March 29, 2024

https://jazzbluesnews.com

Website about Jazz and Blues

Interview with Dario Savino Doronzo: A Platonic division between reason and passion, a balance in perennial equilibrium: Videos, Photos, CD cover

Jazz interview with Italian jazz flugelhorn player and trumpet teacher Dario Savino Doronzo. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First let’s start with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music?

DD: – «I grew up in Barletta, a small city in the southeast of Italy. Barletta didn’t offer many musical opportunities, but in middle school I was fortunate to have a good trumpet teacher who inspired and encouraged me to take up the trumpet. Later on, I continued my studies of Trumpet and Jazz at the Music Conservatory».

JBN: – How did your sound evolve over time? What did you do to find and develop your sound?

DD: – «Through continuous and incessant studies. And then, I search for inspiration from the historical masters because I love listening to various great musicians who have deeply influenced me. For me, the originality of the sound depends on the symbioses that is created with my instrument, maturing with time, always aiming at bettering myself».

JBN: – What practice routine or exercise have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical ability especially pertaining to rhythm?

DD: – «Like all other trumpeters and in general, those who play a wind instrument, I practice continuously and constantly. In my daily training, I develop empathy with my trumpet; I master my musculature and the flow of air, the being in the rhythm. All these elements are necessary to create a solid and mature relationship with my trumpet».

JBN: – How to prevent disparate influences from coloring what you’re doing?

DD: – «I like immersing myself in new and unexplored situations, allowing myself to be engulfed by everything that surrounds me. I absorb many different influences but in the end I create and produce original sounds and rhythms that are uniquely and personally mine».

JBN: How do you prepare before your performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina?

DD: – «Before a concert I try to synergise with my flugelhorn, I practice for hours on end in order to improve the emission and color of the sound, in addition to strengthening my muscular endurance. I isolate myself from the world, as if I were entering an air bubble or were in apnea. A few minutes before the performance my adrenaline rises to a thousand; then, once the concert starts, the warmth of the audience relaxes me and fills me with enthusiasm and positive energy».

JBN: – What do you love most about your new album 2020: “Reimagining Opera”, how it was formed and what you are working on today.

DD: – «Reimagining Opera marks the record launching of the Duo Re-Imagine which sees me at the flugelhorn and my dear friend Pietro Gallo on the piano. A very beautiful project that debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York and continues to have great success with audiences and critics alike. We are currently working on the realization of our next album which we plan to introduce in 2021».

JBN: Ism is culled from a variety of lives dates with various performers over the course of a few years. Did your sound evolve during that time? And how did you select the musicians who play on the album?

DD: – «I think sound is the musician’s signature. I can confirm that the sound of a musician always evolves over time, it never stays the same. I spend hours improving my sound, to make it more and more personal and unique. I also love Pietro’s sound; for this reason, the right musical affinity was created between us that gave birth to our duet».

JBN: What’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

DD: – «In music, the balance between intellect and soul consists in the integration of the existing relationship between study and passion, performance and improvisation. A Platonic division between reason and passion, a balance in perennial equilibrium. Personally, my music has always moved in this natural and perfect balance».

JBN: There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; you’re okay with giving the people what they want?

DD: – «The relationship with the audience is certainly very important. While I draw positive and vital energy from my audience, I try to stay true to my very personal style by never compromising with the market. It’s not about denying the public what they want, but about remaining faithful to and communicating my true self, my passion».

JBN: – Please any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?

DD: – «The most exciting was certainly the Carnegie Hall experience. Going onstage in one of the most important theaters in the world is not easy at all! I remember my fear very well. I was afraid that the proposed repertoire and my way of playing would not be appreciated by the New York audience. Fortunately, the audience enjoyed the concert so much, they gave us a rousing standing ovation».

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of the standard tunes are half a century old?

DD: – «Actually, young musicians are very interested in the jazz repertoire. It is a repertoire that, thanks also to improvisation, never tires of being played and listened to. It is a genre that has its roots in the early 1900s and has never stopped its rapid evolution, maintaining a strong synergy with the language of its beginnings».

JBN: – John Coltrane said that music was his spirit. How do you understand the spirit and the meaning of life?

DD: – «You’ve named a music legend, I love him! I share not only the beauty of his music but also of his spirit. Like Coltrane, I believe that music is a part of my spirit, of my personality. Music is my lifeblood and heartbeat and without it, I would have no life».

JBN: – If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

DD: – «I dream of a musical world free of fierce judgments and criticisms. Music has been such a noble art since its inception. It was born to communicate man’s deep passion, beauty. We must never forget it!

JBN: – Who do you find yourself listening to these days?

DD: – «Every day I find myself looking for new and particular albums and artists. I buy countless CDs and vinyls, not necessarily jazz. Of course, I prefer jazz and classical music, but I also love listening to music in all of its diversity».

JBN: – What is the message you choose to bring through your music?

DD: – «A message of positivity! I am a 360° life enthusiast. Every day I immerse myself positively in all that life offers me and I always aim to convey encouragement and positivity through my music, to lift the audience’s spirits, to make them feel that instead of seeing a wall in front of them, to make them feel that they can build bridges to get to the other side, to overcome life’s difficulties».

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go?

DD: – «That’s a good question. I would like to go back in time to listen in person to the cornet player Nick La Rocca in the United States in 1917 with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and then dive into 1959 to experience the emotions of the Miles Davis sextet in Kind of Blue. What a dream that’d be!».

JBN: – I have been asking you so far, now may I have a question from yourself…

DD: – «What do you feel when you listen to music?».

JBN: – Depending on what kind of music, to the classics, blues, jazz and rock music – excellent, to the rap … very bad.

JBN: – So putting that all together, how are you able to harness that now?

DD: – «I think a lot, maybe too much. I am impulsive but at the same time methodical and sentimental. I feel like a train on a never-ending journey. Few stops and a lot of speed. I don’t think I’ll ever get off that train, and on those few stops, it is only to internalize and reflect on all those emotions that music has given me and then to express myself in my music. I hope I never get stuck, my journey must continue to discover new horizons near and far».

Interview by Simon Sargsyan

Verified by MonsterInsights