Interview with Felipe Salles: Music is my calling, and I am happy that I found my calling: Video

Jazz interview with a bad musician, as if saxophonist Felipe Salles. An interview by email in writing. 

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

Felipe Salles: – I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, and started playing around the age of 14. My family was always interested in music and I grew up listening to Brazilian music and jazz.

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

FS: – My schoolmates were all playing an instrument, so I wanted to fit in. I had a few different teachers before I moved to the US in 1995 where I studied with David Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, and Bob Mintzer.

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

FS: – By listening to recordings, working on my tone and emulating the sound of players I admired. I believe we all have our own sound. We just need to unlock it.

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

FS: – I write music that is rhythmically challenging, so it makes me work on new rhythm concepts. I also teach saxophone at the University, which keeps me reviewing and reinforcing my basics.

JBN.S: – Which harmonies and harmonic patterns do you prefer now? You’re playing is very sensitive, deft, it’s smooth, and I’d say you drift more toward harmony than dissonance. There is some dissonance there, but you use it judiciously. Is that a conscious decision or again, is it just an output of what goes in?

FS: – I don’t practice patterns. Not anymore. I think of harmony in three levels: functional, modal and chromatic. By understanding it that way I can modulate my approach as more or less dissonant according to the situation.

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

FS: – No matter how much you know or learn, always trust your ears first.

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

FS: – I am OK with honoring the artistic vision. I trust people will value it, even if they might not have wanted it originally.

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

FS: – The Lullaby Project recording session was one of the hardest things I had to do. It was an incredible amount of music recorded in a short amount of time, during what I conducted 18 musicians, produced it, wrote all the music. Many times I felt it was an impossible task, but the musicianship of my band proved me wrong every time.

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

FS: – Standards are just a vehicle for creation. We can used them as a common language for improvisation, self expression, and creating new arrangements.

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

FS: – That is a question I can’t answer. It means different things to different people. Music is my calling, and I am happy that I found my calling.

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

FS: – I would make more people appreciate jazz so more musicians could find their public.

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

FS: – Depends on the day. It varies from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, to modern writers like Maria Schneider, Michael Abene, Billy Childs. I always go back to Parker, Coltrane, Monk, Rollins, Getz, Jobim, Hermeto Pascoal, and many others.

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

FS: – Probably to a time I could go hear all my heroes play live.

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

FS: – Why do you feel jazz is still relevant?

JBN.S: – Thank you for answers. Because jazz is life. Jazz is my whole life!!! How much you didn’t understand us unfortunately …