By Terry Perkins
AAJ: Growing up in Panama, you studied classical music and were also interested in a career in electronics. What turned you toward becoming a jazz musician?
DP: The first thing that attracted me about jazz was I seemed to hear people's voices in the music. I also loved the feel of jazz, which seemed to me to be the complete opposite of classical. Although I enjoyed playing classical music, I loved the degree of improvisation that was going on in jazz. It allowed for a freedom - people could develop their own voices, their own ideas in jazz.
AAJ: You have often mentioned that the late pianist Bill Evans was a strong influence on you. When did you first hear his music?
DP: After I came to the United States, when I was first studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A teacher gave me a tape of Bill Evans including things from albums like Everybody Digs Bill Evans and New jazz Conceptions. I was immediately just fascinated by the sound of his chords - not even the music itself, just the sound. It was so beautiful, it struck me really hard. And something else that really was impactful on deciding to become a jazz musician was hearing Chick Corea in concert. He played half classical pieces and half jazz. That really made me think about changing from studying electronics to more of a focus on music.
AAJ: You studied at Berklee in Boston, and Jon Hendricks heard you playing in a club and invited you to play in his group. Then you moved on to play with Dizzy Gillespie for several years. Working with such legendary musicians must have been quite an experience.
DP: It was like the concept of masters passing along a tradition, which was something that was very much a part of the culture I grew up with in Panama. Dizzy and Jon both gave me a feeling of what it must have been like to experience a piece of jazz history. It was amazing to hear stories from directly from leaders and innovators who created the musical foundation that jazz was built on. It was an important part of me being able to develop my own music.
AAJ: Your debut recording as a leader (Danilo Perez) came out in 1993, followed soon after by The Journey. Looking back on those recordings, it seems you had a strong musical conception of where you wanted to go from the beginning. For example, "Panama Libre" is the first tune on the first recording, and "Panama 2000" is on The Journey. Both compositions have been rearranged to be part of your most recent recording, Motherland.
DP: Thank you! It's nice to know some people know that I didn't start out yesterday, and that Panamonk wasn't my first record. I was much younger when I made those first two records, and I didn't have a lot of the knowledge and technique I now have put together from experience. But I always wanted to play my own music - and bring in all the influences from Panama and my culture. I also wanted to write music that touched on social issues, and that revealed Latin American music was much more than just Cuban music alone. When I was writing The Journey, Dizzy had just died, and I was experiencing the invasion of Panama by the U.S. A lot of those feelings became part of that project.
AAJ: Your next recording, Panamonk, gained critical acclaim for a fresh blending of the music of Thelonious Monk and Latin jazz rhythms. How did that project come about?
DP: I was touring with Wynton Marsalis in 1995, and a lot of things came together for me at that time that were influential in doing Panamonk. Working with Wynton gave me a vision of someone defending a perspective, one that through the eyes of a lot of people may have seemed old and out of date. But for me, it gave me a perspective on a cultural and musical experience that I had missed. When you're in school and studying and learning jazz, you miss a lot of the original foundation of the music - where it really came from. Jazz was part of the community, the rhythms were for dancing and other social experiences. So when I was playing with Wynton, the New Orleans music that he grew up with sounded very familiar to me, like a lot of the music I grew up with - marching bands in the street, dances.
So I began to connect to music as more than just analyzing harmony and melody. I also got into the rhythm. At that time, I didn't really know how to be loose with the rhythm while playing in a swing concept. And with Wynton, that finally hooked it up for me. In away, it felt like brothers and sisters finally meeting again after being separated fro9m each other for a long time. So then I started looking into Monk's music in a whole different way, and saw that the clave rhythm was a real concept in his music. Somehow, Monk seemed to have so much awareness of clave in his music, and that was a revelation to me. It seemed like a natural way to approach his music, and that's what we did on Panamonk.
AAJ: In 1999, you were commissioned to write a longer piece, "Suite for the Americas," for a performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival. That seems to have been a precursor for Motherland.
DP: That commission has been so important in my development. It gave me a reason to bring a lot of my early musical directions and later efforts together. But now I had the perspective of working with musicians like Roy Haynes and Steve lacy, and with flamenco guitarists and other musicians. So that piece was like a newborn baby that I needed to nurture and develop. It became the genesis of the Motherland project and my current band, and I've been working on that concept for more than a year now.
AAJ: Your Motherland group includes Adam Cruz on drums, Essiet Essiet on bass, Luciana Souza on vocals and Donny McCaslin on sax. Could you talk a little bit about each musician, and why you chose them for the Motherland group? Let's begin with Adam Cruz.
DP: Adam has been connected with me since the start of my career in jazz. But even though he was in a band I started while still at Berklee, he never spent much time over the next few years working on my projects. He ended up playing with David Sanchez, but when the time was right, we got back together. Adam is everything I love in a drummer. He brings out a focus on jazz with a Latin tinge rather than straight Latin jazz. He can play rhythms, but because he also plays the piano, he has the perspective to play harmony and melody as well.
AAJ: Essiet Essiet.
DP: He's someone I've wanted to work with for a long time. He played in my trio a couple of times as a substitute, and I think he's one of the most creative musicians I've ever worked with. Essiet has the ability to work in almost any context, and his understanding of rhythm is amazing. He always comes out with something you wouldn't expect. He's very creative, but he's also very humble, giving the band a center and a foundation with his contributions. He's also an open spirit - one of the few musicians who can make being on the road seem like home.
AAJ: Luciana Souza.
DP: She's a friend I first met at Berklee, and she has a voice that works as a singer - but also as an instrument. I used to tell her there would be a time when she would be a part of my band, and she'd just laugh. But now the time is right. She brings unique compositions and arrangements to the group, and I think she addresses the role of the voice that's a mile ahead of a lot of other vocalists.
AAJ: Donny McCaslin.
DP: Another Berklee classmate and an accomplished musician. I called on him for a gig six years ago, and he learned all the music very quickly and took it very seriously. He's brought so much to the band, and he's always looking to learn and improve. That's great for me, because it pushes me to improve and learn as well.
AAJ: You were recently named as Cultural Ambassador for Panama. How do you see your role?
DP: That was an honor, and I'm taking all the duties as a great responsibility. I want to do things that will open doors for people in my country - and that will showcase the culture of Panama to the world. And I think the Motherland project is part of my way of doing that.
AAJ: In addition to Motherland, you've been touring with Wayne Shorter. Talk a little about that and other things you're working on.
DP: Playing with Wayne is one of those experiences that has made me grow instantly as a musician. When I played with him for the first time, I came home and looked at the music I was writing and could see where it was obviously lacking - and the areas I needed to address. It was like being in a master class.
Hopefully, there may be a live recording from the tour that John Patitucci, Brian Blade and I did with Wayne earlier this year. I've also been working with Steve lacy on a project, and writing for orchestra. And a trio recording will be coming out soon. But Motherland is what's important now. By bringing these different personalities and cultures together in making music, I'm hoping we can inspire people to see the options that bring us all together. I tell my musicians that this is a time for us to be like doctors. Our music can be a medicine to help against depression and sadness. We can immunize people against those things. And as long as we have faith in ourselves and in God, we can keep doing that.
