nine questions with: Adam del Monte Interview

 

 

Early life, how you initially arrived at the instrument?

Although I was born in Israel, I grew up in Malaga and Granada, Spain.

There, I was constantly surrounded by the sounds of flamenco and the

guitar. My father played as well and was my first teacher at the age of

eight. At the age of 7 my parents left me for 2 months with a gypsy family

in the caves of the Sacromonte, in Granada. They were the family of the

famous dancer Mario Maya, with whom we had a close relationship with. He

passed away barely two years ago. I was adopted by the familia Heredia in

the Sacromonte and was treated as one of the kinds. There were 4 children,

the daughter danced, one son sang, one played the guitar and one was still

a baby. I would spend endless days and nights walking around in this

musical wonderland looking opposite the famous Alhambra Palace, built by

the Morse in the 8th century. At Age 9 I got my first gig playing in the

"Cueva del Rocio", a cave that would have performances for the tourists.

 

I learned by playing for dancers and singers while following and imitating

the first guitarist. I learned with a whole bunch of different gypsies in

Granada, one day from this guy one day from that guy. Some were

professional some just "armatures" but they all knew a lot and taught me

generously. I soaked it all up like a sponge as a kid, with out too much

thinking, just doing.

 

Later I went to England and studied classical guitar at the Whatford School

of Music. My whole life I went back and forth between flamenco and

classical, trying to balance them out and learn from both.

 

General outline of your career trajectory and development as a player

up to now?

 

When I was 19 I interrupted my classical guitar studies at the Royal

Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and went back to Spain

again, to live with my father in Madrid this time. I lived there for 7

years, where I played with my father (Cymbalom) a fusion of flamenco and

Rumanian gypsy music etc. I also played with the late great flamenco singer

Enrique Morente at the Teatro Real in Madrid, with the Madrid Symphony

Orchestra and at the Teatro Manuel de Falla, in Granada. Madrid is where I

began my hands on training and did a lot of concertizing and composing. At

19 I had my first burst of compositional inspiration. I created new

alternate tunings on the guitar and composed what would eventually become

my first album. I recorded this album in 1996, "Viaje a un Nuevo Mundo"

after I moved to Los Angeles. I had lived and accumulated such an intense

bit of life experience, that it took a while for me to synthesize it into a

coherent CD.

 

In 1997 I won first prize at the Stostenberg International Classical Guitar

Competition and that was a big boost for my career. In 96, 97 and 98 I

played at the Guitar Foundation of America guitar festival , known as the

GFA and would do half and half concerts. First half classical second half

flamenco. In 1999, i composed my first flamenco guitar concerto entitled

"Ensueño Flamenco" for guitar and orchestra and premiered it in Jordan Hall

in Boston with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. It was an exhilarating

experience to write flamenco for and orchestra as well as the guitar. The

challenge of translating the aural tradition of flamenco into the medium of

a symphony orchestra was both humbling and inspiring. I performed it

several more times since in Los Angeles and in Israel. I most recently composed and

premiered my second concerto called "Paisajes".

 

I love collaborating with different musicians of many styles. I have

collaborated with saxophonist and flautist Yusef Latif and the Atlanta

Symphony, as well as with Jazz Bassist Buster Williams by fusing flamenco

and jazz. I have collaborated with Middle Eastern musicians such as Persian

Santour players, oud Players and Turkish Nei players. Flamenco lends its'

self to many such mixtures. I was recently invited to play at the Calcutta

International Classical Guitar Festival in India, where besides playing my

own solo concert, was spontaneously invited to sit in a concert of Indian

musicians and play a tune of theirs and improvise on, and we did a flamenco

rhythm form called Seguiriya and mixed it up between an Indian raga and the

flamenco scale. It was very well received. The audience connected very

naturally to flamenco and the fusion of both styles since the gypsies

originally came from Rajastan, India. The rhythmic aspect of both musical

styles is a common denominator even though flamenco developed into some

very different than India music, by intermingling with Arab, Jewish and

Andalusian music.

 

In 2006 I joined the specialized instrumentalist team for Osvaldo Golijov's

opera, "Ainadamar". The opera requires a guitarist that can both play

flamenco and classical and read music and follow a conductor. Three or four

different disciplines that usually don't come together in one package. I

was called by Mr Golijov in order to do the recording debut of this piece

with Deutsche Gramaphon and the Atlanta Symphony, with Soprano Dawn Upshaw,

Jessica Rivera and Alto Kelly O'Connor, conducted by Robert Spano. The

opera won two Grammies in 2006. This was a unique learning experience and a

great opportunity to meet and learn from great musicians out side of the

guitar world. I performed "Ainadamar" in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center

in NY, Chicago, with the Chicago Symphony, in London and many more, and

last summer for the 60th anniversary of the Festival de Granada.

 

You're definitely an extraordinary educator. What do you feel makes for a

great guitar teacher?

 

I have been teaching at the Thornton School of Music at the University

of Southern California, USC for the last 10 years. I am on the faculty of

the studio jazz guitar department. I teach classical and flamenco there to

some of the most talented kids in the country. I also have a teaching web

site at www.newlearningvision.com where I teach on line flamenco lessons. I

cover every thing from technique, to building flamenco theory and

understanding skills to showing the beginnings of composition and

improvisation in various flamenco forms.

 

My learning process has been very unconventional and non linear for the

most part. I was undisciplined as a kid and grew up as a child and as a

musician in a very wild way. This isn't for every one. It took me many

years to make order of my chaotic learning process but it gave me unique

insights into the more subtle aspects of music that one doesn't learn in

music college. I try to transmit that to my students as well as a strong

dose of rigorous technical and traditional musical concepts and relate the

pragmatic with the more abstract and imaginative and intuitive.

 

How much of great guitar playing do you feel is innate talent versus

learned skill? Can one compensate for the other? For example, some players

have a high comprehension for groove, while others may be equally (but

inversely) talented with technique. Do you think unique dynamics of

individual personality type plays a role in ones developmental trajectory

as a player?

 

When I came to the US, I was amazed at the whole "How to...." books.

There is a strong influence in the music world from the self help culture,

so there is a strong impulse and feeling of

"any body can do it". This is one of the things that distinguishes

Americans from Europeans. Americans in General, have a more "can do "

attitude and they are more willing to try some thing new than most cultures

I've been in touch with. Because of that I curiosity I was inspired to

develop ways to understand how different people learned, thought,

functioned and assimilated information according to their ability and

background. It lead me to believe and i saw results, that with good quality

and highly individualized teaching from the teacher, and a hard working

attitude from the students, wonders can happen. Talent, on the other hand

is a whole other phenomena. You can have technical or mechanical ability,

musical sensitivity etc, but if there is no will power, passion and

discipline, it will only go so far. A child prodigy is some one that has

all this talent plus an emotional maturity to be delay gratification and be

disciplined by sticking to the right process in a focused way. So, there

are many degrees and shades of Talent vs Nurture.

 

Mind going a gear rundown, the instruments/strings/setup you play?

 

I play guitars by Manuel de la Chica 1963 and 53 from Granada and

Francisco Manuel Diaz, also from Granada. I also play a Hans Pukke from

Santa Barbara.

 

AS for amps etc, since what I do is mostly acoustic, I'm not not much of a

"gear head" but playing with my flamenco band and with a symphony orchestra

I have always struggled with volume while maintaining sound quality. In the

premier of Paisajes I used an amp by Acoustic Image, and it sounded

spectacular. Load and musical with plenty of dimension and warmth but not

fuzzy.

 

Who are your musical influences, past or present? Anyone playing today

that more people should know about?

 

My musical influences are enormous. As a kid ( of what I can

consciously remember) I would listen to Ray Charles, Jimmy Hendrix, Deep

Purple, Segovia, Sabicas, Paco de Lucia, Camaron de la Isla, John Coltrane,

Ravi Shankar, Daniel Barenboim, Julian Bream, and that's just by age 9.

Paco de Lucia, of course, is my hero and my inspiration, but my Maestro is

Pepe "Habichuela" from Granada. He is my biggest mentor. I still visit him

regularly in Madrid, where he lives now and we jam together and he just

playes form me and I follow and then do it my way. After I come back, i

just play and try to remember what I did with him and new things come out.

He is amazing, a true artist.

 

Five albums. What are they?

 

My five albums would be: Fuente y Caudal by Paco de Lucia, Amandeli by

Pepe Habichuela, Julian Bream's plays 1st and 2nd Lute suite by Bach, I

believe in Spring time by Bill Evans and all of Camaron de la isla's

records. He is the greatest flamenco singer of all time and greatest singer

...... Period. I have never heard some with such a voice , talent, soul and

genius.

 

Favorite city in the world?

 

Granada.

 

Shoutouts, venue dates, etc?

 

Los Angeles Flamenco Festival, March 25, 2012 at the Redondo Beach

Performing Arts Center. I'll also be playing again at the Teatro Real in

Madrid, with Madrid symphony, the opera "Ainadamar" by Osvaldo Golijov.

from July 8-22, 2012.