Transcript
>> HINOJOSA: He burst onto the
international jazz scene as the
youngest member of Dizzy
Gillespie's United Nations
Orchestra.
20 years later, his signature
Pan-American sound continues to
revolutionize contemporary jazz.
Innovative pianist, composer,
and humanitarian Danilo Perez.
I'm Maria Hinojosa.
This is One on One.
Wow, how beautiful, Danilo
Perez.
Thank you for joining us.
>> PEREZ: It's a pleasure to be here.
>> HINOJOSA: Some people might
not know your name, but you are
a Grammy award winning musician,
composer.
You head up the Berklee College
of Music Global Jazz Institute.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: You head up the
Panamanian Jazz Festival that
you created.
You live in Boston.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: And you give so
much back in terms of your music
to the world.
It's really an honor to have you
here.
>> PEREZ: It's my honor, too.
>> HINOJOSA: When people think
about jazz, sometimes they think
it's a solid American
traditional music.
You grew up in Panama, and in
fact, Panama and jazz, there's a
long history there.
I mean, you're Panamanian, Latin
jazz, but this is not new,
right?
>> PEREZ: Yes.
Actually, there has been a
significant contribution from
Panamanians to jazz, actually.
One of them started with Luis
Russell.
He made a fantastic contribution
with Louis Armstrong.
They made some records.
He grew up in Panama until he
was 17 years old.
He won a lottery, actually, to
come to the United States.
>> HINOJOSA: And there's also...
you were telling me this other
story-- Billie Holiday, "Strange
Fruit," which is the Billie
Holiday song.
>> PEREZ: Yeah, the piano player in
that recording is Sonny White,
actually.
>> HINOJOSA: Who's also
Panamanian?
>> PEREZ: Panamanian.
Fantastic.
>> HINOJOSA: So you were growing
up in Panama, pretty humble
background.
>> PEREZ: Mm-hmm.
>> HINOJOSA: Poor.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: But your parents
were very much involved in
music, your father.
>> PEREZ: Yeah.
>> HINOJOSA: So talk about those
memories of what you were
hearing in Panama.
What was your life in music as a
young boy growing up?
>> PEREZ: Well, my father was in love
with Cuban pianists.
Actually, Lino Frias, he was in
love with a lot of the great
artists from Panama.
But mainly piano players.
And he actually introduced me to
a fantastic pianist from Puerto
Rico called Papo Lucca.
And my father would sing to me,
like, tumbaos, like, (imitates
tumbao pattern) when I was a
kid, like...
(plays tumbao pattern)
And we would be all day doing
that.
>> HINOJOSA: And that's a
tumbao.
>> PEREZ: That's a tumbao, that's a
tumbao.
He would be all day saying,
"Check out how he changed," if
he made a little change like
(plays altered tumbao pattern).
"Look at those notes," from
early on.
You know, I was early on with my
percussion, with my cowbell,
with my clave.
You know, in the morning, at
breakfast, we would be singing.
You know, the house was full of
music.
You play all day at home.
>> HINOJOSA: Now, interestingly,
so you actually... musically,
you started by doing percussion.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: Because when I hear
your music... and your music is
so profoundly spiritual.
It's really, really beautiful,
and I hope people go and listen
to all of the albums that you
have done.
There is a serious rhythm, a
serious beat.
Even if it's subtle, it's in
your music.
>> PEREZ: Certainly.
And I think it's a connection
with the percussion, with the
bongos, from early on in my
life.
>> HINOJOSA: So give me an
example.
For example, just play
something, and we'll be able to
hear the importance of that
percussive beat.
Yeah, for example, there's a
Panamanian tamborito that goes,
(imitates tamborito pattern).
(plays pattern on piano)
So I set it up on that idea, on
the tamborito rhythm.
I don't set it up for the piano,
I set it up for the percussion,
you see?
>> HINOJOSA: Do most pianists
come at it the same way, or is
it because you have this kind of
percussive background?
I think a lot of pianists who
grew up with the percussion will
come up out of this.
And a lot of great jazz pianists
come out from the drums, like
Thelonious Monk.
You know, I always hear the
drums in his playing.
So I think anybody who has a
perspective of a drummer, or has
understood the drums, will come
up also relating to the drums in
a certain way, that it would not
be somebody that grew up only
playing classical music, for
example.
>> HINOJOSA: So you grew up in
Panama, and when you're still in
your early 20s you end up going
to New York.
And incredible things start to
happen to you.
I mean, you meet Dizzy
Gillespie, and you're this young
kid from Panama.
What's going on for you, as
suddenly you're now with the
great Dizzy Gillespie, and not
only is he saying, "Play with
me," he's saying to you, Danilo
Perez, "You have talent"?
>> PEREZ: Part of that is a basic
fundamental that was, you know,
meeting people like Claudio
Roditi, Victor Mendoza, Paquito
D'Rivera.
And that... each one of those
relationships took me to a
place, all the way to Dizzy
Gillespie.
And somehow it's a story that
has unfolded from every one of
those experiences.
And of course being with Dizzy,
I really learned about the human
quality in the music, about
"Don't take things for granted."
>> HINOJOSA: Were it not for
Dizzy Gillespie and the fact
that he had this kind of global
vision, and certainly
hemispherically, north-south, in
terms of the Americas... I mean,
he's the one who basically says,
"The Carribean, it's part of who
we are."
That... in a lot of ways, you're
doing the same thing now with
your career, you know?
You're Panamanian, you live in
Boston, but you're going global,
and your message is, "Music is
not just to entertain, music is
powerful."
>> PEREZ: Exactly.
The wonderful thing about the
Dizzy Gillespie United Nation
Band is when I got there, you
had people from Brazil, you had
people from all over the world.
The idea of a common tone,
finding our diversity, through
one sound, making music that we
all need to come together,
that's a powerful lesson I
learned from Dizzy, you know,
that no matter where you come
from, you always have something
to say with love for the
process, the process of
exchange.
That was something that I
really... that experience,
fundamentally very important.
And I carried that on myself.
>> HINOJOSA: Do you feel like
your own work that you've done
now as a composer is taking that
root of what Dizzy Gillespie
said, which is kind of trust...
but you've gone back to Panama,
and you've done beautiful
things.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: You've rescued a
lot of the kind of traditional
rhythms and brought them into
jazz.
And then you did something
amazing-- you went and you got a
traditional folkloric singer,
who sings... what style is it?
>> PEREZ: Mejorana.
>> HINOJOSA: Mejorana.
Mejorana.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: And it's a kind of
blues?
>> PEREZ: It's... I call it our
Panamanian blues.
And it has roots, of course,
Spanish roots, as a lot of the
music of Latin America.
This is a wonderful experiment,
because it deals with folk
material, connecting with folk
material from the north.
Like you have folk music where
the blues come from, and folk
music from Latin America, folk
music from South America.
So this is the idea of
Pan-American Jazz, actually--
connecting the whole Americas to
one sound.
>> HINOJOSA: So you've named
this.
You call it Pan-American jazz?
>> PEREZ: Well, it's a movement, I
think.
It's a movement that started in
the 20th century with a lot of
people doing it.
You know, I learned a lot from
Paquito, for example.
He really...
>> HINOJOSA: Paquito D'Rivera.
>> PEREZ: Yes, Paquito D'Rivera, great
Cuban saxophonist.
He introduced me to a lot of
music, playing Venezuelan
waltzes, playing old
contradances.
And the desire... a lot of the
desire to combine folkloric
material with traditional
rhythms, with Latin American
song forms, with jazz, is
something that was fascinating
to me.
>> HINOJOSA: How did you know
that it was jazz for you?
How did you know that... jazz?
I mean, you could have, you
know, ended up playing in an
orchestra, you could have...
what was it?
What is it about you
understanding that jazz is your
musical expression?
>> PEREZ: Well, the first thing was I
noticed from early on, and my
father, too, I really love
changing things, twisting things
around.
And I would learn something, and
I would change it around.
I love the freedom, the spirit
of creativity that I felt, you
know?
I loved the spontaneity.
I loved that in jazz.
I love that through that
exercise, you actually exercise
values to be a better human
being, to know yourself better.
>> HINOJOSA: That's... people
are like, "Wait a second, wait,
wait.
We're talking about jazz, and
all of a sudden we're becoming
a..." how do you put these two
things together, jazz and a
social message about one's
humanity?
>> PEREZ: Yeah.
Well, because it has values.
The music... this is one thing
that is important.
When we do music, it's one of
the greatest gifts in my
sense... I'm a Christian.
I believe God gave us that gift.
The gift of connection, the gift
of communication, the gift of
spontaneity, the gift of the
child in your heart, the gift of
enlightenment, the gift of being
a part and being aware of a
creating, letting things come to
you.
It's just a fascinating
experience.
Anybody who compose or play
music in a spontaneous way has a
sense of optimism that the other
people normally wouldn't have.
And this is what I love about
it-- that a lot of people feel
not so optimistic about the
world, but when you play jazz,
you have to feel optimistic.
It's that sense of discovering.
It's like, you know, knowing who
you are, and you're doing
through a process.
>> HINOJOSA: Sometimes people
feel like, you know, when they
go into a modern art museum and
maybe they don't get the
painting, sometimes people feel
like, "Well, I like jazz, but I
don't exactly understand it."
What do you want to say to those
people?
>> PEREZ: First of all, be exposed to
it.
That's important.
Be exposed, because somewhere
in...
>> HINOJOSA: Open your ears.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
Everybody, every human being,
has the right to be free.
Every human being has the right
to explore.
Every children has the right to
have his own dreams.
And jazz has that kind of...
it's a very hopeful tool in our
world.
It's a fantastic... it's a
fantastic tool for kids, to
really feel that the world's not
going to end, 2012.
>> HINOJOSA: And interestingly,
you said something.
You said you are... you're over
playing music just for
entertainment.
>> PEREZ: Yes.
>> HINOJOSA: And people are
like, "Well, wait a second.
You're a musician, you have to
make a living, you're going to
have to play to entertain."
And you say?
>> PEREZ: Well, you know, playing
music, like, with a check in
mind that you have to... that's
not interesting to me, because
it's one of the places where you
can exercise passion.
You can exercise all the values
to humanity that are very
important.
And if you need to do that,
there's nothing wrong with that.
But you still have to come to
the place where you do music
because you love it, because you
are passionate about it.
You know, sometimes we have to
do things to work, because we
have to feed our family, we have
to pay the rent.
But you need to balance that out
with what is it that you love
doing?
What is it that you... why are
you sitting on the piano?
What is the connection?
What do you want to communicate?
>> HINOJOSA: You know, one of
the more difficult things for
some people around the issue of
jazz is the fact that if it's
freer jazz, it means that
there's improvisation, and it
means you don't really know
where it's going to go.
And that can be a little bit
scary for some people.
You actually are a master of
improvisation.
And one of the things that you
use as an inspiration to write,
to improv, is words.
>> PEREZ: Yes, all the time.
>> HINOJOSA: Which is funny,
because people are like, "Well,
he's got to think about notes."
You actually take words and
improvise.
So give us an example.
I know you've been thinking
about something.
>> PEREZ: I think that playing music is
much like talking.
So if I think of you... about
something.
Let's say, "Maria love music."
I pick up my three notes I want
to work with.
j& Maria
Maria love music
j& Maria love music
Maria love music. j&
So that's nice.
We've got a nice idea there,
right?
We have a subject, we have a
verb.
>> HINOJOSA: You got me singing,
that's amazing.
>> PEREZ: Yeah, you'll see.
Wait a minute.
We have subject, we have a noun,
we have a verb, we have an
action there-- you love the
music.
Now, what do we do?
We leave more space.
You can't talk all the time.
You have to leave space, right?
j& Maria love music... j&
>> HINOJOSA: j& Maria
loves... j&
>> PEREZ: j& ...music.j&
Now we're going to put the
chords... the chord is sort of
like your clothes.
You know, so we've got... we
make a piece now.
>> HINOJOSA: j& Maria loves
music
Maria loves music... j&
>> PEREZ: (continues harmonizing theme)
So we have a thing.
Now we can talk about that.
Maria... I'm going to improvise
about that.
Really?
(echoes "really" with piano
notes)
She really... she really...
>> HINOJOSA: j& Music
really... j&
>> PEREZ: j& Love music. j&
You see?
That's what I'm thinking.
I'm just thinking about you
loving music.
I'm not thinking about myself,
the music.
I'm thinking about the feeling
of speech, transmitting human...
it's a human connection,
basically.
That is what music always did
for me from early on.
>> HINOJOSA: You have also found
inspiration in unlikely places.
One inspiration was that you
almost were on a plane on
September 11, and that made you
kind of rejigger your whole
life.
Another moment of inspiration
was when you found yourself
playing in Italy in a tiny
little club, and then you
realized that Stephen Hawking
was there and listening to you.
>> PEREZ: Yeah, it was amazing, because
I was like... I'm playing,
like... I remember I was playing
"Besame Mucho."
j& Besame...
And I tried a chord here.
I was like,
j& Mucho. j&
I went into something open,
maybe like (plays two chords),
and I did something like that,
and I heard through a machine
going, "Beautiful."
And I said, "Wow, that's really
strange," you know?
And then going... (speaking
Spanish)
I put a chord like this, very
mysterious, and it's like,
"Beautiful," you know?
He was kind of, like, narrating.
But I didn't know who he was.
When we finished the set, I went
to him and I said, "Oh, my God,
Stephen Hawking."
But he was amazing, because he
was so generous and powerful,
but my Latin roots, I was, like,
trying to hug him.
And there was no motion.
I realized that you can have a
lot of energy with a quiet
motion.
He was very energetic, but very
passive, too.
And it was a beautiful
experience, and that was the
night that Obama won the
presidency.
So it meant a lot to me.
>> HINOJOSA: So you spend a lot
of your time giving back to
young people, because... I mean,
you don't have to be doing that.
Why is it so important?
What is the message that you
want to leave with these young
people, about what?
About music, about understanding
values?
>> PEREZ: Very important to me, Maria,
is how music is used as a social
tool to empower society, to make
better human beings, to make
people... see, we are dealing
right now with issues, very
important issues like isolation.
So music brings the element of
working in group, teamwork,
discipline.
Because, you know, if you're
practicing something... if I'm
practicing something (plays
piano) I have to do really slow
to get it going.
So that's a discipline, that
takes concentration.
Respect.
Respect for others.
You can all not play together.
One person plays, the other one
listens, you're supportive,
you're also dependent,
independent.
It's a beautiful moment through
music that you can explore and
learn a lot about humanity.
See, it's the process.
It's not really the music, it's
the process.
Through the process, we can
become better human beings.
>> HINOJOSA: But then what ends
up happening is that, of course,
it's not just the process,
because it ends up that you're
playing for an audience.
>> PEREZ: Yeah.
>> HINOJOSA: And the audience
then is also brought into
that.
And I'm thinking about
what happened when you ended up
playing in your country, in
Panama, in the middle of the
United States invasion...
>> PEREZ: Yeah.
>> HINOJOSA: ...of your country.
And what happened at that
moment?
>> PEREZ: Oh, that was scary, actually.
At the same time you realized
that playing and performance are
two different things.
You're playing... with my father
I grew up playing music all day.
I didn't have a time where we
would perform.
We would get up in the morning,
and he would sing.
And he was making me play music
all day, because I was even
learning mathematics through
music.
You see?
Geography...
>> HINOJOSA: How?
>> PEREZ: He would put lyrics to it,
you know?
"Papa, I don't want to...
Yeah, (singing in Spanish)
You know, he would... see, what
Papa did was, like, he taught me
to look at the world through the
lenses of the music.
And that idea for me has
prevailed forever.
And when I was in a situation
like the invasion in Panama, all
I was thinking was, "If I die
right now, I want to die playing
music."
That's all I was thinking.
>> HINOJOSA: And the people who
came to actually watch that
concert were from every
political stripe, and they were
all watching your music in the
middle of an invasion in your
country.
>> PEREZ: Yeah, you had people from
extreme right to extreme left to
the center.
>> HINOJOSA: And they were all
getting along.
>> PEREZ: They were all into it.
And at the beginning of the...
they were looking at each other
going, "(growls) Do you think
this and that?"
But when we started playing, it
went away.
And that's when you really
understand the power of music.
You understand that we are
magicians, actually.
We're like actors.
We're making something invisible
visible.
>> HINOJOSA: That's very
powerful.
>> PEREZ: And that is what I witnessed
that day-- that the people left
all their ideas, politics, and
all the stuff that they were
embracing to submit to humanity,
to the basic joy of being there,
and the joy that music brings to
life.
>> HINOJOSA: Not a lot of people
think, "Jazz-- Latin America."
And in fact, for you, you look a
lot about, and think a lot
about, jazz, and having a real
future in Latin America as
consumers of jazz, going to jazz
festivals.
If you compare audiences in the
US versus Latin America, where's
the growth in terms of jazz?
Well, one of the elements that I
think people sometimes don't
connect is the lack of
understanding of history to me.
What I would say before,
Panamanians, for example, Luis
Russell with Louis Armstrong, we
talk about also Sonny White with
Billie Holiday.
Also Carlos Garnett with Miles
Davis.
And a lot them.
Billy Cobham, Santi Dibriano.
A lot of people, Panamanians, in
that sense, I mention.
But also the idea that this
country was based in a unanimous
support from all the Americas.
The Latinos were a big part of
independence for the United
States.
So from the beginning, what
Jelly Roll Morton talk about,
this idea.
(plays piano)
That feeling is very Latin to
me.
>> HINOJOSA: It's true.
>> PEREZ: He call it the...
>> HINOJOSA: I never thought of
Jelly Roll Morton and Latin...
>> PEREZ: And he call it the Latin
tinge, you see?
And that's that rhythm.
(sings rhythm)
As a matter of fact, William C.
Handy, who wrote "St. Louis
Blues," you know, he went to
Cuba.
He spent some time in Cuba.
So it's a lot of history that
connect us very deeply.
But it's a lack of understanding
regarding to jazz and Latin
America.
The other part is that I
envision the festival... like,
if you go to Europe, you say,
"I'm going to the European jazz
festival."
My dream is one day we said,
"We're going to the Latin
American jazz festival," which
already there is a lot of them.
And the people are embracing
this music with the power that
you wouldn't believe.
Kids playing... from early on
playing this music.
They are really into.
They love it.
They love the freedom of
expression.
So I see Latin America playing a
very important role in keeping
jazz alive and in development of
jazz, too.
>> HINOJOSA: For all of that
inspiration, for all of the joy
of your music, thank you so
much.
And for being right here.
>> PEREZ: Thank you very much.
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