Artist Features
Guitarist Paul Ricci Releases “The Path”
JGT contributor Joe Barth talks to American-Brazilian guitarist Paul Ricci about his influences and his new album, The Path.
Above photo credit: Murilo Alvesso
Born in New York, Paul Ricci has divided his time between New York and Brazil. As her guitarist and music director, Ricci has toured with singer Astrud Gilberto, who had a huge hit in the 1960s with saxophonist Stan Getz with their rendition of “Girl from Ipanema.” Over the years Paul has performed with the “Who’s Who” of jazz musicians. Paul has just released his newest album The Path.
JB: You have been briefly featured in Jazz Guitar Today. Tell me about yourself. You were born and raised in New York, but have spent many years in Brazil. When did you start to play guitar, and in those early years, what was most helpful in your personal development as a guitarist?
PR: Yes, I was born on Long Island in the NY suburbs along with the massive explosion of blues and rock music in the ’60s and ’70s. I started informally at about twelve. We were surrounded by energy and creativity, and just listening to the radio provided a myriad of possibilities. We all listened carefully, and at maybe sixteen, I felt the pull of acoustic blues and ragtime. A little later, this led me to jazz and a full-blown commitment to get inside the soul of what it means to be a music maker, to go beyond the obvious advantage of being a teenage guitar player around the girls.
JB: To you personally, what are three of the most influential jazz guitar albums that shaped your personal development as a guitarist, and why?
PR: Jim Hall – Live
The deeper I got into jazz, the more I became enchanted by what the sax and piano players like Bill Evans were doing with the language as far as rhythmic displacement and harmonic substitutions. Jim Hall “Live” blew me away and reassured me that it was okay to be a guitar player and free up the beat and the changes to breathe differently than the traditional players of the 40’s and 50’s
Wes Montgomery – Smokin’ At the Half Note
Wes showed the world how seemingly easy it was to spin out creative, singable, and sublimely placed melodies over one of the greatest piano trios to ever do it. Wes could make all the changes and still drive the band even deeper into the groove than the chorus before it. Grant Green could do that, too. So many players have it all, but so few can approach that level of “beat”.
Pat Martino – The Visit
As I wrote, I was enveloped by the sax, and what Pat did on this album set me on a course to explore. With those heavy strings, clarity, and commitment to each note, Pat developed a signature sound. It encouraged me to explore how to approach my playing with a goal of sounding unique. He could double time and bounce off the upbeats like a great sax player. In my mind, nobody could do it like him. He once told me that his left hand was the surgeon and his right hand was the butcher!!! Funny, but those words reveal a strong personality and commitment that influenced me to find my own sound. I’m still looking, but Pat is in there.
JB: What did you appreciate most about your studies at the New England Conservatory?
PR: Looking back, I really knew very little about jazz but I was drawn towards Barry Galbraith from a Guitar Player magazine article about him and when I saw that he was the man at NEC, I followed that impulse over thinking about Berklee which seemed to be more fusion branded at the time. Sadly, Barry had health problems and after my first semester, our time was cut short but he sent some friends to cover for him. They were Chuck Wayne, Jack Wilkins and Gene Bertoncini! Between the four of those heavies …I got a pretty good idea of the mountain I had to climb. It was a thrill every note with those guys. NEC also taught me to be open to all styles and avoid copying players. It had a wild cast of brilliant minds like Jaki Byard, Ran Blake and George Russell. Sam Rivers, Scofield, Bob Berg, Dave Liebman and Miroslav Vitous are just some of the players who came in to shake us up.
JB: Talk about the musical relationship you had with Bebel Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto and the 1991 tribute to Stan Getz at the Hollywood Bowl.
Before those associations, I had the blessing of playing with and being in the company of Edison Machado and Dom Um Romao. For those in the know about the history of Brazilian Jazz, these two drummers are in every way the equivalent of Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, and Art Blakey in Brazilian music. They are the originators, and they were living in New York. I got schooled on and off stage by them, especially Edison. I played in a two-guitar band with Edison and Dennis Irwin on bass. How to place the beat and how to listen for the flex in the pulse were ingrained in me, and to this day, when I play something in that flavor, Edison is right there.
Coming from the harmonic jazz background and the experience with these drummers, I felt at home with Brazilian music enough to be able to contribute when Astrud heard about me. She was very supportive and encouraged me as an arranger and writer. One day, she asked me if I would like to play at the Hollywood Bowl as her musical director in an all-star tribute to Getz. Roy Haynes, Kenny Barron, George Mraz and Gary Burton. I said YES! Bebel came later, after I was with Astrud, as I was a founding member of her New York band. That was a great laboratory that led to some interesting things for her. I quit the band right before her recording career took off because I left New York for Brazil.
JB: Do you find a special musical satisfaction in performing Brazilian music that is different than performing traditional jazz?
PR: Definitely! First off, several factors led me to migrate to Brazilian music. Especially in the early 80’s when I was cutting my teeth in New York, guitar wasn’t as common an instrument for jazz as it is now. Beyond the piano trio were the horns and maybe the vibes, and maybe then the guitar. In Brazilian music, the core is not so much the piano as it is the guitar so the opportunity to play drew me in. The harmonic language is as advanced as anything in “our” jazz; the beat is different but just as deep as ours; there is a certain “simpler” melodic sense to guide us through the blowing if we want to go that route. It just resonated with me and still does. Composers and players like Toninho Horta and José Neto, who played in Airto’s “Fourth World,” freed me up to imagine the possibilities of the grooves and the use of open strings and how it could all be applied to jazz. Brazilian music hipped me to the responsibility of being a “drummer” on the guitar, and I had a clearer vision of how to apply it to improvisation, composition, and arranging in all music. Now, after so many years living between the two cultures, it all lives together. Two passports to get to the same place.
JB: Talk about your musical relationship with Mafalda.
PR: We met in Rio in 1996.
I was there to play and she was singing at a club with some musicians I had worked with so I sat in.
I was knocked out by her voice and the power of communication. She heard my work and invited me to arrange and produce an album in Brazil, and we were off and running. Still running. The work morphed from a popular song into something deeper, and I discovered a place to continue the arranging and playing ideas bouncing around in my head. She is a rare example of talent and artistry, someone who, despite an established career in Brazil, wanted to experiment, and the more we chased a sound, the harder it was to create a scenario in which a band could take us there. The natural progression led us to do a duo show, and the audience let us know we were onto something.
Now we perform in duo and/or quartet in Brazil, Europe, and the USA in clubs, theaters, and even museums as the repertoire provides something for a wide range of listeners. I like that.
We do a mixture of classic and not-so-classic songs from Brazil, the USA, Italy, Naples, and France, with some unorthodox arrangements. I love it because I believe we have created something architectural, but there is always a spontaneous chance-taking element.
JB: What do you appreciate most about the guitars that John Monteleone and Saul Koll have built for you?
PR: I first went to John`s shop cutting out of high school at 16 around 1974!
I played his repair work on guitars owned by Les Paul and Joni Mitchell and I felt how magical instruments could get inside your body. Even back then he kind of cast a spell on me and from that day on, I dreamt of someday owning his work.
This was before he was making archtops. In 1980 we made a deal to commission his second archtop.
I loved it but my young evolving musical direction soon required a “loud drummer” guitar so I couldn’t take advantage of it like I would have liked. As a result, it sat in the case too long. Some 30+ years later, John was kind enough to take on its restoration after binding rot got the better of it. It came back to me like it was divinely anointed!!! I absolutely love it. My touch is light so it isn’t setup the way some of his bigger boxes are but that touch and response makes it one of the finest instruments I have ever played. Steve Cardenas who recorded Anthony Wilson`s Four Seasons on 4 Monteleones told me it’s his favorite Monteleone. I agree.
My admiration for John’s excellence as a builder and friend is as high as the bar can go. That is something I feel in the instrument every time I play it. I am in the documentary about him called “The Chisels Are Calling,” playing that second Archtop of his, along with Mafalda Minnozzi, on an old song from Naples.
Saul Koll is a whole different story. When I got in touch with him some 12 years ago about a small archtop that could handle some stage volume, I already had lived a lifetime of experimentation, and I knew exactly what I was going for. The problem was, I had never before found it. I took a shot at designing what became the Ultraglide with Saul. We went back and forth quite a bit, and I even sent him examples of my playing and what I was going for. I do declare here in print that Saul gave me the chance to finally get past the instrument and concentrate on my music because the voice was finally there. I was going through so many tweaks and changes on other guitars until he delivered. I have two of them, and they are both magical and liberating. I finally met and hung out with Saul in New York after many years of virtual friendship. Just like with John, the personal connection and friendship is part of that warm feeling when picking up the axe. Between the two of them, I couldn’t be happier.
JB: What do you appreciate most about your rhythm section on the new album, The Path, with the late great bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Steve Jordan?
…as well as many other fine musicians like Randy Brecker, Manolo Badrena, and others?
PR: The thing I most appreciate is the trust they placed in me to come to the project. The truth is, they proved to be as special as people as they are as musicians.
The players you mention came to my project in 1997. There’s a story behind each one. Suffice it to say, NY was, and still is, a place of magical encounters. Anthony came to hear a bass player I was playing with and singled me out after the gig, and Randy did the same, giving me his number and telling me to call him.
Steve became a close friend through a girlfriend. After many long talks about music, he asked to hear my songs, and we spoke about doing something together. I knew Manolo and deeply admired him from the scene. Nobody got paid the big bucks, and everyone understood the nature of supporting someone they saw something in.
That said… the interplay and telepathy that resulted defy the reality that it was all done with overdubs. Steve, Anthony, and Manolo were founding members of Steve Kahn’s band Eyewitness, so the telepathy was there already. I remember Steve’s smile when he told me he closed his eyes when overdubbing over Anthony’s bass, and he was in the room with him.
The other players are just as important. Hugo Fattoruso is a piano and percussion sorcerer from Uruguay. André Mehmari and Michael Wolff are also two of the most incredible pianists I have heard. I was able to condense all I had soaked in from all these experiences and cultures, playing music from Brazil, Uruguay, Africa, with a New York taste of Latin and Caribbean experiences. That’s why it’s called The Path!
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