Interview with Jose Carra: The soul has to be above everything: Video

Jazz interview with jazz pianist Jose Carra. An interview by email in writing. 

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

Jose Carra: – I was born in Málaga. My father could play 3 or 4 songs with the guitar. My mother sang very well. I was lucky to have several vinyl records at home that I listened like crazy without stopping. My first interest in music was simply listening.

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

JC: – I started playing the guitar and at 2 or 3 years old, then I switched to the piano. I still have a relationship with my first teacher who taught me for 4 years. There are several musicians who, although they have not been my teachers, have helped me a lot to develop as a musician: Arturo Serra, Ernesto Aurignac, Enrique Oliver, Michael Kanan, Aaron Goldberg, Jorge Rossy and Ethan Iverson.

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

JC: – I believe that sound, like personality, is something that you can not seek to develop. It is the product of everything you listen to, of the music you play with, of your way of understanding music.

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

JC: – During the last years I have studied a lot with metronome, with the body. I try to understand the rhythmic complexities by dancing and then take them to the instrument. Another way to develop the rhythm has been through my own songs and the arrangements of other tunes.

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?

JC: – It is true. In recent albums the simplicity of harmony has prevailed over rhythmic or structural complexity. That simplicity allows us to travel a little further in the improvisations. In each concert the harmony develops in a different way.

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

JC: – I am very helped by extramusical inspiration. I always need a reason beyond the music that organizes everything I do. I think that makes all the music come together in a more coherent way. Each disc tells a story.

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

JC: – I always start with the soul. The intellect helps to organize all that, but everything is born of an instinct, of a drive. The soul has to be above everything.

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

JC: – I believe that the public wants to know the artist through their music. If you are sincere in what you do, you will connect with the public. It is impossible to connect with everyone, but if your music is original the connection

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

JC: – The recording of “Diario de vuelo” was very intense. I learned a lot about music and life. Also playing and recording with the singer Sheila Jordan has been quite a life experience. And the time when I was going to many jams in Malaga, my city, was one of the times when I learned the most music.

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

JC: – Music is music, I believe that if you transmit your emotion for that music the students realize it. It is easier to catch someone by the heart.

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

JC: – I think that music is a part of my spirit, one of the most important. Not only to express myself but also to feed my spirit. It is like a direct channel with the beyond.

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

JC: – I would like the publicity was not so harassing and everyone could choose a little more freely what to listen..

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

JC: – I listen to a lot of classical music. In the last months I’ve listened too Paul Simon, Queen and Nick Drake.

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

JC: – The best way to communicate with another is to be yourself.

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

JC: – I would love to travel to any time when there were no machines to help write music and composers had to imagine the sounds and work on the piano to write great symphonies.

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

JC: – What do you look for when you go to the concert of an artist you do not know?

JBN.S: – Thanks for answers. The interesting and new discovery!!!

Interview by Simon Sargsyan