JD - What do you think of Jason Moran's music?

EP - Interesting, stimulating, daring sometimes and quite different than the average around.

JD - I was born before WW2. You were born after WW2. When I was born it was the Swing era. When you were born it was the Bebop era. Have you ever been a bebop musician?

EP - Yes, I was a bebop player during my teens and  during my twenties also,  that means during the late 60's and troughout the  70's.  Parker, Bud Powell ecc. were my heroes. I was fascinated and strongly involved in their music and their sounds. They were my "silent masters", no words, only the music. I spent a lot of time listening to their records,  transcribing their tunes or solos and trying to capture their phrasing and feeling  at the piano. Also I used to like very much some  hard bop combos like Art Blakey Jazz Messengers,  Horace Silver or  Cannonball Adderley quintets ecc.

JD - Your recordings in trio show influences of Bill Evans  more than Keith Jarrett. Your comments.

EP - Evans became  a strong influence for me only  in the early 80's. At that time I was very  emotionally struck by his music. Before that, as I told you, I was mainly a bebop -modal player (Corea and Tyner were for me good references after the boppers). Evans influenced me  mostly as far as the voicing and the touch are concerned. It's also true that in my trio works I use to refer to his "interplay" concept, a kind of dialogue or..."triologue" between the three members of the group.  In the last  15 years , mostly through composing, I wided very much my vocabulary and think that his influence is much less strong than in the past. Generally, however, I still find his artistry very honest and deep. I also respect Jarret, his immense talent and creativity, even if sometimes I feel a sort of "mannerism" in his playing.

JD - What is your opinion of the Portuguese public during your performances in Portugal?

EP - Very high...I felt a lot of respect by  Portuguese audience and, in the same time, a lot of interest and warmth.

JD - What do you think about Cecil Taylor's style?

EP -  Even if very different from  my approach, I  like his conception very much. There  is a lot of freedom in his music, he can be a real improvisor, I like the way he organizes his music, a kind of work in progress, a musical journey.  Also  I find really interesting the way he shapes his musical  stories  and how he gives his ensemble musical directions.  I think that  he plays  beyond any musical boundaries, he seems not to care at all  if what he is playing is jazz, contemporary music or whatever...I like this.

JD - You played and recorded with many north-american musicians. A good European jazzman learns jazz with north-american musicians?

EP - Jazz for me  is mainly  relationship, interaction, interplay...when some players play together there is a mutual influence, it's not "a teacher and a student" playing but two people telling their own stories.  It's true that ,  let's say  until 20, 25  years    ago there was somehow a gap between european and american musicians (with many exceptions already, think about the quartet including Jarrett, Garbarek ecc.  ) but nowadays things are totally  different and many american musicians (like Motian or Lovano stated  in some interviews, for instance) or even some criticians and journalists  are becoming aware of this new situation. In these days when a european and an american musician play together is an exchange at the same level.

 JD - Do you think if it is possible to teach improvisation and swing or to teach jazz? How did you learn jazz?

EP - In a sense it is, in another is not. Learning to play jazz or how to express yourself through improvising is a very individual  research. is a kind of long  self-knowledge process. It's  a hard work, it requires a lot of patience, passion, you have to be very humble...music is such an unlimited territory...I learned jazz, as I told above, mostly through the records and, also, by collaborating with musicians like Johnny Griffin, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz. Also composing helped me a lot in trying to understand how music works.

JD - "Special Encounter" is your most recent CD? Recorded in 2003 and edited in 2005 with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian is a melancholic music. Your comments.

EP - Originally we conceived "Special encounter" as a ballad cd. This is why we included many slow tempo tunes in it. However, you can find also some good  medium up tempo in that Cd. The three of us like nice melodies, this is true, but melodic does'nt mean melancholic... you can consider those slow tempo tunes  like "reflections in music".

JD - In the late 60's early 70's you began playing jazz along side Marcello Rosa an Italian trombone player. How important was Rosa in the Italian scene of those days and how successful was your work together?

EP - He was a prominent and well known swing - style oriented soloist all over Italy at that time, not only in the Rome area where I lived. Playing with him gave me the  chance  to experience the stage with a real jazz group and  to learn how to combine   a "professional" approach (sight -reading a new arrangement,  for instance) with a real "soloist" approach (how to tell your story in a two-choruses blowing section of a tune).

JD - You are the author of "Bill Evans - ritratto di artisti con pianoforte". How did you get this idea?

EP - It was a request by Mr. Gianfranco Salvatore, jazz journalist and writer who was at the time (middle 90's) the responsible for a series of jazz pocket books. He had the idea to ask some Italian jazz musicians (myself, Giorgio Gaslini) to write short biographies of famous american jazzmen. I was quite reluctant in the beginning, because all that story of the Bill Evans's influence on my playing... Eventually I decided to accept, I thought it could have been paradoxically a way to  get rid of that influence...I think I was right...

JD - Your works in duo with blowers like Phil Woods, Chet Baker or Lee Konitz requires a different attitude. Your comments.

EP - Generally a duet with a horn requires to be very flexible. You have to treat the piano as an orchestra, or as a drums, or as a bass, or as a singer, depending on the musical situations... Recording with such artists gave me the opportunity to use all these different ways to play my instrument...and also the chance to exchange with them an unbelievable series of really exciting, unforgettable moments.

JD - How popular is Jazz in Italy nowadays? Tell us about festivals, CDs, musicians and public.

EP - Italian jazz scene is living in these times one of  his best moments ever. New generations of very good musicians are succeeding and people love them.  No comparison with the  times when I began giving my first concerts...Much more festivals, concerts...Many people follow this music...when the use of the web began to spread around I was afraid we miss the audience...it happened the contrary. There is a lot more of information about cd's, concerts ecc.  Also, last but not least, in Rome on april 2005  "La Casa del Jazz" (JazzHouse) has been open. Located in a wonderful side of the old center-town, this new institution is supported by the town and organizes concerts, conventions, meetings. It quickly became a point of reference for all the jazz musicians in Italy.  Nothing like that exists in any other country, at my knowledge, and nothing like that would have been possible some decades ago...

JD - Is it true that the Italian people sing daily opera arias the same way as other people sing rock music?

EP - Is this a joke? It sounds funny, but it's not true...We have a huge pop-music scene and mostly the new generations are very fond of pop singers. The Opera tradition is still very strong in my country (Verdi, Puccini, Rossini)  and we have 6, 7 good  Opera Houses with their own orchestras and choirs. These Houses  keep the Opera  tradition alive, but the audience for this is mainly middle-aged or old-aged.

JD - What is the future in jazz of acoustic instruments  like the piano?

EP - I really don't know. I'd like to be optimistic. I think acoustic instruments like guitar, piano ecc. will always keep their role in the improvised music. Their sound is so beautifil and fascinating... In the 70's or 80's it seemed that the "acoustic age" was over. As one can easily see, acoustic instruments are still there. Why should they disappear? People like them and musicians too.

JD - Is it possible for a white European musician to play the blues?

EP - Surely it is. Blues is universal, it's a feeling not only a structure, and this feeling does'nt require to have an american passport.  Many not-american musicians can play very well the blues, whereas many american musicians are not too good in playing it... Too much?...Check it out...

JD - After evaluating the discography, concerts, fame and merit that Enrico Pieranunzi  has today, does that mean that the days of poor and difficult times of jazz musicians is something of the past?

EP - I thank you for choicing me and my musical life as an example of better times! I consider myself lucky because I'm able to live by playing the music that I really like. When I was a young musician, 30 years ago,  this was not possible.  But this is my story. Every story is different. Nowadays a  young musician, even talented, can find problems in developing his activity.I always tell students that a young musician who decides to enter this activity is somehow an "hero"  for me. Like for learning jazz, also for keeping yourself in this way you have to have a lot of passion, honesty and  patience. It's also  important to wide your musical skills... playing, even well, can be not  enough. One should try to arrange, to compose, to have ideas... Jazz activity in these times is a much wider concept than in the past.

JD - Give us your opinion on the works of Meade ‘Lux' Lewis, Albert Ammons and Jimmy Yancey and the Boogie Woogie style and its popularity.

EP - I love this style. For a while, years ago, I studied some James. P. Johnson's boogie woogie's. I had a great time and learned a lot. I think the pianists you mentioned were really "virtuosi". Playing this style requires good technique, great control of  tempo, good ears, blues feeling...It's a pity that this music is out of fashion. But I think that somehow, in a certain amount,  this style  is part of any performance of any jazz player, all over the world...

2006 agosto 31

José Duarte