Interview with Ana Carla Maza: Jazz is the liberty of mixing all the styles, languages, rhythms and genres: Video

Jazz interview with jazz cellist and composer Ana Carla Maza. An interview by email in writing. 

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

Ana Carla Maza: – I grew up in Cuba, in the Bay region of La Habana and Guanabacoa. My parents had a music school, and my Mother led a Choir for children that is where I first started to sing and play music.

Growing up in Guanabacoa, a part of cuba that has a lot of influence from the Yoruba culture, naturally I was raised surrounded by music. Dancing to Instruments like “tumbadoras” (congas drums), tres cubano, clave cubana, and Bass.

For my cello, since my parents had a music school a lot of people came from different parts of the world to learn music. One day a French man named Vincent Courtois brought a Cello to my parents school, he gave it to me and let me play it for the first time.

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

ACM: – I wave been studying jazz music and classical music a lot. I started to find my own sound when I was 13, the way learned to play the cello is from the stomach, and with the heart. To find a sound with my own body’s weight so that the cello becomes part of my body. And most importantly the sound is a reflection of my feelings.

JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

ACM: – I practices many years with metronome, and I have been playing a lot with other musicians that play many different instruments. I love to explore all the different phases of the cello, rhythm, harmony, & melody.

JBN: – How do you keep stray, or random, musical influences from diverting you from what you’re doing?

ACM: – I find that being honest to myself, having faith and enjoying what I’m doing is very important. When I feel all this I know I’m going the right way.

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JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

ACM: – For me music is a way to communicate emotions, that is why it is important to know what you want to say.
For me it has always been the journey of life.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

ACM: – After almost two years that live music was completely stopped, I think it is safe to say that music is good for the soul, to attend live events, get together with friends, have a drink and dance where all things we missed enormously.

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

ACM: – For me now a days jazz is the liberty of mixing al the styles, lenguages, rhythms and genres you want, we have seen this today with a lot of young musicians that have proposed something new. For jazz has evolved enormously and it’s not the standard tunes of have a century ago.

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

ACM: – For me the spirit is the faith that accompanies you during the journey of life. We are all looking for the meaning life and I found it spirituality.

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

ACM: – I think everybody should have the right to quality music in their life. This is part of the human essence and something that I strongly believe in.

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

ACM: – I love Avishai Cohen, Rodrigo and Gabriela, Césaria Evora, Gilberto Gil, Anne Paceo, Hiromi. Melody Gardot, Takuya Koruda.

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

ACM: – I would stay right here talking with you, for me living the present moment has always been important.

Interview by Simon Sargsyan

Note: You can express your consent and join our association, which will give you the opportunity to perform at our Jazz and Blues festivals in Europe and Boston, naturally receiving an appropriate royalty. We cover all expenses. The objectives of the interview are: How to introduce yourself, your activities, thoughts and intellect, and make new discoveries for our US/EU Jazz & Blues Association, which organizes festivals, concerts and meetings in Boston and various European countries, why not for you too!! You can read more about the association here. https://jazzbluesnews.com/2022/11/19/us-eu-jba/