AIRTO MOREIRA - Brazilian jazz drummer/percussionist, played with biggest names in music!

you have to play life to make music it's one thing to play music is a lot of thing you can't get this energy any different way then plein air - thank you so much for coming by I have followed your playing in all the depths of different musical situations that you played in and each one has been so inspiring in what you have done I've heard you play lives several times and you never cease to amaze me so I thank you so much for joining us here at the sessions very welcome Thanks actually something like this is very good I feel very good to do it again because I know that it's positive and then you have good questions hey you know it's amazing because I go back to miles albums brew and just just just hearing you play and you always you know played exactly what was needed for the song the right percussion sound the right pad it was amazing how what you've delivered to the music where this will begin for you back in the early days of Brazil well as I was a kid and we lived in South Brazil in a very small town yeah I used to play a lot with the other guys so the actually the kids we used to grow in everywhere in a not playing music but just playing you know ourselves and as long as I went to school then it was okay for my mom to say okay go for one hour now you know then you come back if you're not here you know what it's going to happen so I started making sounds and out of things yeah you know garbage pile or you know or or even you know in you know the trees you know some of them they have things that you can make sounds but so that's you know that's the way I got introduced to percussion really and which was no nobody told me like you know you're gonna do desig when I do death you know and but I didn't even know what I was doing but I was doing I was making little shakers out of like old cans and and things like that I was a music around that you were listening to it all was there there was the radio we didn't have electricity so the radio was hooked up to a to a car battery I don't know how they did that and my father used to sit down for an hour and and listen to the news about the war you know and and I was you know and then they would play there was the BBC in London you know they had like the Brazilian hour I think they still have it and so they my father was listening to that and so on and so on and the songs that they played there were so different kinds of music actually was you know some old big bands from the United States or from England yeah or or a rumba no no some rhombus and watches and a mumbles and so it you know I would listen to to all of that not really knowing that I was getting charged for later on I know it was really funny because there were some people some musicians that they were leaving you know they lived around and they were accordion players actually I got to play we don't want one of them that's incredible it sounds like that car battery charged more than just the radio it sounds like a charged abuse your self - yeah yeah so what happen so you started playing did you start to formalize any kind of musical situations to play with other people and develop a musical group at all what did that evolve next to us there was an accordion player the Italian guy and and here's to play you know like out you know outdoors you know for himself you know and then I would I would watch him I think he saw me that I had some percussion you know some little bit about you know those things and and he asked me you want to play with me one day you know I said well yeah sure and then he played something then I played with him and then you know we played together for maybe fifteen minutes or you know a little more and then he said you know you could be a musician you know yet and I said oh you know there was you know to me was like oh wow you know I could be a musician well because I you know I heard the radio all the time and and then he asked me my father he asked my father and my mother if they would let me go with him sometime and play some gigs and of course it took about almost a month for them to say well okay you know so I went we used to go on a horseback right he was in front of the horse and I was sitting in the back with a little you know a little bag over here with three or four things you know that I had made and he had he had the accordion and we you know we used to go sometimes for six hours knock on or Speck yeah but six hours have to get to the to the gig because the gigs they were like you know people getting married and in somebody's anniversary celebration yeah yeah or you know happy birthday and there was most of the time was like a big huge ranch with a lot of land and and they were actually 80 percent of the time they were like from Europe because they escaped you know they they they want to pursue after the war or during the war right right and they bought the land and they were developing the land making making sure that there was like you know fruits and threes and you know everything of your vegetables and everything they would sell to the to the people on the the small towns you know around them so we would get there would be like a big big celebration about 200 people there or whatever to me it was like huge and and then we would we would rest for a while and we would start playing and we would start around 8:30 9 o'clock p.m. and we would finish around 4:00 4:00 4:30 5:00 sometimes you know sometimes the Sun was coming you know it's coming up and then they say okay that's it and the paint was from time to time I would get the Hat you know you'd give me a hat and I would go like this pass the Hat so that there was a pay but he paid me he gave me some money and for my parents was very good but then after the parties you had a hot back on that horse yeah well we basically or you see boil anywhere you know I love it you know to sleep outdoors because I could I could look at the Stars I was dreaming you know stripping and and then we would sleep for five six hours and then go back there was it and how long did that go on for that one time for about a year yeah so did you did you begin to develop an understanding of percussion and drumming was it was that a part of your developmental stage I guess right I didn't really know at that time you know all I knew is that I could be a musician yeah because he told me I did really realize that I was playing percussion because there's no percussion there was just the radio you know yeah I made some other stuff you know it builds and this and that we you know wood metal and things that I would go you know and then somebody had bird calls and the guy was a tractor driver he was also Italian and he said I have some bird calls you wanted and then he gave me this little box with bird calls and so oh yeah my bird calls alright but I couldn't use it because the music's playing it's not like bird calls there was a lot of birds around when I was calling them so so that there was like my first contact with percussion and from there on you know all the things happened so you're growing up now you're in Brazil where was the next stage of how you begin to become a professional musician how did that start there was a football you know like soccer ball team right then my father was involved with that one time I went with them with my father my mom and my sister she's older than I am it was a carnival ball so we got there and they said no no oh the kid cannot come in oh come you know they they start talking to them you know to the guy at the door and then you know after after a while you know my father he talked to some other people and so on and so on and fine and finally they said okay he can come he can come in but he has to stay on the stage with the musicians there was a little little thing that was staged and that's what I wanted anyway I was there I was sitting down you know waiting and waiting and I was supposed to start at 8:00 you know this carnival ball they you know was nothing really weird about the carnival ball just because of the huge demon artists you know the my you know just the the kids if they had any kids because was you know it was gonna go into late so the kids were not supposed to be there right but everybody was waiting for the drummer and the drummer was not showing you up the hand of the band he said it was a big mess big guy and he said do you know how played the how to play the drums and I said the drums me yeah because you know you come here in the madness which is you know Sunday afternoon it's for the kids and I would sing you know cities you know in sing and play some percussion and and you said well you know you you do very well you know the madness so why don't you you want to try to play the drum said well yeah I I watched you know every time I can't I watch them play so I said no down in he asked me to play the two main rhythms in Brazil for carnival time which is March you know Marsha you know worship but shot E in Samba you know so the Marsha is kind of a military kind of thing and that's what the people really like you know they like it that kind of stuff and then the server was like a car mirror and that kind of thing so I played he asked me to play this to rhythms and I played and then he said okay the you wanna sit in you want to play you want to start and when Edgar comes you know then then he would take over you said oh yeah sure I hope my heart was like so okay let's go but but but but but but I didn't didn't is that kind of thing then and I played until 4:30 you know with two breaks do you know to get some soft drink or whatever there you know I did it you know I played a gig the guy never showed up then I played the gig and then after everything he said he said okay here and he gave me like a roll of money like this you know gave like a roll with a little rubber band yeah and I said no no no please please no I don't you know because at home you know they were my father in my mother they were very very honest you know they wouldn't take anything from nothing from nobody but he but he was offering to pay you yes and I said I said no I can't stick it yeah you can't take it because this is and guards money so this is yours because he didn't show up and finally I said okay you know so he he puts the money in my pocket whatever so we left and and then after we what we walked for about 15 20 minutes was raining like crazy you know in the pitch black you know like you can't see anything stormy wrong you have that little flash left I'm like so if I said oh by the way mom look yeah everybody stopped what what are you doing what would you to do nothing you know Peter gave to me and he said you know Peter no no no no no and you took it no you please you know what I had no you know I start crying and stuff that was almost 14 years old and they they just head back to the place let's go back so we walked and raining all this stuff and then when we got there they were coming out you know putting Eastern rents on a track or something a little track yeah my father I'm very sorry my son took this money from you and can't do that no no that seized money no it's not his money it's your money well he's my money but I gave it to him and then if they start going back and forth and back and forth and I was like oh my god you know what is gonna happen because I thought they were gonna fight this is reverse negotiation Oh give it back what happened well finally he convinced me he did he did the same thing he did with me he put him money in his pocket my father's pocket he said this is it don't even try to do anything doing otherwise I'm gonna destroy his money away it was over to your father you know and yes and my mom was like my mother what was the head of the family yeah okay okay and then we just we went home and they they called it and there was enough money actually my father was a barber and he had to work for three days like on a weekend to make that money three days and I made the money in eight hours I don't know what you know what they thought about it but they didn't go oh yeah good so let's you know it's not like that and so I was a professional musician then at that point after that that's the beginning of it all yeah and I played with them by the way they went to my house again and again and again I mean Peter you know yeah and again and again it's talking to them it's talking to you know my parents and finally you know okay well you can do things on the weekend because you know he's going to school but you have to take care of him no drinking no this know that you know there's no no drugs at that time right so just drinking you know but musicians they were notorious before drinking just you know something no musician no no you know so here I go so I played with them almost every weekend you know I made some good money and and I helped you know I just but I was always involved with read him we'd read him was it was there a point where you you begin to take it more seriously now now that you were getting paid take it more seriously did you start to develop drums more in your life was it almost everything that I was doing I had written I was involved with this kind of thing I didn't even know it collect I used to shoeshine I was a shoe shines at my my father's barbershop and of course you know this is this is not the only story like that but I was going everybody liked it so everybody wanted to have a shoeshine side because it was funny you know it was fun or whatever and weekends in the weekends I would go when the shop was closed I would go where the bus they stopped you know and that was more people there so I had my ass my little there is a little box here made of you know by hand and and you put everything inside and then I go shoeshine shoeshine oh okay didn't I go like this but there's a place there you put your first you know your food they had to stand up yeah then foot and I go that so I had I had my customers you know that they wanted even want me to do that then my mom she gave me some money she was giving me some money to go to the movies there was like black and white of course you mentioned he mentioned John Wayne yeah you know but something like that you know like it far west you know Randolph Scott Randolph Scott old school yeah so you're watching American movies now at this yeah no was it a movie said that yeah so anyways that's the way I develop a to of course I pay I played with a better band and I played better geeks and and I made a little less money but they were good yeah I love it because there was a good band and they had a trumpet player and piano players cosec piano acoustic bass and I was a singer and I was a percussionist and somebody played drums then I was a drummer but I was also percussionist because I played I played with them for about six months I played percussion and then I start playing drums they asked me so but I was always like okay percussion that's the thing you know I think that's you ask me a question about when there was clear to me that that I was the percussionist yeah yeah I think that's with that band that was clear to me that that I was there was a percussionist there was playing percussion so you noticed that you know that you saw the difference between the percussion instrument that you were making and the actual drum said these were two different these are two different areas yeah yeah you're right right that's that's what happened actually was no difference you know I knew because because I knew I was doing it but my my feeling was the same see by feeling the same if you played percussion or you say sing or if it played drums so you had this natural feeling for rhythm and that was just inside of you that you were discovering all the time yeah yeah exactly just this natural feeling you had it so how did that bring it to the US and and and even with miles how did you even end up how did that happen well I mean I didn't even know miles was in Brazil you know so this was already a he coolly Chima could achieve is the capital of the state of Parana right am i part my parents they they moved you know do that to that city and that was pretty big was was nice and my mom took me you know by hand okay you know by her and and because she she met somebody that was playing with this band that there was a 14 piece band and she said can you try you know can you give it a try my you know my son is a he sings really well and and he plays the drums and also he plays shakers and everything and the head of the band was you know what's nice enough to say okay let's let's do a number fourteen you know whatever and then they started of course they told me or we're gonna play this song you know they played the entry and he look at me like and I went and I started singing and and he liked it and I could sing I was singing octave higher then then you know then the singers in the band it's just what I sang really well you know everything and so you said okay yeah I can use him you know sometime you know because you know he can he can sing the salikus song which is like a Brazilian violets you know the iview like everything because of the radio and then I played drums you know about three or four times we depend because I already knew the arrangement so I would get everything like that very very very fast but I was never a drummer with that band I sang in a play percussion it was no congas right no it was you know the book with the percussion products product that you made with the homemade stuff was this well bye dad my mom bought me some some percussion you know some shakers because there there was percussion there okay there were you know and she also she also bought me a mandolin those things they have like thousands of strings yeah but I think their doubles you know stealing I just oh my god I'm gonna have to play this it's just terrible yeah but of course I didn't I didn't make it so uh so she sold it to somebody then I moved to some power and then the whole thing started that's the big city do we smell kind of funny you know I'm not gonna say you know I'm not gonna tell like everything that I went through whatever because that doesn't really care but you met more players in San Paulo right many more players there's so much more music there and is that where you started to to understand your your your idea of music was that way yeah definitely you're right you're right because they had to hassle to play right no it's not somebody oh you're so nice come and play with us you know it's not like that right right there was like who are you know what are you doing it was a poll to dismiss goose which is like the musicians place which was a two main arteries you know like avenues that they crossed you know and there was a bar there which you know they had sandwiches some other stuff but the main thing he was like you know the drink musicians they would go there and drink and talk and everything and but that was a time that that thing that we got gigs because you know the promoters are what whoever did they were okay I need a bass player for the 2600 KB you know there was like something like this was like a network area where musicians networked and it's people that wanted a higher musician would come to this area yeah this is fantastic this is like this is like the current internet this is how yeah how they were meeting each other yeah like yeah hands-on outdoors and you know it was like wow but to me it was hard because nobody knew me and I didn't have friends there and to make friends in a place like that what's hard so you move there you didn't know anybody there where'd you where'd you live trying to place the liver leave the best self they call pen song which you know is like little places you know that they have rooms with one bad and nothing else right and you go to the bathroom you have to go somewhere you know my difference to go middle of the night whatever you know they had no food or anything of course in order to eat then was kind of hard because I had no money but you know I met that met some some women that they like at me a lot you know I was very young and I was good-looking and I sang really well yeah so by singing again you know so they they would give me things you know you you know even some money sometimes and and I would take it and just go and do whatever I had to do pay one more month you know or to survive absolutely yeah but I slept in out there you know no an ask where there was a one of the main squares there that the the homeless people they would sleep there but not so many people maybe five six people and I was one of them and but I wasn't I was not homeless I didn't I didn't feel like that at all I was just you know taking a nap and then next day go and try to get some work you know I was then I was playing in nightclubs and and and so there was a little more much more sophisticated woman's they were like imported from Paraguay Uruguay and you know there was a like a big network of you know like the whole thing of yeah and so I I worked like that for for quite well I mean over a year and then other things happen and you made enough money to survive there you know so from simpler way to go from there actually I met some people there some artists of Cedars that they were very good singers Juber to Jill or Caetano Veloso or like some older people already and they were like they were working they they were working most of the time so they hire me and I would go and play with them and then was a band there was a game erase demonize was a and his band there was a dance band they they they travel all over Brazil no they didn't play no Capitals no big cities just small cities and by a Kobe you know the the Volkswagens bus or the old man that's right and then we go seven people and all the equipment and luggage on top [Laughter] so I did that for for about seven months six seven months and I so I I got to know burn field because there's Northeast Brazil you small towns they don't understand if you are from a like a small town in South to Brazil they don't understand what you say it's still like that absolutely and then from there I wanted to come to the States actually I was part of - great - great experience for me there was this unbalanced suit some balance at Rio and I became one of the best three years in Brazil if not the best and and also cuarteto novel quartet novo it's really still like today musicians they listen to part a turn off those bands you know the summoner's to you we start playing with this well anyways from somebody showed up this bass player in one of the nightclubs that I was playing and he said you know I gotta talk to you so he talked to me about this trio that he was forming this tree and there was the symbol of the tree and he said we're gonna play this place that they're just they just finished they don't have a band yet we're gonna be the band is a place where people they're not they don't dance they just listen and I was like what everything you did before that was all dance music all this was the first time that you were experiencing people to just listen and yeah interesting and so and I didn't want to leave the place that I was playing cuz the banner was great I was like acquitted and there was the name of the place was Hall Sebastian bar like be a are you want Sebastian bar most of the society high society they went to that place and we didn't play jazz I didn't play jazz yet but but they were there and they were you know like talking to each other very you know like and they respected music so much and and and that was like Matarazzo which is a family that they all have at that time they were all like half of the state or some power and everything I played there for maybe two years almost two years and everything was really fast you know and then I start playing with quartet a novel which was Hermes Pasquale hmm we formed the quartet at all and it was allowed to do Marty on guitar and was the author with the bars and on bass acoustic bass in acoustic guitar myself so there was a quartet or the new quarter what did the mauville right and that like really took it off it was very very good and you performed where we played in real in some Paulo mainly right and it was for a while I was playing with both beds I was playing with some balance and quartet anova and with some of us a trio we rehearsed this show there was an incredible show they used to they used to call package shows because it was a small club probably like this this you know or maybe a little bit even bigger and they would have like a show like it was a Broadway something like that like lights and you know you're playing the band was was there the trio but the people they were singing and dancing they would go from here over there over there it was really like a show and and we were supposed to play we were to play three months which was a lot and we adapt play seven months which is incredible you know and Joby and thought of commercial being used to go there yeah and the people of this you know that he was hanging out with so that I was already flying so now you're a full-time musician you stopped the shoe-shining you're into music yeah that's serious when did you get to America 1967 okay my lady flora flora pudding she came to America she came before I did yeah she came first right and and she used to write me all the time because it's you know know for no it was too much money but she was for every day I would get a letter from Aaron why don't you come here I'm in California Sergio Mendez is here and that you know like a bunch of musicians Brazilian and at that time Sergio Mendes in Brasil 66 that's right was huge yeah huger than he could be we can imagine you it was incredible yeah I really wanted to come here and not so much because of the music but because of flora because flora flora turns me on to something to a kind of music that I I never taught it that existed I was visiting her in Brazil Sao Paulo no parchment and you know there was a lady working down she was cooking some food and we were sitting there having some whiskey because it Brazilian a whiskey's I don't know why but and then I heard just this sound incredible sound Wow and I couldn't I couldn't believe it you know what got me really really deep you know I was oh and then I felt like crying and I and I was gonna cry anyways I couldn't yeah I couldn't hold it and so I told her I'm sorry I'm really sorry I feel like crying with this music I don't know it she said oh yeah that's this is natural you are a musician and this is Miles +19 there was smiles with Gil Evans yo and she said this is music sensitivity is called and I go WOW and I'm crying right so it's too late but she reduced me to do that kind of jazz and he saw Paul I heard all their jazz and I you know I was spray jest also there was a little place in a club that was the the Culture Club it was ambiguous to Jess you know so you know it's like a friend's the jazz friends club and I used to go down you know in jam and all that and so I knew then what jazz was and I was playing jazz I was one of the best jazz players in Brazil but when I came to the States then I found out that I had never played jazz there was no like that's and what do you think it was about miles music what was it about as music that you think touched you so much I know it was sensitive it was compassionate music how did it what was it about that music that that grabbed you the sound you know the son of it the arrangements and everything they were so to get it you know that's so [Music] my god you know he's like that it was just magic total magic yeah then I could think of I couldn't think of anything else was like oh this is this is it this is what I've imagined from hearing Myles their first time that you would end up playing with him no nobody told me this is Miles Davis yeah not even Florida yeah because you know she knew it yeah she you know she was much more advanced than I was yes you know that's what she came here yeah she's a beautiful beautiful yeah but then you know of course over here in America I learned who was Miles Davis right but I played with other people also before I played with Miles I played with actually my mentor no scannable enemy because he was so strong and so you know like the rhythm yeah yeah yeah it was Roy mccurdy on drums Roy was just fat well T Booker yes yes yes George Duke George Yoda playing piano absolutely geek or Jones Avenue Joe Simon so you met Joe there and you know with kind of well in George so it sounds like you're networking contacts were widely now yeah yeah and we don't even knowing that but I would go to places at the village and you know and meet people or you know I didn't speak English when I got here I mean at all not even I love you you know so but I learned on you know on a Sesame Street that's the way I learned to I that's that's the way I start speaking English and understanding because there was a very good thing man that is amazing so you're watching American television Sesame Street you're learning English why you're starting to perform and you're performing with cannibal a delay with all these great musicians we were teaching yourself English amazing absolutely amazing amazing it was great you know I mean did because they show like an apple right yeah you go and there's a little kid council what is that Apple bow oh yeah uh-huh and at that time that my head was stealing a clear you know clean right now I wouldn't learn it anyway there's a lot of stuff in my head but I learned like the main did first steps and I then I quit I could understand first you you see like in a foreign language first you speak and then you understand yeah that's two idiots first you go bah bah bah bah and then you understand right so you know I learned I mean I met a lot of not a lot of guys I met about thirty maybe thirty musicians they were I didn't even know that they were so notorious you know and they were great players yeah yeah everybody was playing together you know I'm gonna go on and everyone yeah so at this point with cannibal Adalia playing is that is that what led you into weather report for the Joe Zawinul no she can about I call you know I say that he was my master because he was he signed some immigration papers for me and flora saying that that I worked we were working with him and and he was you was paying us like you know like four hundred dollars a week and then Joe levy which was the manager he said how how did you do that you crazy these people from Brazil if they decide they're gonna get a liar and sue you and you have you're gonna have to pay them for the rest of your life four hundred dollars a week each one of empowerment and then can I said no they're fine they're fine people and then you know of course they're right you know before that I was playing with him you know from time to time we know the people too you know then I started recording you know with the George Benson and that was the CTI thing right and one day there was a record label sky records which Gary mcFarland he was vice president and and he was a great musician great arranger and everything and and I met him and then he was doing an album that was became a very important album that it's called America the Beautiful which recovered that is birds that represents America you know but he's crying you know and so and he's his album was all about debt that America was not you know it was very hard for America that time it's on a song so people they loved it you know and and he said do you do you want to record a novel and I said yeah sure and and I recorded this album that never came out because the company folds you know oh and nobody I I try to find out I don't know where it is nobody knows what it is it probably was a good album but reality my first album that was out and good was with city I created incorporate yeah natural feelings so so at this point now did you start to do more recordings was that did that open the door of more recordings yeah yeah we did Ron Carter he helped me out a lot yeah because I never never learned how to how to read music until today and I would get you know I would accept any game you know recording because it was a good money and it was good music but then I started doing commercials and things like that and then it requires more discipline you know which was something that I didn't have I didn't know where to start and where to stop and and Ron you know I talked to wrong one day and I said can you help me because you know I don't know you know sometimes just you know I have to stop before it happens and I don't know where to start you know when to start and he said okay and he was smell you know he was smoking his pipe and it was funny not funny raw it's very serious by the way but you would he would go to the to the session this big band you know and then he would get a newspapers and and read the newspapers that smoking his pipe read the newspapers the band would be rehearsing or you know just going over things and wrong would would go you know would be there reading the newspapers Dave okay let's do it 1 2 3 4 Verona oh you've read everything it was everything was right and then when was to stop and he would look at me and go like this like quickly like and I would hope you know yes Danny because because of the chord progression right I knew where you were what's gonna happen I just didn't know if was really gonna happen right now so he would say ok and then whenever I go boom okay then I would I start playing you know ah percussion you know it was you still like you know a good man you know it's a lot of people yeah absolutely well it's funny many of these names that you're mentioning what's important about the viewers of this interview in this conversation is that they listen to the names that you're mentioning and go and do the research the research who Ron Carter was to reach as research cannibal great names floor Pirin great great names of artists that the next generation should really understand oh yeah sure extremely important so many people that you have played with in the course of your life it's absolutely amazing the amount of people is there any one one recording that stands out more that that meant the most to you the loud minority tell me Jones of us on drums and the music was some out music all reading but then there was a time that everybody would go right and it was hard because that was actually I was not not used to play that kind of music yeah and I that was kind of they were going crazy you know I thought well and it was one of the songs I'll never forget in my life and then the you know the music start going it was so loud my headphones I couldn't hear percussion at all so I picked up my my suitcase there was you know full of percussion and I grabbed it is this sure microphones and I put it inside of a suitcase and I closed and I went like this and then okay it's we finished you know that song okay let's listen to it I thought oh now they're gonna bust me and then everybody you know they listen they said great it sounds good nobody really noticed then so you know that that record that recording it's called a loud loud minority and there was a something that you don't forget you never forget anymore and I remember I took pictures with Kelvin and you know that's amazing with the amount of artists that you performed with a or two and and just all the different projects that you have been involved and you're still involved with these things it's amazing what what what drives you what drives you to keep on going with us it's just just you know the music is so so beautiful is the energy of the music it's the energy of the music because music is energy the performing performing is the most important kind of music that you can then you can make so as long as I can play for people with other people we are the musicians this is this is incredible this is just beautiful because you get everybody's energy and then at the same time you know your spirit which is which is you because we are our spirits it just goes in all this this energy that's why the people they go wow incredible you know because he goes out and then it comes back from them and and this energy just shoots up the sky I don't know where it goes but but it's very serious it seems like that car battery that charged the radio that allowed you to hear all that great music that eventually that music charged you and now with all of your playing you have charged us it really has been that clear of a cycle yeah oh it's amazing you say how would you enclosing a year to if you had to if you had to think about you know young kids watching this and they're inspired to play music what would you say to them in closing that would give them an understanding of music through your eyes you have to play life to make music it's one thing to play music is another thing you can't get this energy any different way than playing we don't play by ourselves we don't listen to something and go bbbbb buck which is fine with me I have I know I used to be really against this years ago but then you know I learned that this is creativity also and this is now I am 75 years old I realized this also if you guys can play something you know just play some shakin whatever and try to play with somebody else just you know Jam a little bit you don't have to be a great musician you know it's it's very easy really even though you don't think so but it is you know it's very easy man this is playing that's why it's called playing leave yeah I not just respect you know what you're doing now it's okay you know I I have nothing against it again I can say that and and by the way I get involved with this sometimes you know people they ask me to play something and and then you know they said we did whatever it is did I listen and say okay you know sometimes I say no no I can't do that you know I am busy or whatever but it's a lot of times that I just go and I play in his spine you know and he's all always in overdub mm-hmm or ninety percent of the time he's over top so he did it but I put did they make whatever they want yeah it's funny one time I was I got a call to to record with Herbie Hancock and I did you know I played with him before but you know before that but so I went there yeah stood you at his house he has a beautiful studio yeah and he was not there so I was like okay he's hurting it no no I and then two guys you know okay you are here too right yeah yeah okay come in you know and they were the producers so they played some something for me and said okay this is you know we want you to play this so okay so the things started and I went okay okay great and I said yeah I didn't play this yet although you did we're gonna you know we're gonna edit this and put in different parts of the song and I said oh okay okay let's let's do it the next one and then to do bop boo boots who don't build any but we're doing that's it okay that's great so I played in four songs of five songs and they said thank y'all here - that's beautiful so as I was leaving Herbie was coming in because he was somewhere you know hey so how are you doing Oh fine fine so how's everything here well I'm done oh you done hit they said yeah he's done that's fine everything's cool alright good man duckie yeah something like that and then that was it I played in one hour Henry Hancock's knew almost because he was into that already that kind of and he was doing very very well so a whole different way of recording a whole new world and challenges in the music industry no challenge is a challenge I was Miles Davis I had challenged with him you know I had challenge in Brazil with those two bands that I told you yeah and and then I had a big challenge with Miles because of that the concert the Isle of Wight there was over 600,000 people there but before that I was living with what Walter Booker and his wife Maria yeah she's Portuguese and I was sleeping the floor there was another six guys that you know we were all sleeping the fourth floor you know yeah well there was a Thanksgiving Day and everybody went somewhere Thanksgiving right so I was by myself because that's not Thanksgiving you but I do anyways yeah and so I was there and then the phone rang it was Lee Morgan it's Bob Crenshaw's bass player right so smoker that's it no he's not here oh who is that no i didn't speaking it's well at that time so it said nobody me i i'm here what you myself we're gonna pick you up brazilís because they used to call me when I seen him so so they came but meanwhile the phone rings again it was this guy that was saying do you want to record with Miles Davis and I said huh no come on man no no no it was miles manager right so they came in Lee Morgan you know in the broker show he said okay let's go to my house today is not a day to be alone my wife is cooking and that I like that and so okay and their phone rings again and then I went like this and he picked it up okay we'll all right we'll wait a minute it's Miles Davis managers you wanted to record with Miles Davis on Monday so I father I realized that that was true sure sure yeah yeah yeah so okay okay he wrote he wrote it something down okay you gotta be in this place Monday 10:30 in the morning and then you know I went there the required and there was a the beaches birth sessions and so I went I I got there no rehearsal nothing then we we played there was you know all the musicians there you know Jacques Titian that was on drums I remember I've waned and some other people and so miles don't okay let's do this let's do that so after about two hours Maya said let's get out of here this sounds like and so oh okay man all right so everybody said you know packing his stuff and I've packed into percussion and I was thinking oh my god that's that was me that was because of me oh I saw it took the responsibility responsibility for that and I just oh my god so I you know I left and I was crying oh my god how come but then they call me again and Jack call me again and instead said Myles wants you to rehearse at his place so I went to do rehearsal and the rehearsal was kind of very disorganized you know like okay play this play that and Wayne walk you know walk the end and then my I said you've got your book yeah because Wayne was at that time he was writing him you know most of the music for four miles now you got your book yeah okay so we've kind of we went to things you know and then next day we went to record and I I think he liked it because he didn't say he never said I don't think he ever say I like this you have so then I was wow you know experience the Miles Davis experience and and this had the chance to know that that first sound that you heard when you came to America hey you are playing with miles this is the full cycle of the dream come true yeah yeah that's really really powerful to think about that's probably the best message that any youngster can hear now that if you continue to follow your passion and believe in what you're doing and it seems like you constantly we're learning you were constantly trying to hear and learn and take in different rhythms and different types of music that's amazing Daniel I like weld a mile said you want to go to feel it with us yeah I want to go to Philly with you guys to play with the band yeah Wow got to play live with this man Davey Holland you know Jack Jeanette what you Korea you know yeah it went of course you know and I said sure but you're not gonna make any money you said and I said it's okay I'm not making money anyways I don't make money so I'm gonna go you gotta get a place to stay it was very hard okay well I'll get a place to stay I have some friends I did have friends you know but I went group to go yeah so but then I stayed with buddy yes Walter book is wife family you know and I played the two weeks on the club there and it was just great you know I played you know I was like okay I'm playing with Miles Davis you know I started going oh play with Miles yeah it was kind of wait a minute but you know I had that kind of attitude I can't lie and then that then then he said he said to me one time oh no after after two weeks he gave me some money so you did make money you look just like a lot of time like the first job when you got paid again yeah what's the good money yeah I didn't see that god what a night for Allah that is amazing and so I was playing and then one day I got a call from Sergio Mendes and Brasil six and he and he said oh no and then so I went because de falling at Booker's place they had a there was locked they have a lock there so nobody would try Giles on the floor to cover zero so I had to go outside cold oh my god so I went you know there was a phone booth I dialed you know put all this little coins and i dial size of medicine and surgery surgery said something like okay I want you to play with my band Brasil 66 and you come into California and Sonny over here and you know all got a house for you Bob you know two tiers of the Dead we're gonna rehearse you're gonna go out on a big tour and and so you come here I want you two to play drums with me that's amazing so I said okay give me some time so call it back so I went to my house cold yeah I knock at the door he opened this little weed you know he had what do you want he said what do you want miles I gotta talk to you about what I said can I come in uh can I talk to me for a second okay and he opened the door and and I walked in and he stayed right there in front of me so I wouldn't grow in you know yeah I said miles I don't know am i playing with with you because he's never hire me you know I am I playing with the band and he said did you play last night they said yeah are you playing tonight I said yeah I look at me and said so so I got out of there I said yes I play with Miles Davis that's that is absolutely powerful you know air to these stories are absolutely gems what you have done and what you need to do is absolutely amazing on behalf of the sessions we thank you so much your stories your you have charged me your music and then you're playing this is powerful thank you so much and as I said before I thank you very much you [Music]

Channel: The Sessions Panel

Views: 7,655

Rating: 4.9359999 out of 5

Keywords: TheSessionsPanel, Sessions*Music, Business*Music, Education*Drum*Drummer*Music, History*Musicology*Legend*, dom famularo, airto moreira, miles davis, herbie hancock, percussionist, drum, drummer, The Sessions, Artist Series, jazz, Jules Follett

Id: dhAJyyecfa4

Length: 66min 2sec (3962 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018