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Interview with “Pipi” Piazzolla

Interview by Agustina Perrota

Escalandrum, created in 1999 by the incentive of drummer Daniel “Pipi” Piazzolla (grand son of famous Astor Piazzolla) is one of the bands that most represents the tendencies of Argentinean jazz. Formed also by Nicolas Guerschber in piano, Marino Sivori in upright, Gustavo Musso with alto sax and soprano, Damian Fogiel tenor sax, and Martin Pantyrer in bass clarinet and baritone sax, the sextet recently released their 5th album “Visiones”. This one counts with compositions of Sivori, Fogiel and Guerschberg and promises to keep giving jazz that contemporary color of that side of the world.

-Being the grand son Astor Piazzolla, is it hard? Or do you feel it opened many doors for you?
-“Not really... not may doors opened. In the business, if you’re grand son of a great, not always are doors opened to you. In first place there are groups in which no one wants to have someone with a heavy last name, specially in rock and some other genres in which ego is first. Fortunately I play jazz, and in jazz what you take in to account is if you got chops or not. I felt weight in my last name when I was young, and I was studying, so that was something positive that helped me. I felt that weight and what was the only way of overcoming that? Busting my ass studying, and so I did, and did great in my exams, had exelent performances, and people called me to be part of their ensembles, and every day I studied more and more and since my first gig as a pro, I took a lot of responsibility, and after that, the weight was gone. It was just a matter of getting used to it, and all of a sudden, great people started calling me, such as Lito Vitale, Guillermo Klein, Richard Nant or Juan Cruz de Urquiza, and around 90% of the musicians that come from out of the country call me to be their drummer. All this gives you a good amount con confidence and “relax”.

-Do you have any influences from your grandfather?
-“Mostly what influenced me was his dedication. He played every night, wake up 6am to do his exercises and practice. He would study everyday and then go to his classes and then play some more. Always giving 100%. He devoted his whole life to music, and those were the things that I found valuable and got stuck to me too.”

-About you latest record, what makes it different from the rest?
-“The truth is, and not because it’s the latest one, is that this record is one of the best out of all 5 we have. As we release new records everytime, we are synthesizing an idea, born in 2002 with “Estamos Alterados”, that has been polishing it self with the years. Right now are synthesis power is pretty big! In a record where the main focus is the improvisation, while in the others it was more focused in the composition, we made our composition more concrete and at the same time we improvise double!”

-What repercussion do you feel you’re having with “Visiones”?
-“Until now people like it, the critiques have given us the best points, so we’re very happy, cause you can also make the best jazz record in history and no one can like it too!

-After almost 10 years and 5 records, do you feel that Escalandrum is a band that is constant progress?”
“Yeah, I feel that way. In fact it progresses too much constantly! I think that it is due to that we still practice EVERY week for the past 10 years and that every time we are closer friends. We still find “little things” like this power of synthesis that I explained earlier, or even musically to tell you something it would be a long way, now we deliver the message with an element or two. Also the group is used to play together and the improv thing is taking a new dimension.”

-How do you see the local jazz scene?
-“ I see great importance in it, and highly talented. I really enjoy listening to local jazz record just as much as the ones from outside. I feel very identified with the music that comes out of here. I think that all the Argentinean composers are very sensitive, and I think that is thanks to Tango, which doesn’t mean that what we compose is “tangoish” in jazz, but those melodies do get to you. The truth is that I listen to as much jazz from here as from outside. The scene here is doing awesome and there are plenty bands out there going their thing.

-Do you think we can talk about an Argentinean jazz? That local jazz has something particular that differs it from the rest?
-“Totally, the compositions, the style, using chacareras, but mostly the fact that the composers are Argentinean makes it sound Argentine. Personally I think that its perfect to call it “Argentinean Jazz” (Jazz Argentino). This music is super authentic and different.”

Escalandrum will be presenting their new album “Visiones” in Argentina 22-29 of august in Notorious, august 23 in Jazz festival of san isidro, in September in the province of Mendoza and Chile, and October in Paraguay, November touring Europe, January in Uruguay and later on in Colombia.
Stay tuned: http://www.escalandrum.com.ar

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