, the talent and the infinite palette of colors that this Artist puts in everything she writes, sings and performs. In it we discover her innate sense of melody, the character that makes each song easy to remember, the overwhelming melodic and harmonic progressions of her music, the touching interpretative intensity of her ballads. A sum and combination of elements that give her a piano artistry that is always recognizable and that also highlight her talent as a composer and song-writer.
She has collaborated with artists such as John McLaughlin, Mino Cinelu, Andy Narell, André Ceccarelli, Didier Lockwood, Orlando “Maraca” Valle, Pierre Bertrand and the “Nice Jazz Orchestra”, Nicolas Folmer, to name but a few.
She has been invited to numerous international festivals, such as the Trinidad and Tobago Jazz Festival, the Kathmandu Jazz Festival in Nepal, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz, the Atrium Scène Nationale/Martinique, the Auditorium P-E Decimus/Guadeloupe, the Cotton Club in Tokyo, the Nice Jazz Festival, Jazz en Baie, the Annecy Jazz Festival, Sant’Elpidio Jazz, Nora Jazz, Palermo Classica, Clermont Ferrand (Jazz en tête), Rome (Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone), Monza (Palazzo Reale) , Naturalmente Pianoforte (Castello di Porciano), Bari (Cortile Ateneo for Camerata Barese), Montalcino Jazz Festival (Castello Banfi), Colosseo Jazz Festival (Parco del Celio Rome), Polignano Jazz Festival, Kroton Jazz Fest, Nisville Jazz Festival at Nîs Fortress (Serbia), Pernik Jazz at Krakra Fortress (Bulgaria), Taormina (TaoArte), Sanremo Uno Jazz& Blues Festival (Auditorium Casinò), Grenoble Metropole and Alps Jazz Festival (France), Prerov Jazz (Repubblica Ceca), Messina (Auditorium Antonello da Messina – Filarmonica Laudamo), La Note Bleu (Monte Carlo),Eco Jazz (Reggio Calabria) Rome (Casa del Jazz), Bayerische Hof (Munich), Blue Note Milan, Lecce (Teatro Apollo), Lugano (Lac en plein air), CUFA Festival (Bloemfontein-South Africa), London (EFG London Jazz Festival and many others.
Her last discographic work “A LONG WAY” (2023) is an album of eleven original compositions. It has been recorded in trio, through which you will be able to appreciate all the strength, the talent and the infinite palette of colors that this Artist puts in everything she writes, sings and performs. In it we discover her innate sense of melody, the character that makes each song easy to remember, the overwhelming melodic and harmonic progressions of her music, the touching interpretative intensity of her ballads. A sum and combination of elements that give her a piano artistry that is always recognizable and that also highlight her talent as a composer and song-writer.
She has collaborated with artists such as John McLaughlin, Mino Cinelu, Andy Narell, André Ceccarelli, Didier Lockwood, Orlando “Maraca” Valle, Pierre Bertrand and the “Nice Jazz Orchestra”, Nicolas Folmer, to name but a few.
She has been invited to numerous international festivals, such as the Trinidad and Tobago Jazz Festival, the Kathmandu Jazz Festival in Nepal, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz, the Atrium Scène Nationale/Martinique, the Auditorium P-E Decimus/Guadeloupe, the Cotton Club in Tokyo, the Nice Jazz Festival, Jazz en Baie, the Annecy Jazz Festival, Sant’Elpidio Jazz, Nora Jazz, Palermo Classica, Clermont Ferrand (Jazz en tête), Rome (Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone), Monza (Palazzo Reale) , Naturalmente Pianoforte (Castello di Porciano), Bari (Cortile Ateneo for Camerata Barese), Montalcino Jazz Festival (Castello Banfi), Colosseo Jazz Festival (Parco del Celio Rome), Polignano Jazz Festival, Kroton Jazz Fest, Nisville Jazz Festival at Nîs Fortress (Serbia), Pernik Jazz at Krakra Fortress (Bulgaria), Taormina (TaoArte), Sanremo Uno Jazz& Blues Festival (Auditorium Casinò), Grenoble Metropole and Alps Jazz Festival (France), Prerov Jazz (Repubblica Ceca), Messina (Auditorium Antonello da Messina – Filarmonica Laudamo), La Note Bleu (Monte Carlo),Eco Jazz (Reggio Calabria) Rome (Casa del Jazz), Bayerische Hof (Munich), Blue Note Milan, Lecce (Teatro Apollo), Lugano (Lac en plein air), CUFA Festival (Bloemfontein-South Africa), London (EFG London Jazz Festival and many others.