16 Oct 08 Biography
Living in the south of France, in Nice, a city between green Alps mountains and azur-blue Mediterranean sea, my first passion was the nature. As a teenager I wanted to be a shepherd, and not the computer geek my mother vainly hoped… Of course I always respected, what I felt like the most, and obviously did summer workshops and jobs in farms. After hard work day, evenings came as a relieve with music when one of the shepherd grabbed his guitar, sang and once made me try…
You move one finger from C Major to A minor and a whole world is going on… chazam! No need to tell you that after the workshop, I didn’t pay attention to my sheep any more! and changed my destiny to become a guitarist. Imagine my parents’ face learning that instead of a shepherd I wanted to be a musician ! I just wanted to play and quickly met my first teacher – Serge Donsey – who became my mentor and me, his favorite student.
At 16, I spent mornings with him discovering, jazz, Brazilian music, classical and a very important notion:
“be a specialist of the non-specialization” as he liked to say, “be curious and learn all the time”.
The classical music appeal came along with Brazilian composer Villa Lobos, whose works I still love and play today.
I dreamt about a fancied Brazil (no need to tell you my first trip there matched my dreams): a walk in the rain forest, portraits of native people, lovers on the beach…
And then, I aimed for music prize recognition and accelerate learning through official institution like The national conservatory of music, where I fulfilled the theory thirst with analysis and composition aside classical guitar study.
There it was a very different story too:
Conservative people – yeah, it is the conservatory… – with high expectations but also lots of judgmental views, i.e. hand positions among many things- far from the music in itself. I got into the egomaniac world obsessed by technique, striving to followed their standard and trends. Wearing black and white tuxedo to reach the classic standard, I already felt too tight into this suit…
And above all, I was forgetting what mattered to me: my inner music.
At this time I never heard before there were different guitar schools, fighting to impose on each other! I thought everyone was a part of the guitar world and that’s it: Wes played with the thumb, Baden with all the fingers, Joe Pass with a pick. They were all different and so what? I could recognize their sounds like a voice. Instead of being formatted to the same playing style, they were the living proof of the extended array of musical expression and technical freedom style. So I never surrender and kept on exploring and extending borders away.
This is what I have always been sticking to as a performer and pedagogue.
Don’t be surprised to learn later on that my name was associated with techno band “Ze Maria”, Bossa-Nova singer “Denise Pinaud” or a Bulgarian Jazz Trio! Music came in first place, without any label. So touring abroad was always a new opportunity to get connected to new artists and experience amazing blend!
So after being a specialist of the non-specialization, I learnt to un-learn their conservative teaching to become my own master and understand music by my own experiences, living, reading, traveling, meeting new people, new places…
Anything we do or live affects the way we think and play an instrument.
Each time I experienced a music piece or style, I wanted to absorb the most information about it and immerge into it, whether it was a Pavane, royal French dance from 15th Century, Spanish folk flamenco or American jazz improvisation. I enjoyed Music in its many forms and kinds, out of a school frame.
After a honeymoon in Asia and the birth of my daughter Jade, I felt the desire to create my own pieces. I wanted to play my music, the one I felt deep down.
Reflecting my eclectic musical tastes, my first compositions mixed my classical background with Asian sonorities, Brazilian rhythms and Jazz improvisation as well. To be true to this rainbow display, I used five different guitars: a pure classical acoustic one, an electri-acoustic one, a jazz one, a folk one and an electric one! And adding more artistic exhibition I performed in association with my Chinese friend, Fu Jitsang combining sounds improvisation to watercolor painting: the audience loved it!
When I started touring in USA, Canada, Mexico or Brazil, moving with five guitars was more than tricky, so I said to myself “travel burden free, dude!”. So free and light that once, I quite forgot my guitar in the trunk of my car in France when flying to Brazil! Bad luck or fate I was forced to honor my contract and use a student guitar I borrowed to my singer friend Denise. I worked intensely on my sound and made this guitar sound as if it was mine for years and it went just fine.
From this day one, I only use a single guitar and feel comfortable with anyone. Although I enjoy the most my handcrafted Alhambra Guitar. My sound is linked to me before to my instrument.
What I understood for myself, what sounded true to me, I’ve always shared it with any of my students.
Music is such a powerful gift that it makes sense to me to help it generate.
All the best,
Philippe
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