THE JAZZ SCENE: Danilo Perez passion and commitment

By Ken Grady

LOOKING at his track record, you realize how natural it must have been for Danilo Perez  to have developed an early passion for music. As a child, his musician father would have friends over to play and sing, and some of them would ask Danilo to play different instruments. His father also did something else that was very special because he took music and applied it to all aspects of Danilo’s life, including learning subjects in school.

 His father, like his mother, was a teacher.. He found out that music really helped to learn and remember. 

The Senior Perez cultivated the idea of playing by ear in his young son. He would play music and have Danilo transcribe it, so he grew up developing this as an intuition, which is what happens when children are exposed early on. Not so much to the music reading, but to the ear.

As a youth Danilo also listened to “no format” radio in Panama. Sometimes, Salsa, then Reggae, then classical music. On the same station. So, when he got to The Berklee College of Music in America, he recognized all these influences, and where they were coming from. From that point on it’s been a process of listening, working with every master, and learning from all of them.

Perhaps the biggest musical influence in his life, however, was Dizzy Gillespie, who asked Danilo to join his United Nations Orchestra in 1989. He remembers Gillespie advising him. “…not to forget my roots and heritage, where I came from”. And, “…that music can bridge cultures”. Danilo said that Dizzy was the perfect example, and a great ambassador of music.

Perez also credits Wynton Marsalis for his mentorship. Danilo said that Wynton  made him “ love” Thelonious Monk. When he felt that beat, and that way of playing, it connected with the music of his native Panama. So, he was determined to share what he had learned with his fellow Panamanians. “I really wanted to bring that level home and expose my peers and my friends. I felt that I wanted to explore all the possibilities in Panama”.

Danilo continued to tour, and record in the 1990’s. He was a 1998 Grammy Nominee for his  fourth album, “Central Avenue”, But, he did return to Panama, and in 2003 he founded the Panama Jazz Festival(PJF), The Danilo Perez Foundation in 2005, and openedDanilo’s Jazz Club in February of this year.

None of this was easy, as Danilo explained, “It was very difficult because the main problem was that people said it wouldn’t work here in Panama. But, we have a history going back to the fifties when we had a lot of Jazz clubs. There was a strong Jazz scene here, but it disappeared, So now, the festival provides funding for the foundation, the foundation gets help from volunteers, who work to bring about social change through teaching music, and the club will provide a place for them to play…”.

This is the dream that Danilo and his musician wife, Patricia Zarate, had. As he explains, “She is my partner in this, she is a music therapist, my advisor, and she is very committed. I want to leave something for the next generation coming along to change the direction of things. I want to inspire them. I want to be on the side of the team that is bringing optimism and hope. That’s what Wayne Shorter told him, he said “…how do you want the world to be”. And, I said like this. Then he said, “…then write music like that”. So, Shorter was telling Perez he had to come up with something new.

Well, Danilo Perez has, in fact created something new here in Panama. And, we are all better for it.

To read my full interview with Danilo Perez go to my blog: www.myjazzjourneys.blogspot.com.

Also, check out Danilo’s Jazz Club in Casco Antiguo, and his newest release for the Mack Avenue Label, Panama 500.