Here's my interview with Italian performer/producer Bob Salmieri who sat down with me to discuss his musical origins
How'd you get started in music?
I grew up in Rome from a Sicilian family. In 1960 we went to live in a new neighborhood, inhabited only by people from Southern Italy, refugees from Libya and Tunisia. Among these there was a child whose father went to night clubs to play the guitar, so he learned to play and taught all of us, a large group of children. Many stopped, but I continued, passing through many musical instruments, without neglecting those from the Middle East, before finally falling in love with the Sax. The Middle East has always fascinated me; my father, as I said, was of Sicilian origin but born in Tunisia since in the early 1900s, it was the Italians who emigrated to North Africa, so I have always been interested in Arab and Middle Eastern culture.
Who are your inspirations or influences?
This is a difficult question because, having played and composed for almost 50 years, I have had many musical influences and cultural suggestions. Let's say that I have always liked shuffling cards. Without going too far back in time, I am currently interested in finding a Mediterranean path for Jazz. I have released several albums in recent years where the main inspiration was the classical myth of the Mediterranean, suggestions from Ovid's Metamorphoses, from classical mythology such as Homer's Odyssey and so on. My Mediterranean Jazz is simple from a harmonious point of view, with deep and ancient melodies and good rhythmic support. I often use oriental percussion or even the Turkish flute, the Ney, the oldest known wind instrument. But I am very much influenced by traditional jazz, from Coleman Hawkins to Miles Davis who struck me with his continuous search for new ways to conceive music, without ever forgetting the deep origins of his roots.
What advice would you offer aspiring performers?
I would suggest looking around and understanding in advance where music is going and what the new trends are, knowing well all the IT tools that allow you to develop your ideas and above all to open up to the world and seek contacts and collaborations with musicians from all over the world. This era has completely changed the way we enjoy music, opening new avenues and closing many others. We must understand that the world changes and we must strive to keep up so as not to become dinosaurs. I want to point out that the CD, for example, has been dead for about ten years if not more, people no longer have CD players and new cars don't have them, computers no longer have a CD slot and it's it's increasingly difficult to find factories that make them but still many music critics ask for the CD to do reviews. Here is an example of a dinosaur.
How do you set yourself apart from other bands or singers?
As I was saying, I try to make the music that I feel and that is connected in some way with my Mediterranean and Sicilian origins. This helped me a lot: in the past, leading my ethnic/jazz music group Milagro Acustico, I discovered the Arab Poets of Sicily, who lived in Sicily during the Arab domination of the island (827-1091) and I set to music the their poems in three albums, I translated the quatrains of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam into Sicilian and set them to music and so on. This made it a lot easier for me because I had inspiration at my fingertips and I believe this makes my music, from jazz to ethnic and border music, unique and recognisable. Copying other people's music makes no sense and in the long run, it doesn't pay.
Any new gigs or albums in the future?
Having several active musical projects, I publish quite frequently. Every month I manage to release two or more songs and every now and then I release an album. This is another novelty in the musical world, now there is an increasing tendency to release singles and not albums.
The next releases under my name are on May 10th with "Let the rain come" accompanied by Mediterrean Jazz Project, on May 17th in duo with the Spanish guitarist Elson Complex "Awaiting the sol" and on June 14th a song dedicated to the Palestinian affair will be released entitled "Bright Lights of Gaza"
Other things are in the pipeline but we will have time to talk about them.
The next releases under my name are on May 10th with "Let the rain come" accompanied by Mediterrean Jazz Project, on May 17th in duo with the Spanish guitarist Elson Complex "Awaiting the sol" and on June 14th a song dedicated to the Palestinian affair will be released entitled "Bright Lights of Gaza"
Other things are in the pipeline but we will have time to talk about them.
Special thanks to him on this interview & you can check out his atest works in the link below. So until then I'll catch you on The Flipside! Stay frosty & rock n roll
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