O guitarrista italiano de Gypsy Jazz, blogger de “Diary Of a Gadjo”, professor e compositor Dario Napoli abre o seu coração e a sua mente nesta entrevista ponderada, consciente e inspiradora.
Aqui está: “Cotto a puntino” 🙂
1 – What has inspired you to start playing music? Tell us about your influences and what was going on around you at the time.
My first inspiration to play music was my brother, who’s two and a half years older than me, and introduced me to all the first music I listened to. At 12, he then brought me to my first live concert, which was Eric Clapton, where I absolutely decided I needed to learn how to play.
And so for the following 3 years, I started by ear on a very cheap classical guitar, copying what I could from the Beatles, Eric Clapton, BB King, Jimi Hendrix, SRV, etc.
The years I began playing, I was living in Milan, which was very alive as a music city, and so there was a lot of inspiration from concerts, great musicians, and I started getting into jazz thanks to my first “real” teacher, Gianpiero Spina.
At 18, I went to college in New Orleans and immersed myself in jazz, but always continued with blues, rock, and fusion, and then came Django, who revolutionized my world 🙂
2 - Quais são os seus projectos actuais e objectivos futuros?
My main project is my solo project, Dario Napoli Modern Manouche Project, with which I have recorded 2 albums and am now working on a third.
I also have various collaborations, a duo with a singer (closer to a Joe Pass-Ella Fitzgerald idea) and an electric quartet with drums and Hammond/electric piano.
But gypsy jazz is my main thing, and my goal is to have a successful touring and recording career.
3 – You’ve spent a lot of time and energy on transcriptions. What would you consider to be the greatest impact of transcribing on ear training and technique?
I’ve basically never stopped transcribing since I was 12 years old. Only in the last few years have I been able to share my transcriptions, but it’s something that I’ve been doing for myself and continue to do for myself constantly, as I believe it is the most efficient way to learn.
If we think back on how we learned our own mother language, we basically copied our parents and our friends, and then in school, they explained the grammar, but we already knew how to speak based on whom we copied or heard.
The same in music, if we want to learn a language, we have to copy, and then we can develop our own vocabulary over time.
4 - Estudaste a linguagem de “The Boss” Bireli Lagrene como ninguém. O que é que torna o som de Bireli tão distinto e apelativo para os nossos ouvidos? Quais são as suas marcas registadas e os aspectos a que devemos estar atentos?
Well, ever since I started playing, I’ve been attracted and inspired by many different kinds of music, and so I’ve always tried to develop as much versatility as possible.
Bireli for me is the most amazing example of versatility and proficiency in many different styles (and actually, even many different instruments!), so I felt very naturally attracted by his style and his ability to incorporate all the music that he has listened to over the years.
The thing I really like most about him is his timing and his rhythmical ideas (not only strictly Le Pompe rhythm, which is obviously great), but his comping, where it’s always a surprise in terms of harmony and rhythmic fills and patterns, both on electric and acoustic.
5 – Jazz musicians often fear transcriptions because of the risk of losing their own musical personality. But in Gypsy Jazz, probably every note played by Django has already been transcribed. What are your thoughts on this?
Yes, I believe the best thing is a balance. Transcribing is inevitable because it’s just like learning a language: you have to copy whoever speaks that language to get started. We all do it, whether it is the language of music.
As we get more proficient, we will naturally develop our own unique feel and language. Even Django wasn’t born in a vacuum; he played with great accordion players, and he also copied and was inspired by the great American Jazz musicians of his time, as well as Debussy and Ravel, and other classical masters. Then he filtered everything through his sensibility and experience, but all those influences are very important.
6 – Regarding your online business teaching and transcribing site, how did it happen? How do you manage a successful teaching site?
Tudo começou com a ideia de que era fácil, com a Internet, partilhar o que eu já estava a fazer por mim.
A few years back, I started studying and reading about the music business and the importance of having a website, and it was pretty natural to simply share all that. I was studying through the website. This got people interested and started inquiring about my teaching.
Teaching is something I’ve always enjoyed doing, honestly, also for selfish reasons 🙂 it makes me a better musician. It makes me focus on details and constantly review what I consider the important elements of music.
This year, here in Tuscany, from May 19-23, I will also be hosting my first gypsy jazz guitar camp, and I’m very excited that several people are participating. I cannot wait to be there!
7 – About your guitar practice, what motivates you to keep going?
I understood many years ago that you can start your path in music, but there’s never an arrival point if you truly want to keep improving, so it does not scare me that I will never be truly “satisfied” 🙂
I really enjoy the process, and attaining my goals on the guitar is one of the greatest satisfactions in life. Being able to share them with others then is paradise 🙂
8 - Como é que equilibra o trabalho e o descanso? Qual a duração das suas sessões de trabalho e das suas pausas?
In reality, I am very bad at balancing work and rest in the sense that music pretty much never makes me tired.
Of course, I have to be careful with my hands not to overplay, but luckily being a musician today is not just about playing and practicing many hours a day, but also being an entrepreneur and dealing with technology, website, marketing, public relations, etc.
Assim, basicamente, quando não estou a praticar, o que ainda acontece várias horas por dia, estou a fazer todos os outros aspectos da vida de um músico.
9 - Lembras-te do teu processo de prática quando começaste a tocar? Quanto é que mudou ao longo dos anos?
When I started, it was all about hearing and reproducing. Although I still do that, I also have phases when I give more importance to one aspect of music or another, it can be harmony, or rhythm, or an element of a different style or simply a technique.
10 – Tell us about your routines. How does a regular day in your life look?
So, assuming I don’t have a gig or I’m not teaching (which changes things), I will typically start the day working on a specific technique or a series of specific techniques.
Afterwards, I would pick one standard and work on that, arranging, improving, chord solo, trying to look at it from all aspects possible, and changing keys. That usually takes up the whole morning.
Early afternoon, I usually go for a walk or a bike ride or something physical, and then if I have the time, I will repeat the same process of the morning or get into composing or arranging.
If I don’t have time in the day, I will do the website and the music business stuff in the evening.
11 – What were the biggest challenges you have faced to progress in your practice, performance, and musical career?
Bem, embora toque e pratique intensamente desde os 12 anos, só aceitei internamente ser músico a tempo inteiro por volta dos 30 anos. Demorei algum tempo a ultrapassar o condicionamento social de que a música é algo difícil de viver e difícil de prosseguir.
Uma vez tomada a decisão, a parte mais difícil é compreender que a música é apenas um elemento necessário para o conseguir; tal como um empresário, há muitas coisas que tem de fazer fora do instrumento para criar as bases para continuar a tocar o instrumento para viver.
12 – Do you feel that balancing musical skills and the entrepreneurial and social aspects around the music is the hardest thing to handle? I mean, there are always excellent musicians that aren’t able to persevere because they don’t know (or enjoy) how to sell their music; others are excellent businessmen lacking musical qualities.
Yes, but for me also doubts, self-doubts creep in at times, but daily practice and faith help! If it were up to me, I would simply wake up and play guitar all day, which I still sometimes do 🙂 but the reality is that I have to carry out, or delegate tasks, and that means time away from the music, and that’s not always easy.
13 – What do you value the most in the music/musicians you love to listen to? What key ingredients do you love to hear when listening to a new album, musician, or student?
The thing that I’m most attracted to when it comes to music is actually harmony. A close second is rhythm, and so when I listen to musicians, I notice I’m attracted to musicians who have an evolved sense of harmony and who are very versed and confident rhythmically.
14 – Do you meditate? Do you perform any kind of practice or activity that pulls you towards a more focused, clear, or mindful state?
I feel like my meditation is my practice; when I’m on the instrument through repetition, my mind stays in one place, and time becomes absolutely irrelevant.
Por isso não medito per se, mas acho que me consigo identificar com o processo. Por outro lado, jogar ténis, basquetebol ou andar de bicicleta, quando tenho tempo, são importantes para mim mental e fisicamente.
15 – You’re the first GJ musician I met that actually plays Basketball! Are you an NBA fan? Who are your top 5 players ever? My personal choice would be John Stockton, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon :p
SO COOL, I love basketball!! I played some intramural in the US, but my main sport was tennis, where I played NCAA championship. When we meet, I would be thrilled to shoot around and steal some tips from you!
Ah, my TOP 5: MICHAEL JORDAN, SCOTIE PIPPEN, ISIAH THOMAS, LARRY BIRD, KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR 🙂
16 - Qual é que considera ser o conselho mais importante que alguém lhe deu?
To listen carefully to the voices that come up in your mind, to key into one’s emotions and take them seriously, and not repress them.
Além disso, encontrar a força para acreditar que pode criar a vida que deseja e imagina para si.
17 - Por que é que gostaria de ser reconhecido? Qual é o aspeto mais importante do seu percurso de vida que gostaria que as pessoas recordassem?
That, against all odds and contrary to popular belief, one can become an accomplished musician, jazz and gypsy jazz guitarist, even later in life. That it’s not just words when they say it’s never too late to become what you were meant to become, if you truly believe (and follow with the actions) that something was meant for you.
18 – Like myself, you started as a full-time musician at about the same age then I: LATE! Personally, I feel there is some prejudice and/or disbelief in the Jazz community about this subject, but not so much in the Gypsy Jazz community. The preference and attention seem to go easily to young, talented kids. On the other hand, there are a lot of great, inspiring “older” musicians playing at a top level with little or even no recognition at all. A penny for your thoughts on this? 🙂
Espero sinceramente que tenhas razão neste caso (para nós, os “mais velhos”)!
19 - O que diria ao Django se tivesse a oportunidade de o conhecer?
Antes de mais, se ele não soubesse, dir-lhe-ia que teve uma influência muito maior do que provavelmente esperava na guitarra e na música em geral, e agradecer-lhe-ia por isso.
I would also ask him a lot of questions in terms of composition, improvisation, and also life in general.
20 – What would be the song that you would always refer to in a conversation with Django?
A canção a que me referiria seria “Melodie Au Crepuscule”.
I asked Dario if he had any “Melodie Au Crepuscule” version of his own. The next day, he recorded and uploaded this tremendous video and sent it back to me. Wow! Thank you, Dario, you’re fantastic!
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