Interview with ungrateful, not polite peson, as if drummer Giacinto Maiorca. 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.  How exactly did your adventure take off? 

Giacinto Maiorca: – I grew up in a family of musicians, both my mother and father are pianists. So .. the real first time with music dates back to a period of unconsciousness, at just one year I used to spend whole days in front of the 88 keys. I was struck by the percussion at the age of 8 when I found myself in the kiosk of the Conservatory of my city during a class rehearsal. At the age of 12, on the other hand, I listened for the first time to a single, Foxtrot by Genesis. I still remember very well that it started with side B (I had no idea how it worked) ..․ Horizons and then Supper’s Ready ..․ with the mention to Bach. Shortly thereafter I had already caught the musician’s fever.

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

GM: – My real sound research, regarding drums, began shortly after I was 20. I had already matured a few years of study, and I became interested in how the sound was to describe the space in which it occurred. This same idea is the one that I carry over in general in all my compositions and various orchestrations. The recorded music (even that performed live) tells an extemporaneous and at the same time past history. Music is the non-verbal vehicle of the artist’s imagination.

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

GM: – Even today I spend a lot of time at the piano, it is the instrument where I analyze the various registers and consequently it is very often the spark of new compositions. I really like to think the sound of traditional instruments implemented by an electronic soul addition, I feel the need to change the original timbre.
I listen to a lot of Classical music, for example Ravel is one of the composers who most inspires me for his ability to use individual instruments creating sound “effects”. To a layman listening to “Lever du jour” (Part III, Daphnis et Chloe) could very likely remind of the use of synthesizers. And this anticipation in history is fantastic for me. When I play the drums, many times without knowing them at the time of the play. I feel this improves my responsiveness in a simulated jam context. I really like the snare drum technique. It’s in my daily routine.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

GM: – Everything that is alive changes. I hope to do it for a while longer.

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

GM: – It is a bit like in the Greek tragedy: there are two fundamental aspects of the human soul the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Everyone has the need to concern themselves and to explode to find a new beginning … which is nothing more than the continuity of a path.

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

GM: – Anyone would like to excite someone else by talking about their emotions.

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

GM: – I love tradition, because it talks about history. It is important that history doesn’t repeat itself …

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

GM: – I sense spirituality from all things around me, even when they are not closely related to me. And everything has a weight in this. Music, in me, is part of it.

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

GM: – Don’t press play! When you play.

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

GM: – Well … I could say what my last 10 searches are in no particular order on the listening channels: Brunori Sas, Jimmy Smith, Lumpen, Sting, Avishai Cohen, Yorker, Roberto Gatto, Dizzy Gillespie, Alfredo Rodrigez, Michael Olivera, Gerald Clayton.

Interview by Simon Sargsyan

Note: https://jazzbluesnews.com/2023/03/19/useu-jazz-blues-association-festivals/ 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/useujba/