, World Music Guitar

KPFK Global Village, Los Angeles, CA.

John Schneider interview to Fernando Perez

Global Village radio show podcast, KPFK Los Angeles August 18, 2016 John Schneider's radio show Global Village features the musical career of Fernando Perez.

Fernando Perez's is a long and amazing story. He learnt the global music traditions one on one living in every major culture. Whether is Bulgarian, Chinese, Hawaiian, Indian you name it,

Global Village radio show podcast, KPFK Los Angeles August 18, 2016 John Schneider's radio show Global Village features the musical career of Fernando Perez.

Fernando Perez's is a long and amazing story. He learnt the global music traditions one on one living in every major culture. Whether is Bulgarian, Chinese, Hawaiian, Indian you name it, Fernando Perez has been there, done that.  He shares his artistry with an increasing list of recordings and publications which are just absolutely beyond belief. John Schneider, Global Village KPFK Los Angeles, U.S.A.

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Chitarra Acustica (Italy) 
Andrea Carpi, September 01, 2017 

Biographic interview for Chitarra Acustica magazine. 
From Fernando Perez's humble beginnings playing guitar to traveling around the world. His guitars and how he shaped his own original career.
 

Guitar Conversations (Australia)
Sergio Ercole, October 09, 2017  

Fernando Perez tells Sergio Ercole's "Guitar Conversations" (Australia) about his guitar adventures around the world. 
Stories on how the guitar arrived to different cultures, the way it is played. Curiosities about the instrument and playing techniques as well as Fernando's personal anecdotes while studying in those cultures. From his early years as a session musician in Hollywood to traveling to Hawaii, India, China, etc.

NeuGuitars (Italy)
Andrea Aguzzi, September 25, 2017

Interview with Fernando Perez about his life, different guitars and advising about playing fretless guitar.


Blues Rag (U.S.A.)
Dennis Rozanski, May 01, 2016

Wait, wait! Don’t turn away just because your frets never chordlessly brooded over Japanese minimalism or, conversely, danced to jump-up Malawian giddiness. Globetrotter Fernando Perez, having eyed up this planet of ours as one massive spool of the coolest guitar licks and tricks, tucks all sorts of must-see secret techniques into mysterious melodies and mystical rhythms. Daring, madcap stuff, too. Like plucking notes from "behind" a roaming slide, dusting strings with an open-palmed maneuver, zapping finger tremolos atop string bends, pinging assorted species of harmonics, and bottlenecking hammer-ons. Perez has got the guts to even go as far as tangoing with that slide. “Samba para Ti” seductively bathes in the warmest of Rio’s sunset tones whereas “Ame” casts its imitation of the 13-string "koto" in fractured sunlight. Then there is “Kalani,” a Hawaiian Frankenstein of sorts, stylistically stitched together from distinct slack key and slide traditions. That’s not the really dumbfounding part, though. Pulling off a wind-chime effect—by jingling a sewing needle, dangled on a thread held between the teeth, against the strings—is. Via six exotic instrumentals with distinctive personalities, Perez instructively unravels "World Music for Fingerstyle Guitar": nation by nation, culture by culture, string by string, shocking surprise after shocking surprise. Try not being wowed.

You can find the DVD here: World Music for Fingerstyle Guitar DVD


Akustik Gitarre Magazin (Germany)
Michael Lohr, October 01, 2015



WEST AFRICAN MUSIC FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR
WORLD MUSIC FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR

Wo auch immer Menschen leben, wird gute Musik gemacht. Die Beschäftigung mit den Klängen Westafrikas aber lohnt sich ganz besonders. Allein, was traditionell auf der dortigen Kor (einer Stegharfe) gespielt wird, gehört zum melodisch, rhythmisch und harmonisch Schönsten, was die Erde zu bieten hat.
Nun muss man deswegen nicht gleich dieses Instrument erlernen - Fingerstylisten sind bekanntlich seit jeher Experten für die orchestrale Komplettumsetzung jeglicher Musik auf sechs Saiten. Zudem vereinfacht eine dreifache Verwandtschaft zwischen Fingerstyle und Westafrika die Dinge: Erstens spielt man die Kor ohnehin in einer Art Fingerstyle, zweitens lieferten westafrikanische Rhythmen letztlich die Blaupause für den Groove hinter Blues, Jazz, Mampf und Samba, und drittens zeigt Fernando Perez hier, wie sogar ganze Passagen von Kora-Musik den Country-Blues immer schon vorwegnahmen. Die Titelauswahl des Spaniers reicht von meditativ bis funky, von wunderschön naiv bis vertrackt melodiös, und jeder Titel klingt anders. Wer es noch anders, noch deutlich vielseitiger und noch viel exotischer haben möchte, der bucht mit der DVD, World Music For Fingerstyle Guitar' gleich eine Musik-Lern-Weltreise bei Fernando Perez: Zwei Stunden lang kreuzt man mit ihm über alle Ozeane, lernt je ein Stück vom Balkan, eine schön gepfefferte Samba, ein zauberhaftes japanisches Stück, ein einfach nur hinreißend schönes aus Malawi, ein hawaiianisches und zum Abschluss gar einen argentinisch-kubanischen Cocktail der besonderen Art: Eine Kombination aus Tango und Habanera, bei der die Melodiestimme mit einem Bottleneck gespielt wird, lässt an Ausgefallenheit, technischem Anspruch und ästhetischer Perfektion, wie überhaupt diese ganze DVD, keine Wünsche mehr übrig.



SIX STRINGS AROUND THE WORLD


Wie bei Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde geht es hier nicht zu - keine Medizin, keine Gewalttaten. Doch wenn der eher unscheinbare Fernando Perez eine Gitarre zur Hand nimmt, dann verwandelt er sich unversehens in ein einzigartig polyglottes Musik-Monster. Seine stilistische Weltreise führt ihn auf dieser DVD von Spanien nach Westafrika, rüber in die US-Südstaaten, von dort über Mexico nach Brasilien, Argentinien und Peru, nochmals kurz nach Hawaii und Kentucky, dann über China vie Indien nach Ägypten und durch den Sudan, die Türkei, Griechenland, den Balkan und Frankreich wieder heim. 
Dabei steht jede Station für je eine Eigenkomposition des Solisten - in der jeweils örtlichen Saitenmusiktradition. Zwar bedarf der anfängliche spanische Walzer für sich genommen bei all seiner Schönheit und technischer Brillanz noch keines Supervirtuosen - ebenso wenig wie, The Mandinka Song', eine zauberhafte Gitarrenadaptation malischer Kora-Musik, oder das kraftvoll treibende Bottleneck-Spiel von, R.J.Blues'.
Doch spätestens hier wird man Stutzen: Welch fantastisch tiefes, müheloses Eintauchen in derart verschiedene Stilistiken und Techniken!
Am Ende verneigt sich der staunende Zuhörer vor einem unerhörten Gitarristen, der sich anscheinend in alle Musiksprachen der Erde hineindenken kann, sich dabei (soweit selbst ein erfahrener Hörer das überhaupt noch beurteilen kann) nie mit Effekthascherei begnügt und keinerlei Herausforderung scheut. Hier Lapsteel-Bluegrass, da klassische Haltung, woanders Fingerstyle-Lässigkeit? Hier Stahlsaiten, da Nylon? mal Fingerpicks, mal ohne? Für der überragenden Perez alles wohl gar kein Problem. Er macht einfach jederzeit unglaublich tolle Musik, wie und worauf auch immer!

 

Blues Rag (U.S.A.)
Dennis Rozanski, November 01, 2015

WEST AFRICAN MUSIC FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR

Right on cue, West African Music for Fingerstyle Guitar arrives just in time to scratch the world’s growing obsession with so-called “desert blues,” a catchall for any moody hypnosis typically originating from a Saharan address. Fernando Perez knows the regional secrets of how to make six strings emote that distinctively forlorn way. But none of the reliant skills, songs and perspectives were absorbed from, say, a pile of Ali Farka Touré records or a spin of Baaba Maal’s Djam Leelii. Instead, Perez trekked his inquisitive guitar across Africa’s burning sands, straight into enlightenment with the masters themselves, the resident griots, on their home plots of dirt. That’s the source of this tutorial’s how-to wisdom. Perez even works in little techniques to inventively simulate the open-string ring of kora and a balafon’s percussive rumble, two indigenous mainstays of acoustic West African traditionalism. Rich with tumbling arpeggios, nimble phrases, and evocative melodies set adrift upon almighty grooves are six original and traditional spellbinders steeped in the mystique of Mali and Senegal. All are instrumentals; each is more alluring than the last. Perez’s own “Mali Blues” provides welcoming sanctuary for Delta licks to blend in amongst the Timbuktu flow. “Kulanjan” is an ancient Manding song, one of the music’s proud cornerstones, the root of the roots, if you will.


Vintage Guitar Magazine (U.S.A.)
Dan Forte, November 14, 2014

How many guitarists can masterfully play flamenco and then bottleneck Delta blues just as convincingly? There are eclectic, versatile guitarists, and then there is Fernando Perez. Usually if someone can play bebop with a plectrum and bossa nova fingerstyle, that’s considered versatile – or in Chet Atkins’ case, bouncing from country music to classical technique and repertoire.

What Perez accomplishes is as though Michael Jordan had succeeded at baseball – and then tennis and ice hockey. To do this, he didn’t just travel the world, he lived for years in Greece, Hawaii, Egypt, India, Turkey, China, Sudan, America, and his native Spain. Wherever he went, he absorbed the indigenous music and the culture behind it. This two-hour DVD includes 18 pieces for solo guitar (classical, steel-string, fretless gut-string, and a customized lap-style Hawaiian guitar, but with sympathetic strings used for Indian music), with Perez explaining their origins.

If you’re not in the mood for history lessons, you can just play the songs, although you’ll probably eventually want to learn more about the styles, be they familiar or foreign.


Minor 7th (U.S.A.)
Patrick Ragains, May 08, 2014

Starting in his native Spain, then traveling on to the Americas, Hawaii, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Greece, France, then back to Spain, this DVD offers Fernando Perez's perspective of guitar music worldwide. Perez brings to bear many talents in his musical passion; he's a widely skilled fingerstyle player, has an impressive historical knowledge of music and culture, and is a strong composer. He begins the program with "Alexandrian Waltz", an evocation of Spain (although written in Egypt), then continues with "The Mandinka Song", in the spirit of African kora music. Perez plays a convincing bottleneck blues dedicated to Robert Johnson before moving further south to Latin America to offer his impressions of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. "Liliuokalani", an Hawaiian-influenced piece, is played lap style with a slide on a modified wood-bodied guitar. He follows this by returning to the U.S. for a bluegrass piece, also played lap style. "Khamaj Dhun" is rendered in the manner of Hindustani slide. Perez's Asian and Middle Eastern influenced compositions, played on a fretless nylon string guitar, are among my favorites. He ends his journey by sampling two Western European styles, gypsy jazz and flamenco. Perez is so casual throughout this personal travelogue that it's easy to take his accomplishments for granted - but don't. Fingerstyle players will find much to broaden their horizons here, and the program seems a natural supplement to group guitar instruction. 

 

Blues Rag (U.S.A.)
Dennis Rozanski, October 03, 2014

SIX STRINGS AROUND THE WORLD.

A huge side benefit of Fernando Perez's globetrotting obsession with the guitar is the ton of resulting frequent-flyer miles. Because when the soft-spoken Spaniard avows that "the guitar is a universal instrument," the truth in those words stems from firsthand apprenticeships in faraway lands like Turkey , Sudan and atmospheric Peru. The distinctively mysterious souls in their indigenous music are among the many translated into solo acoustic instrumentals here, all but one of which Perez composed himself, all of which come with a personalized story. To do so, his multilingual chops are as fluent in French gypsy, Argentinean tango, and Indian raga as in bottleneck Delta blues, lap-slid Hawaiian hulas, and finger-plucked Spanish flamenco. In the garishly violent finger rolls of Mexican 'son jarocho'; too. The ting, ting of West Africa's 21-string kora, Brazil's bassy seven-string choro guitar, the gregarious Greek bouzouki, and even flighty Andean panpipes get mimicked. But the instrument ventures farther yet, going places never traditionally explored, such as into the pipa's treble-tumbling China, or the Arab world, where, thanks to an ingenious contraption, the fingerboard goes instantly fretless, making possible the galaxy of microtones available to an Egyptian oud. On the surface, Six Strings Around the World is a one-of-a-kind performance DVD. Really, though, its 133 magical minutes offer a whirlwind tour of the incredible can-do capacity of any garden-variety guitar. Never again will you second guess the wizardrous powers of those, seemingly simple, six strings. 

 

Fingerpicking.net (Italy)
Elisa Minelli e Stefano Rosa, November 05, 2014

Ultimo musicista ad esibirsi all’undicesima edizione di Acoustic Franciacorta è lo spagnolo Fernando Perez: «Prima di tutto per me la musica, più che dare un messaggio, è condividere qualcosa di bello con tutti. Mi piacciono molto le culture e le persone dei diversi luoghi. Per questo vorrei che la gente sentisse o vedesse ciò che sentono le persone di altri paesi. E per avvicinare persone di paesi diversi, e per avere con loro qualcosa da condividere, la musica è l’ideale perché crea solidarietà e comprensione: in realtà siamo tutti uguali.» La sua esibizione è un vero e proprio viaggio attorno al mondo, il viaggio che ha fatto lui stesso e che gli ha permesso di incontrare persone e luoghi fantastici. Compone in onore di tutti gli amici che ha incontrato durante il viaggio, per ricordare loro e i luoghi: «ricordo tutti i luoghi con molto affetto». Ci fa viaggiare partendo dal suo paese, la Spagna con “Paisaje Español”, prosegue poi il viaggio della chitarra nell’Africa dell’Est, nello stato del Mali con la musica dei mandingo. Gli schiavi africani, attraversata la ‘Porta senza ritorno’ venivano trasportati in America del Nord, Centrale oppure del Sud. In America del Nord gli africani, insieme alle altre influenze, «usarono la chitarra per suonare il blues”; ecco quindi una sua composizione blues che esegue come terzo brano, dedicata alla leggenda di Robert Johnson. Il viaggio prosegue in America Centrale, Messico, nel Mare dei Caraibi, un mix di suoni spagnoli e ritmi africani in un genere cui Fernando dedica un brano, “Son Jarocho”. Si passa poi in Argentina con un tango, un inedito che racconta la storia di Piazzolla e Malena: “Malena conoce a Piazzolla”. Con “Choro do Brasil” rimaniamo in America Latina, Fernando ci racconta che la musica brasiliana trae ispirazione, come quella africana, dal canto degli uccelli. Ci spiega poi un dettaglio tecnico: i brasiliani hanno una chitarra con sette corde, nel monastero ne suona una con sei, quindi cambia l’accordatura in base alle esigenze del brano.

Durante la sua vuelta al mundo, Perez ci accompagna nell’Oceano Pacifico, alle isole Hawaii, con «una musica molto antica e speciale, che anche l’ultima regina delle Hawaii aveva arricchito. Aveva infatti trascorso gli ultimi anni della sua vita a comporre e suonare musica». Fernando dedica quindi la sua composizione a questa donna, l’ultima regina hawaiana. Gli irlandesi emigrati negli Stati Uniti, dopo aver ascoltato il suono della musica hawaiana, se ne innamorarono e apportarono sfumature nella loro musica: nacque così il bluegrass, la musica country; Fernando ci fa ascoltare un tema di una tipica danza di festa. Si passa poi in Estremo Oriente: la Cina. Perez ci spiega la relazione tra la musica e la natura in Cina: «un suono potrebbe descrivere la grandezza di una montagna, l’immensità dell’oceano, l’armonia dei rami di un albero che ballano con il vento, la grandezza del silenzio… Questi suoni si incontrano nella musica cinese». Dalla Cina all’India, paese affascinante, anche questo caratterizzato da una musica molto profonda; ci fa ascoltare una sua composizione di musica ‘leggera’ in onore a uno dei grandi insegnanti che aveva conosciuto nel ‘Paese dai mille colori’: il grande maestro Ravi Shankar. Pian piano ci avviciniamo alla Spagna, ma per ora andiamo virtualmente in Egitto: per farci sentire il suono dell’oud con i quarti di tono, Fernando sostituisce in pochi secondi parte della tastiera della sua chitarra con una tastiera fretless, perché appunto il manico dell’oud arabo non prevede tasti. E dopo un brano di musica arabo-turca, ecco ancora una melodia dal carattere greco tratta dall’ultimo album del 2014 Greek Music for Guitar, prima di tornare in Spagna con un classico flamenco.


Radio3 (Spain)
Santiago Bustamante, January 02, 2013

6 x 3 - Desmontando a Fernando Pérez

Programa dedicado a las influencias del guitarrista zaragozano Fernando Pérez. Sus seis cuerdas recorren el mundo gracias a estancias y a formaciones específicas en China, India, Hawai, Egipto o EE.UU. Vibrando con ellas, viajamos por las ricas sonoridades de la guitarra atendiendo a sus diferentes manifestaciones culturales encontrando el nexo común a través de nuestro instrumento preferido.


Radio3 (Spain)
Santiago Bustamante, October 10, 2012

6x3 - Monográfico Fernando Pérez

Programa dedicado al guitarrista zaragozano Fernando Pérez. Sus seis cuerdas recorren el mundo gracias a estancias y a formaciones específicas en China, India, Hawai, Egipto o EE.UU. Vibrando con ellas, viajamos por las ricas sonoridades de la guitarra atendiendo a sus diferentes manifestaciones culturales encontrando el nexo común a través de nuestro instrumento preferido.

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