Interview with jazz contrabassist Enzo Lo Greco. 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. 

Enzo Lo Greco: – We was start in south Italy and soon after school we move to Milan, in the north of Italy , looking for a new life in the music, work on Jam in clubs, live concerts, recordings, etc. primary nterest in the language of sounds, different rhythms in genres, compositions and performers in many musical genres, good music.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023

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

ELG: – Our sound develops immediately in the search for new sounds and the need to discover our artistic identity through the study and the compositions and creative experiments that music allows you to explore.

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

ELG: – The daily and progressive study of the art of music includes numerous steps, starting with the practice of the instrument you choose and then the approach to various moments of the career, such as writing new songs or taking a tour, so a great and hard work, but that makes us happy to make sacrifices of this kind, yes we are both a solid rhythm, but also composers and producers and masters of music.

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

ELG: – Ours is a long race towards a magical world that excites us and makes us dream, therefore a strong desire for creativity that is unstoppable need to be as complete in the composition towards the music that belongs to us, with a thousand influences and nuances.

There could be talk or advertising about your CD

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

ELG: – For me, in music as in life, the balance between these two vital elements is very important and difficult to coexist, everyone knows that there are and always will be compromises, so the difficulty is a symbol of application and constant work so that ‘these elements combine, personally as a small boy I worked on this balance, thanks also to Music I have reached a point in my life that I can almost always find the right balance between the mind that runs and starts again more and more tired and more and more wise and the heart that with the soul, especially mine, of an incurable romantic and deeply soulful, I try to transmit and teach others this way of living life.

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

ELG: – Good question, to which I care so much to answer, yes absolutely bidirectional, but in a natural spontaneous way, not very reasoned and calculated, since at the origin of the dialogue we are the musicians who begin the discourse, it is we who, in my opinion, have the starting idea and we choose the field on which to play, then we invite the public to participate, with the awareness of choosing and participating in the famous rite I mentioned earlier, good musicians and professionals learn to find this balance between what you like and what you would like everyone likes it and what the public expects from you musicians and in general from music in general, as far as I’m concerned, I put emotion first as a primary feeling between me and the public, then there are other ways, like having fun, vibrate together and make in moldo and the cultured music continues to survive.

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

ELG: – Oh big question, this is what we have been doing for many years and we continue to do, trying to involve their interest, first of all by doing many live shows, that and the best way, especially in the places they frequented, we have always experienced since years and years The inclusion of sounds contaminated by electronics and by the presence of DJs and performers of various types, dancers or communication promoters creating installations of mass interest, such as in car parks, fairs, discos and even on the street, those who know us know that we have always pertato jazz within everyone’s reach with an emotional and particularly involving language with different means, as I told you, some examples, Lo Greco Bros live The Jazzy Rap Night, Groove in Jazz Club, Different Standards, Soustance, all projects and albums which are popular in the world of young people, add also our ability to transfer the jazz soul to the soun, the funky and even the Hous and, in hipo Hop, see Flow Bop many albums, you know, everyone, we are vucans of musical energy .. I also add there to teach young people to study music while having fun

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

ELG: – Yes, as he says before, the spirit of music and life is and will always be the same for, he taught us and transmitted the spiritual meaning of the vision of music in life, without which no human being can survive in the entire universe, even the cosmos is music with sounds, sounds and infinite silent movements, in fact it is called harmony, the whole that moves to infinity, the music is inside us in the body as movement pauses, and in the soul and mind that are combined to perceive emotions that are transmitted and are translated into a code that we humans have called music .. this is his thought which is the same as mine.

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

ELG: – Ah, you are a phenomenal and keen observer with these super questions .. very complicated to answer, I will try to divide into two answers, one more spiritual and one more practical and real, first of all eliminate the gender bias of race of countries of sounds of apparently different peoples but in reality all the same with regard to music and the street, it would be a very rich and alive world if only everyone could play and listen to the universe of music that exists and surrounds us on and off. perhaps a utopia. the second, in practice, in my opinion, we should begin to change the mentality and approach to music starting with us musicians and teaching students and the public that music should not be sterile exhibitionism, arrogant competition, squalid way of thinking about becoming famous and rich .. the world of music and work in music would become more equitable and sustainable.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023

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

ELG: – In this period I listen to a lot of different stuff, because as you know we do many projects so you listen to different from the great Miles electric to which we will declare an album of unreleased songs on his style, funk jazz, or to historical stadards that we will do for the next different standas 5, therefore authors and classical performers like CarmenMcRae, Chet, John Altman, Kurt Elling etc, then Brazilian authors and performers like jobim for a project of classics revisited in a soul bossa key, then again new ECM albums like Marc Johnson solo bass, Joshua Redman new, Brad Mahladau , Cristian Mac Bride, Brian Blade, Sctt Clley, Larry Granadier, Patitucci, Holland and many others, ah, the new generation Like Charles Altura, Ben Wendel Emmeth Choen Linda May, and more, young prodigy like Jacob Collier for his particular musicality vocal and instrumental or Joy Alexander etc.

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

ELG: – Ah beautiful this game, man’s eternal journey in the past and in the future with the time machine, this is a recurring thought and dream in our life, I personally would like to go in the time of my childhood to relive everything I lived with the eyes of today, a real miracle would be, and then in the future for the curiosity of looking at future generations and lifestyles and of course the music of the future, instruments etc.

Interview by Simon Sarg

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, 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/