Interview with Antonio Gomez: The last and most difficult goal of music is to move: Video

Jazz interview with jazz guitarist and composer Antonio Gomez. An interview by email in writing. 

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

Antonio Gomez: – I was born and grew up in Almería. A city in the southeast of Spain.

Land of great flamenco guitarists like Tomatito and El Niño Josele as well as land of important guitar builders including Antonio de Torres who set the standard of proportion and measurements of the modern classical guitar. However my inclination since adolescence was towards the styles of blues and jazz.

JBN.S: – What got you interested in picking up the guitar? What teacher or teachers helped you progress to the level of playing you have today? What made you choose the guitar?

AG: – The choice of the guitar as an instrument in my case by chance since there was a guitar at home. Maybe the fact that it is such a popular instrument. In which house is there no guitar? haha This made me easily access this instrument.

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

AG: – The first teachers gave me some basic notions in terms of technique, but they did provide valuable information such as the knowledge and transmission of traditional music from my region.

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

AG: – I have always liked the clean sound on the electric guitar. I have grown up listening to rock guitarists like Mark Knopfler, from whom I have always admired the taste and ability to express so much with so few notes.

Rhythm is the most ancestral and vital element of music. Although it may seem a primitive element can be enormously sophisticated, as in some musical styles such as Flamenco or Jazz. Listening to good interpreters of these styles helps you understand that above all these musicians are masters of rhythm.  In addition to always keeping the rhythm very present. I spent hours improvising in front of the radio. So I have learned different styles

JBN.S: – Which harmonies and harmonic patterns do you prefer now?

AG: – I could not tell you … I love harmony.

Since I was little I loved transcribing any progression of chords that I liked. So I did not analyze or understand the harmonic function of these chords but I was able to develop the intuition transporting these progressions in a self-taught way.

It is difficult to say the best CDs of the year 2017 since I would miss many to listen. Lately I have listened to the Jazzmeia Horn album and it seems fantastic to me. Although it’s 2016 I’ll quote you Chuck Loeb’s latest CD, “Unspoken”, which also has a sentimental value for all musicians and especially for guitarists who miss him.

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

AG: – It is a difficult balance but I believe that the last and most difficult goal of music is to move. This is not only achieved with the technique. We can call him soul maybe.

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

AG: – I remember when I studied in New York at The Collective. Many of the sessions were studio recordings in which you put yourself to the test. In these situations is when you learn the most.

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

AG: – All the collaborations have been essential for my projects. The collaboration of Jorge Pardo has been very important for me.

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

AG: – I think that although the jazz repertoire is old, the musician can take more freedom in the interpretation and arrangement than in classical music for example.

Anyway, I think it is convenient for every musician to know the legacy of jazz and the evolution of the jazz language as well as its different styles

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

AG: – I think music makes us better. We boost the imagination, creativity and this surely affects our person: body, mind, soul, spirit, etc.

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

AG: – I would like to be able to publish more projects and find and share with the public that is looking for music like mine. Meanwhile, I want to enjoy creating music and trust without fear or anxiety that this moment is getting closer.

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

AG: – I would like us to be more aware of the cultural value of minority music. It is a matter of education. Unfortunately for the general public and industry, the economic and entertainment value is more important.

The next challenge is the publication of a new album for this fall in this case it is an album of original songs with a rhythmic theme. All are written in ternary time.

I believe that the practice of improvisation occurs in many cultures, although in jazz it is where it has developed the most. It is very interesting what happens with the mixture of jazz and world music.

This has always interested many jazz musicians. To the great Harmonist Antonio Serrano. I recommend it to you. The origin of Jazz in New Orleans must have been exciting. The mixture of cultures and musical elements of Europe, Africa has been one of the most fruitful in the history of music.

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

AG: – What song on the album Lights, Camera, Version! did you like it more?

JBN.S: – Thank you for answers …

Interview by Simon Sargsyan