Michel Camilo Cyber Interview

The second guest to our Cyber Interview is a Jazz fusion pianist Michel Camilo who is known for unique high speed technical play style with latin fravor. The interview has been conducted via E-mail helped by Sandra who is Michel's wife. Michel also provided MIDI file which is based on title tune of his album ¨On Fire¨. It is arranged for two pianos and overdubbed by Michel himself.
Enjoy Cyber Interview with Michel Camilo!

Masato Hashi
One More OnceSuntan

RealAudio
To listen to RealAudio and MIDI files, please seeHow to Enjoy CyberFusion.
On Fire copyright by Michel Camilo/Redondo Music-BMI/SGAE

Hashi
Let's start Cyber Interview! Will you tell us about your recent live at Red Sea Jazz Festival?
Camilo
This was my second visit to the Red Sea Jazz Festival, which lasts four days and is the main one in Israel. This year they were celebrating their Tenth Anniversary Edition with a selection of artists from all the previous ones, i.e: Elvin Jones, Phil Woods, Brecker Brothers, Spyro Gyra, Didier Lockwood, Dee Dee Bridgewater, myself and many more... I had playing with me Lincoln Goines on bass and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez on drums. We did two concerts at the Coca-Cola Hall which went great; the audience gave us several standing ovations and we had a lot of fun playing for them! Also, the second evening the concert was broadcasted "live" by FM Radio and it was also taped for Israeli TV. I had a very "special" experience the next day when I went nextdoor to swim with the dolphins in the Red Sea!!

Hashi
In your latest album "One More Once" , you played with a big band for the first time and I was rather suprised at your traditional big band jazz arrangement since I had expected more latin fravored arrangement. Will you tell the story of this recording?

Camilo
This project really started in Copenhagen, Denmark when the Danish Radio Big Band (DRBB) invited me to do a concert with them at the Montmartre Jazz Club; they had read that I always wrote for my trio as a mini-orchestra, so I tried to translate some of my trio pieces for Big Band and we were very successful, so later we toured Europe and the Caribbean together with my trio. When I returned to New York I proposed "One More Once" to Dr. George Butler at Columbia Records (Sony) and he loved the idea. So I rewrote some of the charts and wrote new ones as well, then called all the best New York musicians I could find and went to rehearse the music. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the challenging repertoire and I'm sure you can hear how they all enjoyed the details in my music and played them just great!! I never thought of this album as a "traditional big band" one, but I did want to use the "real technique" of writing for this type of ensemble (which I had studied with Don Sebesky in New York), using tutti passages, brass voicings, shout choruses, unison lines, etc. and this way, by mixing tradidion with my music I wanted this album to be hip! Anyway, I think the Latin flavor is there in the grooves, montunos, percussion, syncopations, etc. After this album was done we played several concerts in New York and the Caribbean. One of them was filmed "live" and hopefully we'll be able to release this video sometime in the future. The band played great and the soloists burned!!

Hashi
Your music has strong latin feeling maybe because of your mother country. What kind of music were you listening and playing before you moved to U.S.A.?

Camilo
When I was in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic I was playing mainly "hard-bop", "fusion" and classical music - I was a member of the National Symphony Orchestra at 16 -, so the Latin influence really came out when I moved up to New York in 1979 and realized then that my "roots" were important.

Hashi
Every time I see you playing at Jazz clubs, I am impressed by your unique and high technical piano style. How did you establish your current playing style?

Camilo
In two phases, first I studied classical piano since 9 at the National Conservatory of the Dom. Rep.; and second in New York I studied privately with Jacob Lateiner from Juilliard School of Music who also taught me a complete different piano technique. That's why I always say that I have two piano techniques and I just try to use the best of each one, whatever makes it easier to play what I am hearing and feeling at the moment with the least amount of energy spent. I also read once in an Oscar Peterson interview that he used to try to learn a song in all 12 keys and that this way of practicing would open up his ears and at the same time make his fingers adapt easier to any position on the keyboard. Another thing I did was to transcribe solos by John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, etc. and play them with both hands. Since I tried to use solos by horn players this would force my fingers to move in a different way. Of course, I recommend lots of Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Scriabin, etc. as well. There is also a little book by Christoph von Dohnanyi which I think is called "Exercises for the professional pianist"...it is an excellent tool for "keeping in shape". The last thing that helped me was Karate, which taught me about mind over body. Never think that it is too hard or impossible to play!

Hashi
Since I saw you for the first time in New York in 1983 as a member of French Toast, You've been playing with Anthony Jackson and Dave Weckle and I think 3 of you are one of the best piano trio in the world now. How did you come to know and play with these 2 talented musicians.

Camilo
Thanks! Dave Weckl was recommended to us by Peter Erskine who had heard him playing with another band in New York City. And Anthony Jackson was an original member of French Toast. I was recommended by Gordon Gottlieb who was the percussionist. So we all met there and knew that we had a "special chemistry" together. I think what helped us even more was that we played every Monday evening at an uptown Manhattan club called Mikell's and this gave us an opportunity to develop a musical language together (almost ESP-like). After we did an album for Electric Bird/King Records called "French Toast", I formed my own sextet and Dave and Anthony stayed with me. Finally, we played as a trio for the first time at Carnegie Hall, as an opening act for Tania Maria, in '84 and got an standing ovation! So that's the reason I recorded some numbers with this format for my first album "Why Not!" and later "Suntan/Michel Camilo In Trio".

Hashi
This may be a tough question since you've been playing with many great musicians but who do you want to play with among musicians who you've never played with before

Camilo
There are so many! To name a few of the ones I haven't played with: Dennis Chambers, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash, Gregg Hutchinson, Jeff Watts, Brian Blade, Brandford Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Elvin Jones, and so on and so on...

Hashi
You are always smiling while you play piano even though songs you play sound very difficult to play. What is difficult song to play which does not allow you smile while playing?

Camilo
Gee, I haven't thought about this before... :) :) :) Let me see..., maybe the song "As One"? from the "Rendezvous" album which has a lot of polyrhythms? But I'm not sure... ;) ;) :) :)

Hashi
In Japan, there are many female Michel Camilo fans and you are often surrounded by young girls after you play in jazz club there. Has your wife Sandra ever mentioned about this? Doesn't she complain you?

Camilo
No, she doesn't complain about the young girls; she is very supportive and likes that I am appreciated by my fans. She thinks that it is a compliment to her "good taste" that other girls like me and my music. Wow! :)

Hashi
Here is the last question .Will you tell us about your future plan of recordings and tours?

Camilo
I just signed a new record contract with TropiJazz/RMM. This is a New York label, distributed by MCA, that specializes in Latin & Jazz. It is a very successful one and they usually have an evening at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York which is always sold-out. I am scheduled to go into the studio at the end of October to record my next album. This album will be released next Spring '97. In the meantime, I just participated as "featured guest artist" in another project called "Hands In Motion" by master percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo for the same label TropiJazz/RMM, which will be released this Fall '96. This album is my first duo collaboration - only Piano & Percussion - and it turned out to be lots of fun!! Thank you very much for the Cyber-Interview!

Go to Michel Camilo's Home Page
Go to Japanese translation

English Index
Please send your messages and comments tohashi@jazzfusion.com
Last update Nov16,1996