Sept. 26, 2020

Antonio Serrano interview

Antonio Serrano interview
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Season 1 Chromatic Harmonica Classical Chromatic Jazz Chromatic Pop Harmonica Session Musician Traditional Harmonica

Chromatic player, Antonio Serrano, is the current SPAH harmonica player of the year. And with good reason.
Antonio’s father was a great influence on the fledgling harmonica player. And Antonio met Larry Adler at a young age, and performed with him for the first time, at only 13 years of old. Since that time Antonio has made a big splash on the Spanish music scene, not least when he played with flamenco legend Paco de Lucia. He has recorded with many artists and released some albums under his own name, including a tribute to the legendary Toots Thielemans, who he has also performed with.

Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).

Links:
https://kamalaproducciones.com/portfolio_page/antonio-serrano

YouTube:
Performing with Larry Adler at age 13:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAamKnAvnNs&feature=youtu.be

Performing with Toots Thielemans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdoL5SwLqTU&feature=youtu.be

Playing with Paco de Lucia: (Flamenco)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8-3_fqO4Y&app=desktop

Playing I Feel For You with Chaka Khan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLY9QdYADw&feature=youtu.be

Antonio playing Rhapsody In Blue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRulfholtfQ&feature=youtu.be

Antonio playing Send In The Clowns from his first album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7-xZ4RPkc

SPAH seminar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HOZHIqW5TI&feature=youtu.be&t=14145&fbclid=IwAR0ZdDoToh7yyIqcSQj9oKKATzkuCxfX9Bpusr3mLeMKF311R4FLxUA_OrI


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

01:18 - Where Antonio grew up

02:47 - Father was a big influence on Antonio picking up the harmonica

03:10 - Father taught Antonio (& others) how to play

05:07 - Antonio played the tremolo as first instrument

06:30 - Learning an instrument from a young age

09:01 - What started Antonio playing chromatic

09:49 - Father also played some diatonic and Antonio plays some diatonic

11:51 - Learnt to accompany on the chromatic

12:54 - Antonio started working on classical pieces which developed his double stops

13:54 - When Antonio first met Larry Adler

14:16 - Lessons with Larry Adler

15:36 - Antonio wishes he could tongue switch better

16:48 - The greatness of Larry Adler

18:49 - Respect for Gregoire Maret and Toots Thielemans

20:00 - Importance of playing a chordal instrument

22:23 - Finding the time to learn music and being efficient

23:21 - 10 minute question

24:05 - Antonio’s first album

26:08 - Recordings with numerous Spanish artists

27:04 - Album with Federico Lechner, and Sesame Street

29:18 - Tremelo effect

30:21 - Antonio is well known in his native Spain

31:43 - Played with Flamenco legend Paco de Lucia

34:46 - Antonio’s solo album, Harmonious

37:50 - Classical album with Constanza Lechner

39:24 - Working on a new classical piece

39:59 - Combination of chromatic and piano

40:20 - Tootsology album

43:13 - Played live Chaka Khan on I Feel For You

43:50 - Played with jazz guitar player Peter Bernstein

44:19 - Recorded soundtracks for various films

44:33 - Teaching Chinese student Kang Kang

47:12 - Antonio has just written an instructional book

47:31 - Antonio is the SPAH Harmonica Player of the Year for 2020

49:09 - Antonio’s chromatic of choice

51:50 - Customising chromatics

52:18 - Believes in keeping the instrument simple

53:12 - Antonio has started playing other keys of chromatic

54:40 - Embouchre

54:55 - Amps and mics

55:46 - Mic for recording

56:39 - Put together concert to help his student

WEBVTT

00:00:00.162 --> 00:00:04.887
Chromatic player Antonio Serrano joins me for episode 23 of the podcast.

00:00:05.708 --> 00:00:09.874
Antonio is the current Spa Harmonica Player of the Year, and with good reason.

00:00:10.695 --> 00:00:20.567
Antonio's father was a great influence on the fledgling harmonica player, and Antonio met Larry Adler at a young age and performed with him for the first time at only 13 years old.

00:00:21.547 --> 00:00:29.498
Since that time, Antonio has made a big splash on the Spanish music scene, not least when he played with flamenco legend Paco de Lucia.

00:00:29.794 --> 00:00:39.649
He has recorded with many artists and recorded some albums under his own name, including a tribute to the legendary Toots Teelmans, who he has also performed with.

00:00:39.668 --> 00:00:47.100
A word to my sponsor again, thanks to the Lone Wolf Blues Company, makers of effects pedals, microphones and more, designed for harmonica.

00:00:47.540 --> 00:00:50.706
Remember, when you want control over your tone, you want Lone Wolf.

00:01:12.930 --> 00:01:15.555
Hello Antonio Serrano and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:16.096 --> 00:01:16.516
Hi Neil.

00:01:16.796 --> 00:01:18.239
Thanks very much for joining me today.

00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:18.962
You live in

00:01:19.001 --> 00:01:20.243
Madrid normally, don't you?

00:01:20.605 --> 00:01:27.397
I've lived in Madrid for a long time and a few months ago I moved to Altea, a small town in the east coast of Spain.

00:01:27.778 --> 00:01:32.983
It's a beautiful place and all my family lives here, like my mother, my brother, my sister.

00:01:33.004 --> 00:01:38.450
I lived here for almost 10 years when I was a kid and it's like our town.

00:01:39.109 --> 00:01:43.694
Okay, so the town you're in now is the town you grew up in and learned to start playing harmonica then?

00:01:44.275 --> 00:01:51.343
Not exactly because I was born in Madrid and I started playing when I was very, very young, like five, six years old.

00:01:52.123 --> 00:01:54.947
So I started when I lived in Madrid.

00:01:55.126 --> 00:01:57.310
When I was 11 was that we moved here.

00:01:57.697 --> 00:02:00.902
So I already played a little bit when we moved here.

00:02:01.182 --> 00:02:04.686
But I mean, here I started to meet musicians.

00:02:04.787 --> 00:02:05.768
It's a small town.

00:02:06.147 --> 00:02:12.836
When you live in a big city, you just meet the people that you have around, you know, when you're in school or when you go to conservatory.

00:02:12.856 --> 00:02:15.419
But here, it's a small town and there's a lot of musicians.

00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:18.402
There's a small music school.

00:02:18.743 --> 00:02:23.710
They have a band, like a brass band, and everybody, you know, all the kids from town just...

00:02:23.873 --> 00:02:26.900
They play there and they have an experience when they're young.

00:02:27.561 --> 00:02:34.252
So I also played there and I had a very natural musical experience in this town.

00:02:34.713 --> 00:02:36.736
It happens in all the east coast of Spain.

00:02:36.897 --> 00:02:43.629
There's a lot of tradition that everybody should go to the music school and learn a wind instrument like a trumpet or clarinet.

00:02:43.971 --> 00:02:45.713
They rehearsal once or twice a week.

00:02:45.985 --> 00:02:46.606
It's a nice thing.

00:02:47.348 --> 00:02:51.258
I believe your father was very influential in your early playing as well.

00:02:51.799 --> 00:02:53.782
He played harmonica then, didn't he?

00:02:53.823 --> 00:02:55.246
That's why he wanted you to pick it up.

00:02:55.667 --> 00:02:56.449
Yes, absolutely.

00:02:56.709 --> 00:03:00.377
He was really, really passionate for the harmonica.

00:03:00.737 --> 00:03:01.579
also for the music.

00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:04.861
But I mean, he had a special love for the harmonica.

00:03:05.162 --> 00:03:09.605
So it was the first instrument that I actually met, you know, and started playing.

00:03:10.265 --> 00:03:13.308
And he also loved to teach.

00:03:13.628 --> 00:03:14.870
I mean, he was a very good teacher.

00:03:14.909 --> 00:03:19.814
He tried to make it interesting and joyful for us.

00:03:19.854 --> 00:03:20.634
We were very young.

00:03:20.996 --> 00:03:24.859
I say us because my brother and sister also learned when we were young.

00:03:25.158 --> 00:03:31.685
And he tried to make it interesting and very exciting to learn music and to learn how to play the harmonica.

00:03:31.965 --> 00:03:43.818
And even from the beginning, he tried to teach us not only how to play the instrument or how to play songs, but also to learn simultaneously to read music and write music.

00:03:44.237 --> 00:03:54.188
He really believed in learning music in a complete way, not only as a performer or just for a hobby, but try to read to learn things well.

00:03:54.389 --> 00:03:57.432
Like if you want to play music, try to learn how to read music.

00:03:57.532 --> 00:04:03.378
And also, he also taught us how to improvise, although he He wasn't like a jazz musician himself.

00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:09.125
He didn't really know much about harmony, but he liked improvisation, like free improvisation.

00:04:09.425 --> 00:04:25.483
In the lessons, in the classes we had, we practiced improvisation in a free conversational way, let's say, you know, like we kind of gathered on a circle, you know, like the different harmonica players in the class and one had to play something and the other one had to answer him and then the other one had to answer the previous one.

00:04:25.642 --> 00:04:28.646
It was like a musical conversation, let's say, you know.

00:04:28.766 --> 00:04:38.997
So I was very lucky actually to and it was definitely really important the father I had you know to become a harmonica player a professional musician with the harmonica

00:04:39.297 --> 00:04:43.000
he taught you in groups was this with your brothers and sisters and other people as well

00:04:43.322 --> 00:05:04.644
yeah the beginning it was only my sister and me in a few weeks time like this is when he started teaching some other people just started to turn up and yeah I remember it was a class we were maybe 10 or 12 my father was quite special and he he renewed Yeah, it sounds like he did

00:05:06.105 --> 00:05:06.706
a great job.

00:05:06.867 --> 00:05:12.632
And I believe your father had you playing the tremolo first, even for a year or two before you picked up the chromatic.

00:05:12.872 --> 00:05:13.254
That's true.

00:05:13.314 --> 00:05:16.937
He had a theory about this.

00:05:17.218 --> 00:05:25.086
He said that when you start, especially if you're a kid and you start on an instrument, you still haven't got a sound of your own.

00:05:25.125 --> 00:05:27.468
You don't really have a built sound.

00:05:27.689 --> 00:05:30.512
The tremolo harmonica gives you the opportunity just by playing the tremolo.

00:05:30.512 --> 00:05:35.182
putting some air in it to get a nice kind of vibrato, well, tremolo sound.

00:05:35.845 --> 00:05:39.012
You don't have to do anything to get a harmonious sound.

00:05:39.112 --> 00:05:43.262
So he believed that it was a nice instrument to start with.

00:05:43.490 --> 00:05:47.353
And he also said that it was a very tough instrument.

00:05:47.673 --> 00:05:49.595
You had to really blow very hard to break it.

00:05:50.615 --> 00:05:52.538
So it was good for a beginner.

00:05:52.577 --> 00:05:54.278
It was also a cheap instrument.

00:05:54.459 --> 00:05:59.603
So there were several reasons that took him to choose that instrument for beginning.

00:06:00.043 --> 00:06:04.767
I don't know if I have the same opinion, but it was interesting, actually.

00:06:04.988 --> 00:06:07.151
Those reasons that he had were reasonable.

00:06:07.651 --> 00:06:07.911
Yeah.

00:06:07.930 --> 00:06:09.773
And do you still play a bit of tremolo now?

00:06:10.673 --> 00:06:11.374
No, not at all.

00:06:11.454 --> 00:06:11.894
Not at all.

00:06:12.774 --> 00:06:13.175
I love it.

00:06:13.276 --> 00:06:30.988
I love instrument I remember in Bristol I heard it's the most beautiful tremolo playing I've ever heard also the way the Asians play is very spectacular you know like changing from one harmonica to the other I play classical pieces and stuff it's interesting but I'm

00:06:31.048 --> 00:06:35.857
very interested in this idea that obviously you've had a A very good upbringing with your father there.

00:06:36.197 --> 00:06:41.384
About learning when you're young, we all know that you learn things more quickly when you're young.

00:06:41.904 --> 00:06:47.812
And so to get to the level where you have, obviously you picked up the harmonica initially around the age of seven, yeah?

00:06:48.072 --> 00:06:51.137
So what is it you think about picking up the harmonica so early?

00:06:51.177 --> 00:06:56.985
And maybe what does that mean for if people pick it up later in life, where they can get so far?

00:06:57.634 --> 00:07:07.408
Well, I mean, I'm not a neuroscientist, but I'm very curious about how we learn and about knowledge and how knowledge gets into our brains.

00:07:07.468 --> 00:07:13.158
And what I've read about it is that when we are very young is when we pick up the different languages.

00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:21.732
There are thousands of languages, not like the language we speak is one of them, but the music is another language and the language of signs, the language of colors, the language of...

00:07:21.932 --> 00:07:22.973
There are so many languages.

00:07:23.425 --> 00:07:25.487
that we pick up when we are young just by living.

00:07:25.908 --> 00:07:30.512
After a certain age, it's difficult to learn a completely new language.

00:07:30.752 --> 00:07:34.435
There's something in the brain that for some reason doesn't work the same way.

00:07:34.495 --> 00:07:36.877
When we get older, I don't know, it's not so flexible.

00:07:37.497 --> 00:07:44.303
If you've had an exposure to music when you're very young, I think it's going to be easier for you to play not only the harmonica but any other instrument.

00:07:44.423 --> 00:07:45.845
I mean, it's not about the harmonica, I think.

00:07:46.005 --> 00:07:49.048
I think it's more about understanding the language of music.

00:07:49.247 --> 00:07:58.060
So the sooner you have an exposure to that language, I think the more fluid you're going to be speaking that language or understanding that language.

00:08:11.742 --> 00:08:14.947
Some people say, no, I started playing the harmonica when I was 17.

00:08:15.088 --> 00:08:18.314
Actually, two cinemas, I think, started playing the harmonica pretty late, but...

00:08:18.593 --> 00:08:21.817
That doesn't mean his exposure to music was that late.

00:08:21.956 --> 00:08:25.100
I mean, he started playing the accordion, I think, when he was four years old or five.

00:08:25.319 --> 00:08:29.103
So he was exposed to music very, very soon in his life.

00:08:29.382 --> 00:08:32.365
So then when he was 17, he decided to pick up the harmonica.

00:08:32.785 --> 00:08:35.288
It's not really when he started playing music.

00:08:35.688 --> 00:08:44.475
And some people even think that they started in music when they were older, but you don't really remember what happened to you when you were two, three, four years old.

00:08:44.777 --> 00:08:51.562
Maybe you had a grandmother that was singing songs to you all the time, or you had somebody that was playing the radio for you all the time, and you probably don't remember.

00:08:51.623 --> 00:08:57.269
So it's difficult sometimes to really know objectively when you were exposed to the music for the first time.

00:08:57.289 --> 00:09:01.014
I think it's more about that, about when do you expose yourself to music.

00:09:01.815 --> 00:09:05.019
So you picked up the chromatic after a couple of years, playing the tremolo.

00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:07.922
I started playing classical pieces, well, trying

00:09:07.961 --> 00:09:10.024
to play classical pieces on the harmonica.

00:09:10.845 --> 00:09:13.948
So is that what turned you to the chromatic then, to start playing classical?

00:09:14.428 --> 00:09:14.909
Yeah.

00:09:15.042 --> 00:09:27.312
And also, well, to be able to play the slide, you know, there were some pieces that I was trying to play, not only classical pieces, but other songs that needed some, you know, some chromatic notes.

00:09:27.633 --> 00:09:32.777
So I don't know, I was playing the Entertainer, for example, or I was playing Beer Barrel Polka.

00:09:33.298 --> 00:09:37.942
I needed some chromatic notes.

00:09:38.121 --> 00:09:41.245
So that's why I started playing the chromatic harmonica.

00:09:41.404 --> 00:09:45.008
And also because my reference was my father, and I really enjoyed it.

00:09:45.008 --> 00:09:47.751
seeing him play a chromatic.

00:09:48.011 --> 00:09:48.812
So I moved into that.

00:09:49.533 --> 00:10:05.236
Actually, my father also played the blues harp and the diatonic harmonicas, but without any bendings, without using bendings, just as a very clean, pure sound, you know, with tongue-blocking techniques, like to make accompaniments like this.

00:10:12.826 --> 00:10:14.590
He used to play like this, like very, very...

00:10:14.785 --> 00:10:15.767
Very clean.

00:10:16.227 --> 00:10:29.043
I didn't know about the bending and the blues and that until I was 13 or 14, I think, that I assisted the 1989 world competition in Jersey.

00:10:29.602 --> 00:10:34.509
I couldn't believe how many different ways there were to play the harmonica.

00:10:35.090 --> 00:10:38.974
Yeah, and of course, it might surprise some people to hear that you do play some diatonic.

00:10:46.721 --> 00:11:04.831
So you play some pretty decent blues diatonic as well, don't you?

00:11:05.432 --> 00:11:06.615
Yeah, for a few years.

00:11:06.816 --> 00:11:10.522
I really got into that in my teens.

00:11:10.621 --> 00:11:12.846
I really wanted to understand it.

00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:25.621
how to play the blues harmonica, I was really impressed by the expressivity and the power of the bendings and those vibratos, those wah-wahs.

00:11:25.642 --> 00:11:25.942
I don't know.

00:11:25.961 --> 00:11:30.446
I mean, the diatonic harmonica has a lot of soul behind.

00:11:30.486 --> 00:11:35.110
There's a lot of things that you can do on it that are so expressive that I really wanted to learn.

00:11:35.130 --> 00:11:39.034
I mean, I'm not really, really good at it, but I can do...

00:11:39.514 --> 00:11:40.196
Well, I play my way.

00:11:40.216 --> 00:11:42.418
I understand the instrument.

00:11:42.785 --> 00:11:45.811
And if I practiced more, maybe I would play better.

00:11:46.052 --> 00:11:49.037
But well, for what I need, I'm okay.

00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:59.533
Another thing about your early developments I just wanted to pick up on is that playing in this group you were learning in with your father and your brothers and sisters, you didn't have other instruments.

00:11:59.573 --> 00:12:02.219
So you learned to start to accompany on the chromatic.

00:12:02.278 --> 00:12:02.799
Is that right?

00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.525
So you started to learn to play chords and octaves and things, the sport you're playing.

00:12:06.977 --> 00:12:14.129
Yeah, because we played in the family group, like my brother, my sister and me, you know, we played in bars and even on the street.

00:12:14.350 --> 00:12:23.062
Yeah, it was a bit boring just to play the melody, you know, so I started learning how to comp with octaves to make the sound bigger and create a kind of accordion effect.

00:12:23.604 --> 00:12:29.833
At the beginning, I felt dizzy, you know, like really dizzy when I did it because I was using so much air, you know, I...

00:12:30.145 --> 00:12:32.607
I played for a few songs and I had to sit down.

00:12:32.908 --> 00:12:34.230
Well, eventually I got used to it, but.

00:12:34.730 --> 00:12:37.673
Yeah, but I think that that has kind of shaped your sound quite a lot, isn't it?

00:12:37.692 --> 00:12:43.557
Because you do use octaves a lot when you're playing and you do use chords, maybe more so than some other chromatic players.

00:12:44.038 --> 00:12:46.019
Is that the thing where you picked it up?

00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:53.866
Yeah, especially the octaves and the freedom of the tongue, you know, like be able to do whatever you want with the tongue.

00:12:54.086 --> 00:13:09.727
But it wasn't until I started working on classical pieces written for the harmonica, like like the Villalobos Concerto, that I really started to play like double stops, you know, like two, six, thirds, fifths, changing the embouchure.

00:13:10.369 --> 00:13:13.995
In that time, I was only using octaves and the tongue comping.

00:13:14.336 --> 00:13:15.538
When I started learning...

00:13:24.418 --> 00:13:25.659
That's from the Villa Lovos Concerto.

00:13:25.700 --> 00:13:29.668
I had to start moving the mouth, open, close, open, close.

00:13:30.028 --> 00:13:35.037
And also when I met Larry Adler, he taught me a few things that were really beautiful.

00:13:43.373 --> 00:13:45.716
So I started to practice that kind of thing.

00:13:46.538 --> 00:13:48.261
I thought it was really, really interesting.

00:13:49.378 --> 00:13:50.219
Yeah, absolutely.

00:13:50.259 --> 00:13:51.779
And so, yeah, you mentioned Larry Adler there.

00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:53.321
So let's get on to Larry now.

00:13:53.442 --> 00:13:59.746
So did you first meet him when you played with him in Paris when you were 13 years old or had you met him before then?

00:14:00.027 --> 00:14:09.495
Well, I met him a few months before in the Jersey competition, World Championship, the first World Championship in 1987, I think it was.

00:14:10.096 --> 00:14:15.500
And that's where I met Larry Adler and then he invited me to play with him in Paris.

00:14:16.140 --> 00:14:17.322
Did you have lessons with him?

00:14:17.422 --> 00:14:19.344
Well, at the beginning, we just kind of rehearsed.

00:14:19.344 --> 00:14:22.730
on the phone for the concerts that we did.

00:14:22.791 --> 00:14:23.793
We did a few concerts.

00:14:24.274 --> 00:14:28.142
My father wanted me to take some lessons with him, so he came to Spain.

00:14:28.461 --> 00:14:32.149
Yeah, we spent some time together, but I don't know, there weren't really lessons, you know.

00:14:32.481 --> 00:14:35.183
I was playing some symphonic concerts.

00:14:35.424 --> 00:14:40.668
So I was playing pieces that were arranged for him, like Romanian Rhapsody, Rhapsody in Blue.

00:14:41.190 --> 00:14:42.129
I was playing those pieces.

00:14:42.169 --> 00:14:46.374
So, I mean, the class is just consistent in me playing the music for him.

00:14:46.433 --> 00:14:47.855
And he just made a few comments.

00:14:48.056 --> 00:14:49.897
Well, I think here you should do this.

00:14:50.778 --> 00:14:54.480
He didn't really teach me in the way other teachers kind of teach.

00:14:54.801 --> 00:14:56.283
We talked a lot about music.

00:14:56.783 --> 00:14:58.485
We didn't talk much about the harmonica.

00:14:58.605 --> 00:15:02.447
I remember he told me, well, I don't have much to tell you about the harmonica.

00:15:02.447 --> 00:15:35.325
I think you have a very good technique that's the most important thing at the beginning and the only thing he used to say was try to look for your own sound to have your own identity try not to imitate other people because if you want to be an artist and you want to do something in music you got to be yourself and that was the kind of advice he used to tell me more than technical things I had a very good understanding of the instrument there already and I think he could feel that I mean anything I heard I could play more or less I I didn't need really a lot of technical classes.

00:15:35.986 --> 00:15:42.158
The only thing I felt I needed to practice, I needed really lessons on, was a tongue switch.

00:15:42.599 --> 00:15:43.340
You know this technique?

00:15:43.841 --> 00:15:45.924
Yeah, putting it either side of your mouth.

00:15:46.225 --> 00:15:48.929
Yeah, but Larry Adler didn't really do that.

00:15:49.350 --> 00:15:54.640
In that time, the person that was really doing that professionally was Robert Bonfiglio.

00:16:07.841 --> 00:16:11.929
He wanted me to go to Manhattan to study with him.

00:16:11.950 --> 00:16:14.654
And I was quite interested in doing that.

00:16:15.015 --> 00:16:18.763
But I don't know, for some reason, my father didn't want me to go.

00:16:18.783 --> 00:16:25.154
I don't know, but I was really interested because I really wanted to study that technique and learn that technique.

00:16:25.215 --> 00:16:28.662
Because I think that's, in a way, that's probably the future.

00:16:28.961 --> 00:16:42.070
of the chromatic harmonica, somebody that can really play that technique fluently and improvise with it and do all kinds of intervals and things that are not so easy or almost impossible to do without that technique.

00:16:42.817 --> 00:16:43.097
Yeah,

00:16:43.177 --> 00:16:46.600
I think you'd have to start doing it when you're age seven, Antonio.

00:16:48.903 --> 00:16:55.469
There's a perception about Larry Adler in some quarters, isn't there, that he wasn't a kind of pure musician, that he kind of bust it a little.

00:16:55.509 --> 00:17:04.277
I mean, looking at the things he achieved, you know, playing big concerts, you know, with big orchestras on one level and then playing, you know, in film store.

00:17:04.317 --> 00:17:08.099
I've read, you know, his autobiography and a biography about him.

00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.561
And he was definitely a larger than life character, wasn't he?

00:17:10.582 --> 00:17:16.403
You know, very outspoken and, you know, mature he got what he wanted out of life so is that what he was like as a person as well?

00:17:16.738 --> 00:17:16.877
I

00:17:16.917 --> 00:17:20.000
think he was a very, very serious musician.

00:17:20.060 --> 00:17:20.540
I don't know.

00:17:20.580 --> 00:17:22.063
I mean, I was very young when I met him.

00:17:22.143 --> 00:17:27.467
And I don't know if I knew enough about music to really understand him.

00:17:27.507 --> 00:17:33.452
But when I hear his recordings nowadays, I think he was a very serious musician.

00:17:33.633 --> 00:17:37.175
And the way he understood music, I mean, he could play the piano very well.

00:17:37.215 --> 00:17:38.096
He could compose.

00:17:38.136 --> 00:17:39.317
He knew a lot about harmony.

00:17:39.357 --> 00:17:41.199
He had an amazing ear.

00:17:41.239 --> 00:17:43.080
And his sound was unique.

00:17:43.320 --> 00:17:49.459
What he can do on the chromatic harmonica sound It's just unbelievable.

00:17:49.539 --> 00:17:51.631
I mean, I've never heard anybody be...

00:18:17.506 --> 00:18:22.112
I think he's definitely the biggest chromatic harmonica player of all times.

00:18:22.232 --> 00:18:24.976
And not only a harmonica player, but he was an amazing musician.

00:18:25.037 --> 00:18:29.122
I mean, he could get very serious composers to write music for him.

00:18:29.162 --> 00:18:33.367
You need the respect of these people to get them to write music for you.

00:18:33.528 --> 00:18:36.813
It's not just that you're going to pay and they're going to write music for you.

00:18:37.032 --> 00:18:39.416
These people, they don't only work for money.

00:18:39.436 --> 00:18:43.082
They work when they really feel they admire somebody.

00:18:43.554 --> 00:18:48.980
And I think he was at the same level, Larry Elder was at the same level as the best musicians of his time.

00:18:49.410 --> 00:18:57.018
I think sometimes in the harmonica world, harmonica players are not so aware of what's going on in the real world, like in the musical world.

00:18:57.378 --> 00:19:04.605
And some players, some people, they are not so present in the harmonica world, but they are really doing something in the musical world.

00:19:04.766 --> 00:19:06.468
And for me, that's more important.

00:19:06.508 --> 00:19:10.132
For example, I have a lot of respect for Gregoire Marais.

00:19:10.792 --> 00:19:15.298
But you try to judge him by the people he plays with and the kind of situations he's involved in.

00:19:15.778 --> 00:19:17.378
I've had Greg Waugh on the podcast.

00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:22.864
As you say, he's played with some amazing people, including Herbie Hancock, and it doesn't get much better than that in the jazz world.

00:19:22.884 --> 00:19:23.585
So absolutely, yeah.

00:19:23.904 --> 00:19:26.988
I mean, that's the highest you can get in music.

00:19:27.067 --> 00:19:30.270
And I think Larry is something like that, you know, or two steelers.

00:19:30.310 --> 00:19:35.335
I mean, two steelers, he played with all the best jazz musicians of his era, you know.

00:19:35.755 --> 00:19:41.440
When you really get into the musical world, I think that's when you can consider yourself, I don't know, a musician.

00:19:41.820 --> 00:19:43.501
I think it's another level.

00:19:43.721 --> 00:19:45.344
It's not only about playing the harmonica, no?

00:19:45.443 --> 00:19:47.846
It's about what can you do in the real world?

00:19:48.027 --> 00:19:51.391
Do musicians accept you, respect you, or not?

00:19:51.651 --> 00:19:57.198
I think that's where we should want to go as harmonica players, if we want the harmonica to be a big instrument.

00:19:57.478 --> 00:20:00.020
No, absolutely, and you've done a great job there yourself.

00:20:00.602 --> 00:20:13.758
So I know you play piano yourself as well, so any other instruments you play, and what's that feeling about the importance of being able to play other instruments as well, maybe particularly chordal ones where you can understand harmony a bit better and...

00:20:13.986 --> 00:20:23.034
Yeah, I believe that it's necessary if you play a melodic instrument to play either the piano or the guitar to understand harmony.

00:20:23.513 --> 00:20:31.621
Not only harmony, but the way the music is spread, where the bass should be, where the melody should be, and what is in between.

00:20:31.641 --> 00:20:39.407
I always loved the piano, but when I met Larry and I saw that he was a very good piano player, I understood that.

00:20:39.587 --> 00:20:40.288
That was very important.

00:20:40.348 --> 00:20:42.711
Then I started listening to Stevie Wonder.

00:20:43.070 --> 00:20:45.554
I said, okay, this guy also plays the piano amazingly.

00:20:45.733 --> 00:20:50.679
And then I started listening to Silemens, and I said, okay, this guy plays the guitar amazingly.

00:20:50.719 --> 00:20:56.925
So, I mean, if you want to be good, it's not only about playing the harmonica, you have to play another instrument, like a harmonic instrument.

00:20:57.185 --> 00:21:02.090
I also heard Howard Levy, and yeah, I found out that he played the piano also really good.

00:21:02.151 --> 00:21:07.356
So, I've worked on my piano because I think it's necessary if you want to play very good.

00:21:07.737 --> 00:21:16.167
If you only know harmony in an abstract way, when you see a C major chord, you're You're going to think on C, E, G.

00:21:16.248 --> 00:21:17.529
You're going to think on those notes.

00:21:17.670 --> 00:21:19.573
That's what the theory says, no?

00:21:20.094 --> 00:21:26.023
Or if you say C major 7, you're going to think on C, E, G, B.

00:21:26.344 --> 00:21:27.125
You're going to think on that.

00:21:27.326 --> 00:21:28.969
And you're going to play that because you're thinking on that.

00:21:29.088 --> 00:21:33.916
But if you play a piano or you play the guitar, then you're going to start understanding how to voice those chords.

00:21:34.116 --> 00:21:36.902
And you're going to find out that you don't voice it like that.

00:21:37.153 --> 00:21:42.358
If you want to make it sound pretty, you might voice E, G, A, D, for example.

00:21:42.398 --> 00:21:45.080
That would be a nice C major sound.

00:21:45.361 --> 00:21:53.028
And when you start experimenting and knowing those inversions and those different voicings, you're going to start playing those on the harmonica too, and they're going to sound beautiful.

00:21:53.367 --> 00:22:00.693
When you start playing chords on the guitar or on the piano, you get really deep into music, into understanding what's going on.

00:22:00.855 --> 00:22:10.083
And you understand that what's happening on the melody is just the top of a big thing that's happening in And it's good to understand what's happening underneath that.

00:22:10.884 --> 00:22:13.326
How to pass from one chord to another in a smooth way.

00:22:13.405 --> 00:22:14.186
That's so important.

00:22:14.307 --> 00:22:18.372
Not to see harmony just in a vertical way, but in a horizontal way.

00:22:18.751 --> 00:22:19.972
They call it voice leading.

00:22:20.354 --> 00:22:22.375
That's so, so, so, so useful.

00:22:23.217 --> 00:22:29.983
Yeah, I think a challenge that people have, I think obviously learning another instrument is really valuable, but it's just the time, isn't it?

00:22:30.023 --> 00:22:33.847
You know, how much time do you spend playing the harmonica and then you've got to go and learn the piano as well.

00:22:34.909 --> 00:22:36.190
How do you balance that?

00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:40.515
I was lucky that I learned how to play the harmonica very, very fast.

00:22:41.195 --> 00:22:44.559
Yeah, it's very difficult to have time to do everything.

00:22:44.579 --> 00:22:46.643
I have problems, too, with this.

00:22:46.823 --> 00:22:51.209
Not about having time or not, because I think I have enough time.

00:22:51.388 --> 00:22:56.075
But it's also about managing your time, about practicing efficiently.

00:22:56.375 --> 00:22:57.375
This is so important.

00:22:57.916 --> 00:23:01.141
I really know how to practice efficiently on the harmonica.

00:23:01.161 --> 00:23:04.726
If I have half an hour, I'm going to do the best out of that half an hour.

00:23:05.057 --> 00:23:12.066
On other instruments, I don't have so much discipline or I don't have so much knowledge of the learning process of the instrument.

00:23:12.125 --> 00:23:12.425
I don't know.

00:23:12.787 --> 00:23:20.395
I feel that when I practice the piano, when I practice other things, I waste my time a little bit more than when I practice the harmonica.

00:23:21.135 --> 00:23:23.098
You talk about having an efficient practice routine.

00:23:23.159 --> 00:23:26.643
I asked this question, if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes on?

00:23:26.682 --> 00:23:32.890
So maybe for you, what do you focus on in your 30 minutes practice to be so efficient with your practicing?

00:23:33.377 --> 00:23:40.667
Well, I try to focus on whatever I have to learn for the next gig or for the next concert or the project.

00:23:40.769 --> 00:23:45.494
I don't really have anything that I practice every day, like an exercise routine.

00:23:45.515 --> 00:23:51.083
I practice songs or pieces or I work on things that I want to play.

00:23:51.143 --> 00:23:58.173
Actually, if I only have half an hour, I definitely wouldn't spend it on playing scales and arpeggios and stuff like that.

00:23:58.374 --> 00:24:00.215
I would try to play some music.

00:24:01.634 --> 00:24:04.917
So we'll move on a bit now to your musical career.

00:24:04.959 --> 00:24:11.748
Going back to your first album you released in 1991, Antonio Serrano and his Romantic Harmonicas.

00:24:12.808 --> 00:24:13.589
What about that one?

00:24:14.290 --> 00:24:16.253
I was like 17 years old, more or less.

00:24:16.694 --> 00:24:18.576
Yeah, I had a manager.

00:24:18.616 --> 00:24:22.201
I was living in Altea at that time here in this town.

00:24:22.382 --> 00:24:24.905
And I had a Belgium manager.

00:24:25.218 --> 00:24:26.578
Well, he was trying to help me, you know.

00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:31.462
My father was always looking for people to help me in my career, and this was one of them.

00:24:31.784 --> 00:24:34.965
And he, well, he had some contacts in the Netherlands.

00:24:35.307 --> 00:24:39.049
He made a record deal with Dureco Studios to make a record.

00:24:39.329 --> 00:24:40.832
They gave me a lot of options.

00:24:41.011 --> 00:24:45.476
They sent me like 50 or 60 songs, told me, well, choose 10 or 12 for a record.

00:24:45.576 --> 00:24:48.397
And they didn't write the arrangements for me.

00:24:48.478 --> 00:24:59.509
I mean, Dureco Studios is like a very, very big company, and they've been making instrumental records for lots of years, you know, for saxophone players, for trumpet players, guitar players, all kinds of instrumentalists.

00:24:59.890 --> 00:25:03.034
So they had a lot of arrangements already done and recorded.

00:25:03.094 --> 00:25:04.796
So that was a record I...

00:25:04.976 --> 00:25:07.459
It was very easy to record because I didn't have to...

00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:11.765
I just had to learn the songs and just go there and play with the playback.

00:25:11.865 --> 00:25:14.347
I don't think I've heard it after I recorded it.

00:25:14.788 --> 00:25:18.633
I remember I recorded there Send in the Clowns.

00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:38.262
I mean, the arrangements were beautiful.

00:25:38.462 --> 00:25:40.028
It's a studio orchestras.

00:25:40.348 --> 00:25:47.489
I believe some of the arrangements were even made for for some recordings that he did for the Dutch radio.

00:25:47.842 --> 00:25:50.507
Yeah, but it was a good experience for me.

00:25:50.527 --> 00:25:55.457
I mean, I think it was my first recording, at least professional recording.

00:25:55.596 --> 00:26:00.727
I made a record with my father and my brother and sister.

00:26:01.147 --> 00:26:01.789
We were very young.

00:26:01.829 --> 00:26:06.018
We played just like Osusana, When the Saints Go Marching In, and this kind of song.

00:26:06.137 --> 00:26:08.061
But that was like a family recording, you know?

00:26:08.738 --> 00:26:12.101
You recorded with various artists, mainly Spanish artists, yeah?

00:26:12.221 --> 00:26:14.462
So through the 90s, you did a couple more albums.

00:26:14.782 --> 00:26:19.007
But Mario Torres is one, and then Joshua Elderman Trio.

00:26:19.027 --> 00:26:20.748
So you're playing with other people.

00:26:21.249 --> 00:26:26.192
And then you met up and played with Federico Lechner, and you've done a few albums with him.

00:26:26.252 --> 00:26:29.796
So you did this continuous session album in 2004 with him.

00:26:30.217 --> 00:26:34.279
Yeah, as you can see, most of my records, I'm not the leader, let's say, you know?

00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:37.583
Like, I share the leadership with another musician.

00:26:37.823 --> 00:26:44.390
Well, to be honest, you know, I was never very ambitious to really make a solo career.

00:26:44.410 --> 00:26:50.056
I never really thought I was prepared to really be in the front and do something.

00:26:50.076 --> 00:26:52.659
I didn't really know what I wanted to do either.

00:26:53.038 --> 00:26:55.701
I liked music and I enjoyed music.

00:26:56.162 --> 00:27:01.047
I always thought that I was in the process of learning and I still feel that way.

00:27:01.086 --> 00:27:02.969
I still feel that there's so much to

00:27:03.048 --> 00:27:03.329
learn.

00:27:03.842 --> 00:27:07.426
This album with Frederico Lechner, some great songs on there.

00:27:07.448 --> 00:27:17.803
I don't know if it's the first time you recorded it, but you play Sesame Street on there, which is probably a tribute to Tucci, because he played the Sesame Street theme tune on the TV show.

00:27:18.084 --> 00:27:19.987
So is that the first time you recorded Sesame Street?

00:27:20.366 --> 00:27:20.827
Yeah, I think

00:27:20.867 --> 00:27:21.209
so, yeah.

00:27:27.278 --> 00:27:27.357
Yeah.

00:27:45.410 --> 00:27:47.414
So yeah, that's Sesame Street.

00:27:48.257 --> 00:27:53.770
Anything particularly about Toots, or is it just a song you'd heard on the TV show and picked it up from there?

00:27:54.271 --> 00:27:56.336
Well, that record, it's all...

00:27:56.738 --> 00:27:59.059
movie and TV music.

00:27:59.621 --> 00:28:03.763
We decided the music, the repertoire between piano player and I.

00:28:04.084 --> 00:28:10.789
I don't remember exactly why we decided to play Sesame Street, but it was a fun song to play.

00:28:11.270 --> 00:28:14.693
Before the recording, we already did some gigs and we had some concerts.

00:28:14.773 --> 00:28:17.536
And I remember that people used to enjoy it very much.

00:28:17.756 --> 00:28:20.699
It was like a high point of the show.

00:28:20.719 --> 00:28:26.203
So I don't remember if I really related it at that point with two Silemas.

00:28:26.703 --> 00:28:27.887
I'm not sure about it.

00:28:27.928 --> 00:28:31.863
I mean, it's a melody that I heard when I was a kid, you know, on the TV.

00:28:32.163 --> 00:28:37.182
And I knew there was a harmonica there, but I think I didn't know that was too...

00:28:37.377 --> 00:28:38.459
at that moment.

00:28:38.538 --> 00:28:38.959
I'm not sure.

00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:50.288
Actually, I don't know if he wrote the song or not, because I heard Toots say once that he had written that song, but they didn't give him any rights for it, because they said it was educational TV.

00:28:50.429 --> 00:28:59.497
Actually, the song sounds as if it was a composition by Toots, because if you hear his compositions, they are all kind of bluesy.

00:28:59.817 --> 00:29:05.663
Yeah, they always move in this boogaloo kind of, except a few waltzes that he has.

00:29:05.742 --> 00:29:10.690
But if you check his compositions, they have this kind of feel.

00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:13.894
So I believe that he probably even wrote the song, you know.

00:29:15.357 --> 00:29:18.723
Certainly sounds great on the harmonica, so maybe he did write it.

00:29:18.743 --> 00:29:20.567
On that album, as you say, it's a movie theme.

00:29:20.606 --> 00:29:28.099
You do the song Love Theme, which is a beautiful song, and you do this effect with your tongue, which I talked to you about when I met you in London last year.

00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:29.021
Tremolo.

00:29:47.521 --> 00:29:52.480
Yeah, that's an effect that I think sounds beautiful on the harmonica.

00:29:52.760 --> 00:29:56.714
And it's just like moving very fast, the tongue from left to right.

00:29:57.457 --> 00:29:58.480
It's like a nervous...

00:29:59.105 --> 00:29:59.826
kind of movement.

00:30:00.307 --> 00:30:01.409
I never really practiced that.

00:30:01.548 --> 00:30:05.653
It's just something that comes natural, you know, like people that can move the ears.

00:30:05.814 --> 00:30:07.336
I don't know.

00:30:07.737 --> 00:30:08.438
Something natural.

00:30:08.718 --> 00:30:09.538
But it works.

00:30:09.719 --> 00:30:10.660
It works very good.

00:30:10.700 --> 00:30:15.506
I also use it nowadays to play some guitar music, Spanish guitar music.

00:30:15.807 --> 00:30:18.069
They also use the tremolo technique with the fingers.

00:30:18.430 --> 00:30:21.213
And it sounds pretty good on the harmonica.

00:30:21.857 --> 00:30:25.080
So a lot of the time you're playing, obviously, with Spanish musicians mainly, are you?

00:30:25.121 --> 00:30:30.184
Just for people, you know, outside of Spain, maybe not so familiar with that music.

00:30:30.404 --> 00:30:32.426
You're quite big on the Spanish music scene, yeah?

00:30:33.387 --> 00:30:35.529
Yeah, I did my career mainly here in Spain.

00:30:35.809 --> 00:30:39.953
I traveled a lot with Paco de Lucia, but this was touring with him, you know.

00:30:40.233 --> 00:30:41.595
I never moved anywhere, you know.

00:30:41.615 --> 00:30:47.980
I didn't move to any other European city or I never moved to the States to try and meet other musicians.

00:30:48.661 --> 00:30:49.682
I feel comfortable here.

00:30:49.801 --> 00:30:53.945
I always had fun playing, you know, that They're pretty good musicians in Spain.

00:30:54.026 --> 00:30:56.388
And I had a good situation here.

00:30:56.489 --> 00:31:02.915
So I think I always thought that if I moved somewhere else, I kind of had to start from the bottom

00:31:02.976 --> 00:31:03.236
again.

00:31:03.256 --> 00:31:05.157
No, no, I think you've done the right thing.

00:31:05.218 --> 00:31:07.019
As you say, you're doing great in Spain.

00:31:07.059 --> 00:31:10.523
So you have quite a lot of TV appearances in Spain as well, don't you?

00:31:10.564 --> 00:31:13.386
So are you a reasonable celebrity in Spain?

00:31:13.426 --> 00:31:15.950
Do people know who you are?

00:31:16.609 --> 00:31:17.010
Well, I

00:31:17.351 --> 00:31:43.098
suppose the music people, the people that are in music, they all know who I am yeah and then there's a lot of people that know me because I play with Paco de Lucia which he was very very famous yeah I mean I've been playing for so many years that but they don't know my face like I'm not I'm not a celebrity but if you start talking with somebody about music somebody that likes music or whatever eventually they yeah they've heard me somewhere you know or I've made a lot of recordings for pop artists here you know so

00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:51.106
you mentioned Paco de Lucia there so he's a flamenco guitar player the sort of most famous Spanish flamenco guitar player yeah

00:31:51.327 --> 00:31:53.410
yeah yeah He was very, very famous.

00:31:53.589 --> 00:31:59.336
I mean, he did tours all around the world and he was very respected by all the musicians in the world.

00:31:59.696 --> 00:32:01.838
He was very, very unique.

00:32:01.919 --> 00:32:04.422
I mean, because the flamenco world is pretty local, you know.

00:32:05.142 --> 00:32:07.384
But he was so big, he was so international.

00:32:07.464 --> 00:32:15.733
He had such a wide, you know, he was so open-minded that he could absorb other styles of music and incorporate them in flamenco.

00:32:15.753 --> 00:32:21.680
He was very, very, very, very big compared to all the other players of his time, let's say, you know.

00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:28.577
This kind of put you into the realms of playing flamenco and you became somewhat known as a flamenco harmonica player as well.

00:32:28.818 --> 00:32:30.482
Certainly adding that genre to your playing.

00:32:50.849 --> 00:32:52.191
What about that, playing flamenco?

00:32:52.731 --> 00:33:03.861
Yeah, I was very lucky with that, because that's probably, let's say, one of my main contributions to the instrument, to introduce harmonica in the flamenco world.

00:33:04.122 --> 00:33:05.903
But yeah, it was something natural.

00:33:05.923 --> 00:33:16.672
I was in the musical scene in Spain, and little by little, the flamenco community, the flamenco musicians, they started calling me to do different things.

00:33:17.012 --> 00:33:21.656
And I had to learn a little bit more What was that music about?

00:33:21.977 --> 00:33:29.045
And well, eventually Paco called me and it was like, wow, man, I don't know so much about flamenco to be here.

00:33:29.085 --> 00:33:31.587
I didn't know so much about flamenco.

00:33:31.627 --> 00:33:33.449
I said, maybe I don't deserve to be here.

00:33:33.470 --> 00:33:43.299
I tried not to hang too much with the musicians just in case they figured out that I didn't know anything about flamenco.

00:33:43.319 --> 00:33:45.722
But little by little, I got into it.

00:33:46.403 --> 00:33:47.845
It's amazing.

00:33:48.164 --> 00:33:49.807
It's a real culture.

00:33:49.987 --> 00:33:50.768
It's a big culture.

00:33:50.768 --> 00:33:59.436
It's the kind of music that it's like the blues or like Cuban music, you know, that it's very connected to the way the people live.

00:33:59.837 --> 00:34:02.701
It's not just an intellectual thing.

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:05.103
It's not something that you go to school and you learn.

00:34:05.364 --> 00:34:08.646
It's something that is really part of the gypsy culture.

00:34:08.947 --> 00:34:17.976
Or not only gypsy, but also, especially in the south of Spain, Andalucía, the people live in a way that music is an important part of the life.

00:34:18.097 --> 00:34:37.416
Like in Cuba, for example, everybody plays, everybody sings, Yeah, it was very, very, very important for me to meet this culture, not only to learn how to play the music, but also to understand that music has to be part of the everyday life, not just a work or a profession or an intellectual thing or an academic thing.

00:34:37.436 --> 00:34:45.766
You know, the real music, the important music, the music that really changes the world is music that belongs to a culture that belongs to the people.

00:34:46.210 --> 00:34:51.815
And then in 2012, is it your second solo album, the Harmonious album?

00:34:52.135 --> 00:34:53.695
Which one was the first one?

00:34:53.856 --> 00:34:54.898
Well, you and your

00:34:54.918 --> 00:34:55.777
romantic harmonica.

00:34:56.659 --> 00:35:03.664
Oh, I don't consider that my album because I didn't really, I mean, I just chose the songs from a bunch of songs they proposed, the album from the company.

00:35:03.784 --> 00:35:10.170
I think probably Harmonious is my first solo exposure, not like saying, well, this is what I am, right?

00:35:10.331 --> 00:35:11.271
This is what I have to say.

00:35:11.311 --> 00:35:15.335
And I'm happy that I eventually could do something like that.

00:35:15.835 --> 00:35:16.456
And I'm proud of it.

00:35:16.516 --> 00:35:16.876
I like it.

00:35:16.976 --> 00:35:24.284
It's one of the few records I made that I can hear without feeling any kind of pain.

00:35:24.864 --> 00:35:26.586
Because it's very honest.

00:35:26.847 --> 00:35:30.130
It's all about things that I like.

00:35:30.311 --> 00:35:33.173
I did it in a way that I wasn't even intending to make a record.

00:35:33.253 --> 00:35:35.577
I was more trying to build up a show.

00:35:35.617 --> 00:35:42.985
And the guy that was helping me with the keyboards and with the loop pedals and that, he told me, hey, why don't we record it while you are working on this?

00:35:43.005 --> 00:35:44.166
Because it sounds great.

00:35:44.385 --> 00:35:47.110
And maybe now is the moment to record it.

00:35:47.331 --> 00:35:50.056
And so it really came very naturally.

00:36:04.418 --> 00:36:12.550
And I was very inspired by the fact that I was trying to build a show in which I didn't need any other musicians.

00:36:12.710 --> 00:36:14.713
It was a challenge, a big challenge for me.

00:36:14.934 --> 00:36:20.382
And I feel I succeeded in this challenge and I'm happy with that recording.

00:36:20.443 --> 00:36:27.233
I think that's what represents pretty well what I am or what I was in that moment.

00:36:27.554 --> 00:36:30.398
Yeah, there's a good mixture of genres on there as well, isn't there?

00:36:30.418 --> 00:36:39.172
You've got the Estudios, which is a classical type of solo, some Spanish-themed ones, and then you've got a song I really love, it's Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:37:08.065 --> 00:37:08.827
It's a great mixture on there.

00:37:08.867 --> 00:37:10.871
You also play some diatonic on there.

00:37:11.472 --> 00:37:13.996
Is it that one where you play Born Blind?

00:37:14.498 --> 00:37:17.503
And I also play that diatonic on East and West.

00:37:17.583 --> 00:37:22.813
I do kind of Arabic kind of scales on the diatonic.

00:37:40.577 --> 00:37:59.914
again you know you play different genres we talked about you obviously playing flamenco just now and you've done lots of session work with playing in pop songs in lots of Spanish artists classical you started out on and in 2019 you had the classical album with Constanza so that's just you and a piano player is it

00:38:00.235 --> 00:38:43.300
yeah that's a record I wanted to do many years ago and eventually I did last year it's all classical Spanish classical music and some Argentinian music like I and Carlos Guastavino and some of the music I learned recently but a lot of it I had already played many years ago but I never got the chance to record it so that's another record I enjoy because I really started when I was a kid I started trying to do a classical career let's say and I couldn't make it because it was just so complicated and so difficult to be accepted as a classical musician player on that time, you know, with the harmonica.

00:38:43.340 --> 00:38:46.364
You had to play original stuff all the time.

00:38:46.385 --> 00:38:48.487
You couldn't play music written for other instruments.

00:38:48.527 --> 00:38:50.610
They were very strict on those days.

00:38:51.030 --> 00:39:01.085
So I had some, you know, I really wanted to come back to classical music because I really enjoy playing classical music and it's very relaxing for me to play classical music.

00:39:01.266 --> 00:39:02.248
I could just play, you know.

00:39:02.887 --> 00:39:06.233
I really have a very, very good time playing classical music.

00:39:11.905 --> 00:39:33.653
I'm working on a very interesting piece right now, orchestral piece, also by Manuel de Falla that I'm going to premiere in November.

00:39:33.954 --> 00:39:38.782
I think it's going to be interesting, and it's going to be a nice arrangement for harmonica and orchestra.

00:39:39.264 --> 00:39:41.728
I think a lot of players will want to play in the future.

00:39:42.028 --> 00:39:47.840
It's a piece by Manuel de Falla, but I think it suits the harmonica perfectly.

00:39:48.059 --> 00:39:51.686
It's called The Three-Cornered Hat, which is beautiful.

00:39:52.467 --> 00:39:52.949
Yeah, brilliant.

00:39:52.989 --> 00:39:57.438
So on that setting as well, I think playing the chromatic on this album with...

00:39:57.697 --> 00:39:59.059
with Constanza.

00:39:59.539 --> 00:40:03.045
You know, playing with the piano, there's something about the chromatic with the piano, isn't there?

00:40:03.065 --> 00:40:03.925
They just go so well.

00:40:04.326 --> 00:40:06.048
Yeah, I always played with piano.

00:40:06.108 --> 00:40:06.469
I love it.

00:40:06.489 --> 00:40:11.414
I think the harmonica works acoustically better with a guitar.

00:40:11.596 --> 00:40:14.599
The thing is that the piano is like an orchestra.

00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:19.666
So it's so nice to be able to play with a piano because you can do almost anything you want.

00:40:20.226 --> 00:40:26.954
And in 2020, you did the Tootsology album, which is a tribute to Toots, who sadly died, of course, in 2016.

00:40:26.994 --> 00:40:30.960
So there's a duet of you playing with Toots and you playing Autumn Leaves together.

00:40:31.362 --> 00:40:34.465
That's also another album that I really enjoy.

00:40:34.505 --> 00:40:37.550
And it wasn't intended to be an album.

00:40:37.710 --> 00:40:45.742
I didn't want to make a record of that because I was also trying to build up a show in which I played some of the Toots classics.

00:40:46.306 --> 00:40:54.612
and tried to cover all his career, you know, from the beginning, from the 40s until the late, well, the 21st century.

00:41:08.737 --> 00:41:17.829
I mean, his career was so big, so long that I really wanted to make a show where I could show at least the parts of his career that I really liked more.

00:41:18.309 --> 00:41:24.235
I recorded a few tracks on a studio just for a promotion, just to promote the project.

00:41:24.677 --> 00:41:28.121
Because when you make a band, when you make a project, you have to have something to show.

00:41:28.141 --> 00:41:30.063
Otherwise, people don't book you.

00:41:30.563 --> 00:41:35.949
So we recorded a few tracks on the studio and then we just started playing concerts.

00:41:36.385 --> 00:41:43.536
It wasn't intended that we were going to record that concert, but we made a concert in the Terraza Jazz Festival in Spain.

00:41:43.835 --> 00:41:47.340
And they recorded the concert in different tracks, you know, in separate tracks.

00:41:47.721 --> 00:41:50.304
And they sent it to us and said, hey, listen to this.

00:41:50.324 --> 00:41:51.847
I think the concert sounds good.

00:41:51.967 --> 00:41:57.934
So I started listening to it and I said, wow, I mean, this concert really sounds like it could be a record.

00:41:58.114 --> 00:42:00.077
Maybe if we cut a few things, you know, it would take some...

00:42:00.599 --> 00:42:03.101
You didn't need to add anything completely.

00:42:03.233 --> 00:42:03.514
to it.

00:42:03.554 --> 00:42:07.574
You just had to take a few songs and cut a few things and you could make a record.

00:42:07.614 --> 00:42:16.501
So I started working on that and then I remembered that I had actually played with Tootsie Lemans on that same festival many years ago.

00:42:16.601 --> 00:42:21.005
So I talked with the guys on the festival and said, hey, do you think you have this recording?

00:42:21.045 --> 00:42:25.210
Because I want to make a record, you know, with the material I have of this concert.

00:42:25.351 --> 00:42:30.956
And it would be amazing to be able to include the collaboration I did with Toots so many years ago.

00:42:31.416 --> 00:42:33.057
And they found the recording.

00:42:33.117 --> 00:42:36.420
So, I mean, I'm so, so happy I could include that there.

00:42:42.498 --> 00:43:00.306
It's

00:43:00.367 --> 00:43:01.088
a nice moment.

00:43:01.148 --> 00:43:02.150
I mean, it's a special moment.

00:43:02.170 --> 00:43:06.978
I can feel there's a lot of emotion and respect in the recording.

00:43:07.018 --> 00:43:09.601
So I'm really happy with the result.

00:43:09.889 --> 00:43:10.050
You

00:43:10.070 --> 00:43:13.342
know, so yeah, so moving on from the albums you recorded, you've done lots of session work.

00:43:13.925 --> 00:43:18.543
You played with Chaka Khan on I Feel For You, and there's a YouTube clip I'll put on it.

00:43:18.563 --> 00:43:20.911
You're playing on the stage with Chaka Khan.

00:43:44.802 --> 00:43:46.925
That wasn't you who played on the original song though, was it?

00:43:46.945 --> 00:43:48.547
Because that was quite a long time ago now, wasn't it?

00:43:48.708 --> 00:43:49.891
That was Stevie Wonder.

00:43:50.331 --> 00:43:51.552
So yeah, lots of different people.

00:43:52.215 --> 00:43:53.036
So yeah, great career.

00:43:53.056 --> 00:43:55.099
Any particular favorites of people you played with?

00:43:55.460 --> 00:44:01.911
Well, I had a great time and I think it was one of my deepest musical experiences.

00:44:02.632 --> 00:44:06.077
Last year, a few years ago, I played with Peter Bernstein.

00:44:06.177 --> 00:44:11.666
a guitar player, a jazz guitar player from New York, and Michael Cannon, also a jazz pianist.

00:44:11.987 --> 00:44:15.994
And I had a very, very nice, very good connection with them.

00:44:16.534 --> 00:44:18.878
So I had a great experience doing this.

00:44:19.719 --> 00:44:26.329
So, yeah, you've done soundtracks with films, and you've been on quite a few of the Spanish films, haven't you, on the soundtracks as well?

00:44:26.349 --> 00:44:26.429
Yeah.

00:44:26.657 --> 00:44:30.246
Yeah, I played in Almodovar's Carne Tremula, I think.

00:44:30.286 --> 00:44:32.652
Yeah, I did with Almodovar and with a few others.

00:44:33.153 --> 00:44:35.519
And you still do teaching now as well, don't you?

00:44:35.561 --> 00:44:37.905
So are you still actively teaching chromatic?

00:44:38.226 --> 00:44:39.510
Well, I don't teach very much.

00:44:39.530 --> 00:44:40.893
I have never teached a lot.

00:44:40.994 --> 00:44:47.541
I had a student, you know, like a year and a half ago, a Chinese guy, you know, he just came to me.

00:44:47.601 --> 00:44:48.802
He wanted to take some lessons.

00:44:49.083 --> 00:44:51.005
And he played the guitar.

00:44:51.045 --> 00:44:52.447
He didn't know how to play harmonica at all.

00:44:52.786 --> 00:44:53.668
He wanted me to teach him.

00:44:53.688 --> 00:44:57.172
So I started teaching him and he was very disciplined.

00:44:57.192 --> 00:45:00.155
You know, he was practicing every day and he was getting good.

00:45:00.255 --> 00:45:02.498
So I continued teaching him.

00:45:02.518 --> 00:45:04.360
And then he went back to China.

00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:07.943
When he came back, he stayed at my place for a few weeks.

00:45:08.003 --> 00:45:09.164
And eventually he stayed there.

00:45:09.304 --> 00:45:09.826
I...

00:45:10.177 --> 00:45:13.922
And then we had the lockdown, and he stayed with me during the lockdown.

00:45:13.963 --> 00:45:20.112
So he was like my student, but he actually was living with me.

00:45:20.512 --> 00:45:27.682
It was a very, very interesting experience, because I've never teached for a long time to the same person.

00:45:27.782 --> 00:45:33.751
And with this person, I had a very, very intense, let's say, teaching experience.

00:45:34.112 --> 00:45:36.956
And it's been very, very, very interesting, and I really enjoyed it.

00:45:37.215 --> 00:45:41.139
The thing about teaching is that It requires a lot of energy, a lot of time.

00:45:41.159 --> 00:45:44.731
I just don't have that time because I like to play.

00:45:44.791 --> 00:45:45.855
I have to play.

00:45:45.894 --> 00:45:46.376
I have to...

00:45:46.818 --> 00:45:48.099
do concerts, I have to travel.

00:45:48.119 --> 00:46:00.048
I mean, I don't have the time I think you need to really teach properly, you know, because I like to take it really seriously, you know, to really understand what are the needs of the person that you have in front of you.

00:46:00.110 --> 00:46:05.793
I don't believe that there's a method or a way to teach everybody the same.

00:46:05.914 --> 00:46:46.735
I think a teacher has to try and understand what the other person is needing and you have to figure out how to explain what the other person needs in a way that he's going to understand it and he's going to assimilate the information you know I think it's difficult to teach properly it requires a lot of attention it's a big responsibility also because people you know when people go for lessons it's like when they go to a psychologist you know they want something desperately they want to learn music it's important for them it's something music is something very passionate it's a big responsibility so I don't want to do it just for money or just for when I do it I want to do it very very seriously let's say

00:46:46.735 --> 00:46:53.581
so are you encouraged to do more teaching now after your experience it's Kang Kang isn't it the guy you were teaching

00:46:53.902 --> 00:46:54.663
yeah

00:46:55.143 --> 00:47:01.088
and maybe you know work's a bit quiet now given the pandemic situation are you thinking about doing more teaching or

00:47:01.429 --> 00:47:30.333
I'd like to I don't know right now I'm really busy you know with this orchestral piece and a few other projects that I have I don't know maybe in the future in the future I just wrote a book actually it's in Spanish it's not in English to learn how to play the chromatic harmonica oh yeah well I express my point of view on the instrument I suggest my way to understand the instrument hopefully it will be in English soon but I don't know when I don't know when

00:47:31.675 --> 00:47:43.326
and this year in August you took part in the online spa convention and then you went on to win the spa harmonica player of the year award during that so how was that for an honor wow

00:47:43.385 --> 00:47:46.688
that was exciting I don't know I don't receive so many prizes.

00:47:48.471 --> 00:47:56.139
Yeah, I mean, it's especially because it's a prize given by professionals, you know, by harmonica players and I really appreciate it.

00:47:56.378 --> 00:48:05.047
You know, I feel very, very honored because my attention has always been more into, as I told you before, has been more into the music than into the harmonica.

00:48:05.068 --> 00:48:09.873
So to feel that the harmonica players appreciate what I do is, well, it's great.

00:48:10.253 --> 00:48:13.016
I don't try to play for the harmonica players.

00:48:13.036 --> 00:48:20.864
I try to play for the musicians and sometimes you don't you don't connect with harmonica players because harmonica players want to hear some, you know, specific things.

00:48:21.065 --> 00:48:22.547
Especially, for example, in Asia.

00:48:23.047 --> 00:48:40.306
In Asia, there's a big passion for the harmonica, but they are more interesting sometimes in playing fast and playing very difficult things and very spectacular stuff that just to play a nice melody or to be able to just to express yourself, you know, in an honest way on the instrument.

00:48:40.445 --> 00:48:46.432
Well, to feel the, I don't know, that the harmonica community looks at your work and gives you a like this.

00:48:46.472 --> 00:48:47.353
I mean, it's great.

00:48:47.594 --> 00:48:49.657
It feels that we are connecting.

00:48:50.780 --> 00:48:58.972
I think the harmonica world is looking more and more into the music and the musicians are looking more and more into the harmonica.

00:48:59.012 --> 00:49:00.074
So that's nice.

00:49:00.315 --> 00:49:05.824
And the harmonica eventually will become a normal instrument, like the saxophone or the violin.

00:49:06.786 --> 00:49:07.547
No, it's a great honor.

00:49:07.567 --> 00:49:08.989
It's good to get yourself on that list.

00:49:09.313 --> 00:49:14.818
So yeah, so obviously you're a chromatic player, so you play a little bit of diatonic, but you're a chromatic of choice.

00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:17.340
You like the Hohner 270s, yeah?

00:49:17.420 --> 00:49:19.081
The traditional chromatic from Hohner.

00:49:19.483 --> 00:49:25.887
Yes, actually I got used to that instrument and I've been playing it for more than 25 years.

00:49:26.429 --> 00:49:31.132
I always say that the best instrument is the one that you know better, if we're talking about good instruments.

00:49:31.612 --> 00:49:37.639
I think all the chromatic harmonicas that are professional, that we can consider professional instruments, they're all good.

00:49:37.858 --> 00:49:41.362
All the models are good, but The best for you is the one that you know better.

00:49:41.422 --> 00:49:44.525
And this is the instrument I know better because I've been playing it for so long.

00:49:44.545 --> 00:49:46.266
I know what I can do, what I can't do.

00:49:46.568 --> 00:49:48.190
I know what are the limits.

00:49:48.550 --> 00:49:51.693
I know how to play it so I don't have to, I don't break the reeds.

00:49:51.934 --> 00:49:57.059
I know what kind of pressure I have to use to make certain sounds or certain bendings.

00:49:57.418 --> 00:49:58.320
And I love it.

00:49:58.501 --> 00:49:58.780
I love it.

00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:02.083
And also it gives me a lot of confidence to play that instrument.

00:50:02.364 --> 00:50:08.311
The fact that most of Larry Adler's and two Silliman's records and career were done on that instrument.

00:50:08.570 --> 00:50:11.954
And those are the guys that that I looked at when I was learning.

00:50:12.775 --> 00:50:13.476
They were my idols.

00:50:13.797 --> 00:50:15.458
So it's a tested instrument.

00:50:15.719 --> 00:50:19.563
It's an instrument that has demonstrated that it's capable of making great music.

00:50:19.822 --> 00:50:23.067
It's great to see, because obviously now there are more expensive chromatics available.

00:50:23.106 --> 00:50:29.072
And so the 270 is not cheap, but it's on the cheaper end of what you can pay for a chromatic now.

00:50:29.092 --> 00:50:34.619
But to hear someone like yourself still playing great on that model, it shows, doesn't it?

00:50:34.679 --> 00:50:36.561
Like you say, the instrument is...

00:50:36.780 --> 00:51:18.605
I don't know, maybe these new instruments in a hundred times we'll know if they if they if they were good or not i don't have so much time to to know you know so i i know that this instrument is capable because the records i like were were recorded on that instrument so that's why i use it so Also, when I was a kid, I had my father that he took care of my instruments and I was kind of trying all the new instruments and everything.

00:51:18.664 --> 00:51:22.387
But when my father passed away, I didn't have anybody to take care.

00:51:22.407 --> 00:51:24.409
So I had to decide what to do.

00:51:24.730 --> 00:51:25.010
I don't know.

00:51:25.090 --> 00:51:29.634
I started playing this instrument in part also because it was cheap and I could afford it.

00:51:29.954 --> 00:51:37.400
And I didn't want to learn how to fix instruments because that takes a lot of time and I wanted to spend the time in other things.

00:51:37.721 --> 00:51:39.663
I think it's a very balanced instrument.

00:51:39.963 --> 00:51:44.387
The quality is amazing and the price is cheap.

00:51:44.789 --> 00:51:45.789
So are you playing the

00:51:46.271 --> 00:51:48.132
deluxe model now or the standard model?

00:51:48.253 --> 00:51:49.514
No, the standard model.

00:51:49.775 --> 00:51:52.097
And do you have anyone customize them for you now?

00:51:52.297 --> 00:51:54.661
Well, I had recently a Portuguese guy.

00:51:54.681 --> 00:51:58.206
I sent him a few broken harmonicas and he fixed them.

00:51:58.385 --> 00:51:59.748
And he did a nice work.

00:51:59.947 --> 00:52:01.590
He did a nice work on them.

00:52:01.891 --> 00:52:06.777
He changed the spring tension and he tunes the reeds.

00:52:06.896 --> 00:52:07.378
He can...

00:52:07.873 --> 00:52:09.815
He can even change some reeds.

00:52:10.036 --> 00:52:12.858
He puts screws on the reed plates.

00:52:13.318 --> 00:52:14.119
He's a professional.

00:52:14.280 --> 00:52:15.039
He knows how to do it.

00:52:15.380 --> 00:52:18.302
I'm not very interested in the instrument itself.

00:52:18.443 --> 00:52:27.630
I have an opinion about the harmonica, and it's that I think the harmonica is one of the closest instruments to the voice, to the human voice.

00:52:27.951 --> 00:52:33.635
So the less technology and the less material you include in an instrument, the better.

00:52:34.016 --> 00:52:59.710
Each new material that you put into the instrument, each new device that you put into the instrument you are putting like a filter between the music and your voice so what I like about this instrument is it's just like a it's a piece of wood and it's a piece of metal and that's it and that's a harmonica I mean when you start putting things into it it stops sounding like a harmonica and it starts sounding more like an accordion or like another instrument, like a melodica or something like that.

00:52:59.811 --> 00:53:01.853
That's what I feel when I hear the new instruments.

00:53:01.954 --> 00:53:05.900
I hear they don't sound so clear, so bright.

00:53:05.940 --> 00:53:06.842
They sound more like...

00:53:07.182 --> 00:53:12.130
It's not so close to the human body, to the voice.

00:53:12.891 --> 00:53:18.280
I believe you mainly play the C chromatic, but you've started looking at playing some of the keys sometimes, the chromatics.

00:53:19.242 --> 00:53:19.521
Yeah.

00:53:20.583 --> 00:53:21.644
I'm beginning to...

00:53:22.210 --> 00:53:22.750
to do this.

00:53:23.490 --> 00:53:27.233
Are you able to switch keys without too much effort, you know, mental effort?

00:53:27.894 --> 00:53:40.025
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get used to it easily, but I didn't do it before because I was trying to kind of force myself to play in every key and be able to do everything in the C harmonica, but I think it's a little bit silly.

00:53:40.505 --> 00:53:45.851
It's not a good enough reason to not play other instruments because the register is different.

00:53:46.030 --> 00:53:55.416
I mean, if you play a G chromatic harmonica, you have more notes on the left, you have more notes on the low register, which might be useful and beautiful to play.

00:53:55.780 --> 00:54:00.797
And also if you want to play chords, well, you're very limited to the chords that are on the key of the harmonica.

00:54:00.996 --> 00:54:10.786
So, for example, if you're playing a classical piece in A major and you want to do some double stops and some chords and some stuff, it's better to get a harmonica in A.

00:54:11.045 --> 00:54:11.385
Why not?

00:54:12.067 --> 00:54:13.748
It's going to sound better, probably.

00:54:14.208 --> 00:54:22.735
That doesn't mean that you should be able to play your chromatic harmonica in every key and you should be able to do everything in every key, more or less.

00:54:22.996 --> 00:54:35.376
But for artistic reasons, I think sometimes it's better to use the harmonica in the key of the piece I'm not prejudiced about that anymore I think it's a good option

00:54:35.838 --> 00:54:42.954
certainly guitar players use different tunings for example so why not on the harmonica and I believe you're a pucker a puckerer

00:54:43.266 --> 00:54:44.246
Yeah, mainly.

00:54:45.447 --> 00:54:49.492
I don't play what they call tongue blocking all the time.

00:54:50.434 --> 00:54:54.657
I use this technique because I like to have my tongue free to do things to the sound.

00:54:55.438 --> 00:54:57.581
And what about amplification?

00:54:57.641 --> 00:55:01.585
Are you mainly playing through the PA to get a clean sound or do you use any amplifiers at all?

00:55:01.885 --> 00:55:05.570
No, I don't use any amplifiers that I like particularly.

00:55:05.791 --> 00:55:07.592
I normally play through the system.

00:55:08.634 --> 00:55:12.338
And if I'm playing in a situation that I have drums...

00:55:12.865 --> 00:55:17.313
Piano, bass, I use a 58, a Shure SM58.

00:55:18.655 --> 00:55:21.958
And through the system, yeah, like two cinemas used to do.

00:55:22.019 --> 00:55:26.385
That's the most efficient way, I think, to play in a band situation.

00:55:26.746 --> 00:55:39.806
And when I play with, I don't know, if I play just classical music with a piano player or with an orchestra or something like that, then I like to use other microphones, like condenser microphones.

00:55:40.065 --> 00:55:45.235
that are more sensitive and you don't hold in your hand they are at a distance

00:55:45.898 --> 00:55:51.509
and what about for recording microphones any particular you like or you just leave that up to the studio guy

00:55:51.889 --> 00:56:22.764
it also depends on what kind of music you're you're recording if it's bob rock you know anything that has a lot of a lot of sound behind i think the best thing is uh is the the 58 on your hand and then you put a little bit of reverb and it sounds beautiful that's the best option if you want to do something more acoustic then you might go for for a newman or sennheiser you know that all this condenser microphones that they pick up not only the sound straight from the reed, but they pick up everything.

00:56:22.824 --> 00:56:25.951
They pick up all the sound that's around the instrument.

00:56:26.050 --> 00:56:29.717
Also, what you're doing with the air and picks up everything.

00:56:29.978 --> 00:56:34.565
Even if you're playing with another musician, with a guitar player or a singer, it's going to pick up that too.

00:56:35.106 --> 00:56:35.688
Yeah, brilliant.

00:56:35.708 --> 00:56:36.228
So thank you.

00:56:36.248 --> 00:56:37.271
So final question now.

00:56:37.452 --> 00:56:41.623
So just about your future plans, I believe we talked about your Chinese student.

00:56:41.664 --> 00:56:44.813
You've been doing a project with him called East Meets West.

00:56:45.032 --> 00:56:47.880
So is that something that you're looking to put out soon?

00:56:47.940 --> 00:56:49.606
Any other plans coming up?

00:56:49.889 --> 00:56:54.179
Well, we did a concert a few weeks ago in Valencia.

00:56:54.599 --> 00:56:55.521
And it was nice.

00:56:55.601 --> 00:56:56.664
We had a great time.

00:56:57.164 --> 00:57:00.552
We played with Albert Sanz, which is an amazing piano player.

00:57:00.572 --> 00:57:04.260
And we played some Chinese songs that I arranged for him.

00:57:04.280 --> 00:57:07.326
And we also played some Brazilian songs.

00:57:07.554 --> 00:57:35.065
classics that he he really loved like desafinado all these songs classic brazilian songs and he's just returned to china so i don't know when he intends to come back like in february so maybe when he comes back we will continue doing something i mean it was more it's not this project it's not like a band that i'm i'm putting together it's more well a way to to get him to have a a real musical experience, you know?

00:57:35.085 --> 00:57:36.568
I mean, he's a student, right?

00:57:36.889 --> 00:57:47.284
And I think one of the most important things to become good as a musician is to play a lot of concerts, to have the experience of playing for the public, playing for the people.

00:57:47.485 --> 00:57:48.786
That's what makes you strong.

00:57:49.126 --> 00:57:51.831
So, I mean, he's my student, so I'm trying to help him.

00:57:52.251 --> 00:57:53.454
And I think he has a lot of talent.

00:57:53.697 --> 00:58:00.309
Yeah, I think it's good for him to play with me, that I have an experience and I've been playing for so many years.

00:58:00.630 --> 00:58:02.012
You're a very good teacher, Antonio.

00:58:04.217 --> 00:58:05.360
Yeah, so that's it then.

00:58:05.420 --> 00:58:08.204
So that's all we've got time for today, Antonio.

00:58:08.264 --> 00:58:09.708
Thanks so much for joining me today.

00:58:10.027 --> 00:58:10.949
Well, thank you, Neil.

00:58:11.371 --> 00:58:14.335
It's been very interesting to talk with you.

00:58:15.458 --> 00:58:17.061
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:58:17.101 --> 00:58:18.242
It wouldn't be the same without you.

00:58:18.322 --> 00:58:23.271
And thanks again for my sponsor, the Long Wolf Blues Company, helping me keeping this thing going.

00:58:23.731 --> 00:58:27.797
They build great purpose-built equipment for the harmonica, so be sure to check them out.

00:58:29.099 --> 00:58:29.981
Thank you, Antonio.

00:58:30.121 --> 00:58:31.704
Play us a Rhapsody in Blue.

00:59:01.313 --> 00:59:01.693
Thank you.