You
have an impressive curriculum, you started playing when you were 11
years old, then you addressed on jazz and fingerpicking and you have
not stopped since now, can you tell us a bit about your beginnings
and how did you approach your guitar?
What
impresses me is that twenty five years have passed since I took up
the guitar and a dozen since at least I chose to do it as a job, and
after so many adventures, disappointments, frustrations and some
satisfaction I still have the same passion and curiosity; or perhaps
having more awareness my passion increased also!
When
I was a child I started studying piano and I would say reluctantly, I
wanted to play sax, but I have an older cousin, a rocker which at the
time made me listen to the guitar solos of various rock bands and
told me: "Look here! What are you studying piano for?! "
Now if I play the guitar is all his fault!
I
remember my first classical guitar’s teacher, he gave me a VHS with
a method by Jorma Kaukonen guitar fingerpicking and a book by Franco
Morone, so I approached the acoustic guitar. I've always written
music for guitar, but I kept it for me and I had parallel projects
with electric guitar, I really played a lot of music and with several
people. I studied Jazz in Milan at the civic school of jazz, meeting
Franco Cerri and studying with him is one of the most beautiful
experiences that I had in my life.
With
what guitars do you play and did you play?
In Tales, the new album, I used an acoustic Collings OM2H, a National Resonator M2 and a classic Alhambra. In my previous record instead I used a Martin 00028 and a Bourgeois JOMC, but I have both sold them.
What
were and are your main musical influences?
I
listen mostly jazz and blues but in the past I have heard a lot of
'70s and '90s rock,I have a particular fondness for what is played on
acoustic therefore al lot of traditional music, ethnic, especially
having a Bulgarian wife, for me Balkan music is a must. And then some
African musicians, I love Mali’s music.
What
is the meaning of improvisation in your music research? Shall we talk
about improvisation in a so encoded repertoire as the classic one or
we're forced to leave it and turn to other repertoires, jazz,
contemporary, etc?
We
know that improvisation was born many centuries before jazz and not
all jazz music is improvised, I think it’is absolutely a cross
genres practice, I think it is a choice that a musician makes.
Also the different ways you can use, are quite subjective.
For
me I like the idea of playing freely,
always reserving spaces where I can let myself go, sometimes even
just a simple interpretation of the theme. I think that playing in
this way playing gains in freshness, perhaps at the expense of some
imperfections, it does not matter, what interests me is to be honest
and communicate something. And then there is the dialogue with the
musicians while
playing,
the idea of creating something together, now at the moment, maybe on
a stage, it is too charming.
Your
technique is really excellent, how much is still important to have a
good technique for a guitarist or a bassist? I ask it because I
reminded of an anecdote: in the 70s Robert Fripp, heavily disputed by
some punk who considered him a dinosaur, replied seraphic "who
is a slave of the technique? Who has too much or who does not? "
I
thank you, Fripp could not give a better answer and I add that what
makes him so special are the sound, the unique style, in voicing and
phrasing and his continues searching. Briefly,
he is an artist who has played everything, punk is dinosaur’s
stuff, Fripp is all right, he's back again now! Instrument’s
technique I think is a means to express themselves better, then you
should
have something to say.
Ry
Cooder has an excellent technique, but he never shows it and he
always makes great music, there are people who insist on trying the
difficult gesture, the stunt’s spectacular, the particular tuning
only if that would be enough ... but in the end you close your eyes
and you always listen to the same things.
I
ask you a little bit provocative question about music in general, not
just contemporary or avant-garde. Frank Zappa in his autobiography
wrote: "If John Cage, for example would say" Now put a
contact microphone on throat, then I drink carrot juice and this will
be my composition ", then his gargling would qualify as a
COMPOSITION, because he applied a frame, declaring it as such. "Take
it or leave it, now I want this to be music." It's really good
this statement to define a music’s genre, is it enough to say this
is classical music, this is contemporary and so it's done? Does it
still makes sense to talk about "genre"?
I
have not read his autobiography, interesting Zappa talks about Cage,
two great men.
But
yes, everyone has his own language, however, we must present
ourselves well, maybe a little tie and carrot juice .. I would not do
it too much liquid, I would also put a few bits of carrot so that
the microphone is able to capture the variations of the harmonic flow
and then a helmet, knowing that if I would play it live people would
stone my head
but only because I do not really believe in it, eh!
I
think there's a music that we can easily categorize, other that is
more complicated to place it into genres and subgenres, and give it a
name, I prefer the second one.
I
have sometimes
the feeling
that in
our time
music
history would flow
without
a
particular interest in
its
chronological
course,
in our
discoteque
before and
after,
past
and future become
interchangeable
elements,
do you think could be for
an
interpreter
and
a
composer
a risk of
a
uniform
vision?
A
"music
globalization"?
Yes
there is this
risk, but
this is
also
the time when
all the information is
just a click away
so it's
up to us.
Shall
we talk a moment about your discography? In 2010 you released "Wait"
and in 2014 "Tales" with Cristiano Da Ros that really
impressed me, how were born these two projects?
I
could define "Wait" as a collection: it contains songs
written even ten years before their publication; was a bit like a
sum, tidying up the notes and put together the wealth of my previous
experience. I have played … everything and in that record I tried
to put it all in my guitar.
"Tales"
is instead a starting point, the project with Cristiano Da Ros was
born from the idea to “steal” the acoustic sound of rural blues
and place it into a different musical context, perhaps more modern
and open to different harmonies. In addition to the sound and harmony
with Christiano we work a lot about the role of our two instruments:
playing in duo allows us to avoid more conventional functions, and
leads us to dialogue during our improvisation’s moments. Christiano
is an excellent soloist
while fingerstyle guitar playing allows me to have a polyphonic
dimension and a wide sound spectrum;
I hope these aspects and changes of role could be appreciated because
we have tried to add color’s variety and more dynamism to our
tracks.
The
line of continuity between these two albums is the live recording: I
like the idea of recording my performance and sweat to pursue it, I
would like someone listening to the CD thinking "nice I'm
listening to these two play their music." Both records are
released by Baraban Records, which is my project, or maybe it's still
only a hope, of an independent label.
I
know that you are a rural blues fan, I love playing Mississippi John
Hurt and I'm starting with Reverend Gary Davis, what are your
preferences? It 'a very large world to explore, be blessed the cds
reprints!
Fantastic!
I love Skip James and Blind Blake, amazing guitarist, Big Bill
Broonzy, sound crazy, Blind Willie Johnson, Bo Carter ... there are
so many. Yes it is a really nice trip and the deeper you dig the more
you want to know. An expert? No doubt: my
friend,
Woody Mann.
What
advice would you give to a young person today who would like to
record a cd and start a career as professional musician?
The
advice I always give myself is to be concrete and have small goals.
Last
question: a few years ago, during an interview with Bill Milkowski
for his book "Rockers, Jazzbos & Visionaries" Carlos
Santana said, "Some people have talent, some people have vision.
And vision is more important then talent, obviously. "I think he
has a great talent, but ... what is your vision?
I
have a vision: Marzullo (a boring italian TV presenter) has taken
possession of you for this question! About Santana just look at his
performance at Woodstock to understand his art. Andrea thank you very
much for this interview, your blog is very interesting I'm just happy
to be there, see you soon!
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