Those who know say that the protagonist of this story is the Argentine trumpeter most respected by jazz musicians in New York. Anyone who has heard him in those impossible solos would understand the reason for such a distinction, and more than one would fall into enchantment.
Mariano Loiacono He was born in Cruz Alta, Córdoba. In his house music was inevitable, his parents played the guitar for pleasure, and the meetings, where many people usually gathered, always ended with the inevitable guitar playing. “I was five or six years old and I already played the guitar a little and I spent all my time singing Mercedes Sosa. I had a cassette of hers and I sang it from start to finish. At the town pool they paid me with ice cream to sing. They would stand me on top of the table and I would sing without any problem. I also listened to Serrat, Zitarrosa, Atahualpa, Eduardo Falú,” he remembers.
At the age of eight he began taking piano lessons with a teacher from the town, Edith, a Basque. He had ease, but he didn’t like it very much. Until he discovered the sound of the trumpet. “When I was a kid, my old man played the trumpet in the town’s municipal band, but he had stopped playing and the trumpet had been put away. I had never seen it and one day my mother was cleaning and found it. My dad started playing and I wanted to try it and it came out right away,” he says. He was one week away from turning 12. So, they sent him to study trumpet at the Silvio Agostini Music School in Cruz Alta. There he did find pleasure, especially when he was able to join the school band. At 14 he was already traveling alone to Rosario to take classes with the soloist of the Rosario Symphony. And, later, in Buenos Aires, he perfected himself with Fernando Ciancio, soloist of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra.
She was First Trumpet of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the National University of Rosario and was a member of the Rosario Opera Orchestra. He graduated from EMC (School of Contemporary Music, Berklee International Network) and took private lessons with important New York jazz musicians.
He played with international jazz figures, such as drummer Willie Jones III, and in cities such as New York, Boston, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Venice and São Paulo, among others. He recorded seven albums, is a composer and arranger and a professor at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory. He has his own quintet and leads a Big Band every Monday at Bebop, the renowned jazz club in Palermo. Additionally, he composed the original music for the film “The Last Trip to China,” which was recently released. He never decided to be a professional musician. Everything came together naturally.
“In addition to being a musician, I am a man of the people, from a small place, like Cruz Alta. That is what identifies me the most,” he says.
News: What does it mean to be a man of the people?
Loiacono: Have closeness in human relationships. I like to work in groups and build teams. I like everything that has to do with the simplicity of living in a small town, meeting many people. I enter places, even here in Buenos Aires, and I have the habit of greeting everyone. I think that’s what I am, I’m someone from that place, that’s where I come from.
News: What is it like to play the trumpet? How do you get there with the air?
Loiacono: It is a very physical instrument, it demands a lot, it is true. It requires a lot of training, breathing exercises, long note exercises to maintain the sound, you have to be on top of it. Wynton (Marsalis) said: “When you don’t play one day, you already realize it. When you don’t play two days, your teammates already realize it. And when you don’t play three days, the public realizes it too.”
News: Did you do a clinic with him?
Loiacono: I did not study with him, I did attend rehearsals of his groups at Lincoln Center a couple of times. I saw him work very closely, tremendously, especially because of the order and discipline with which they worked.
News: Discipline is essential, right? You can have talent, but without discipline it doesn’t work.
Loiacono: Not working. Discipline is much more likely to work without talent than the other way around. Charly Parker himself, who was someone of superior talent, studied eight hours a day, and they say that Coltrane studied fourteen hours a day.
News: And how many hours do you practice?
Loiacono: At one time I had it structured, now not so much because I spend a lot of time at the conservatory and, in addition, I have the concerts. I study as much as I can, a minimum of two or three hours a day, and from time to time I go back to take classes with Fernando Ciancio.
News: What happens to you emotionally when you play?
Loiacono: I try not to think, I try to feel what I touch. For that you need to have a route. When I play, I try not to focus on technique, that should be built in. It’s just what I hear and what I feel. That’s my idea. When the music is good and I feel that things are going well, the truth is, it is a state of total fulfillment. And it doesn’t just depend on me, it depends on the others who are playing with me and on the people. The public is the final link that closes the perfect circle. That people receive well what I’m playing and have the energy, the feeling that they are having a good time. It’s important to me.
News: Why did you choose jazz?
Loiacono: I started with jazz as a curiosity for the subject of improvisation and it ended up being a lifestyle. I played classical music and I couldn’t play anything or very little if I didn’t have the sheet music. At a jazz festival in town I saw them improvising and playing without sheet music for an hour. So, I went to study improvisation and harmony in Rosario. First I was captivated by the aesthetics of jazz music and after listening and researching I became 100% hooked.
News: Why is it a lifestyle?
Loiacono: To be a jazz musician you have to think about life like someone who is going to play jazz. It is much more than a style of music, it is perhaps the most important popular artistic movement in history. Without a doubt, the longest and the one that has spread the most. A music created by black Africans and African Americans that incorporated other cultures. The compendium of all American society. Those who suffer, those who fight for freedom, those who fight for more equality, those who oppress, it’s all there in the history of jazz.
News: You studied in the United States
Loiacono: Yes, I took a lot of classes. The first one who took me to the United States was George Garzone, who has been a saxophonist and sax and ensemble teacher at Berklee since ’76. He heard me in Buenos Aires and told me he wanted to give me a class. He gave it to me, didn’t charge me and told me to go to Boston to study with him. He invited me to stay at his house for a month so I could study with him every day. Then I took classes with other teachers in New York.
News: Someone told me that you are the only Argentine trumpeter respected by New York jazz musicians.
Loiacono: I don’t know, I can’t say. But I recorded my last album in New York on the WJ3 label. The owner and producer, Willie Jones, called me and asked me to record it. Willie is one of the best drummers in the world and he also plays on the record. We knew each other because I had already played with him a few times. That is something unthinkable for an Argentine musician.
News: What is it like to be a jazz musician in Argentina?
Loiacono: Being a jazz musician is a complex situation anywhere, even in New York, unless you are Wynton, Brandford (Marsalis) Herbie Hancock or Keith Jarret. For the rest it is a struggle, but there are many places to play there and there are a lot of people. Here it is a big bet to be a jazz musician all the time. Most of them make a living playing other genres. In my case, I only play jazz and I teach at the Manuel de Fallas Conservatory, where I have a trumpet chair, arranging chair, and four ensemble modules. Additionally, I direct the conservatory’s Big Band. On the other hand, I am with a Big Band at Bebop every Monday and I have my quintet, where my brother Sebastián also plays. The quintet is the group that most represents my music. The style I like the most is the hard bop of the ’50s, ’60s.
News: Have you thought about living in New York?
Loiacono: Many times, but it is a bit difficult for me to live away from affection. I’m going to New York for a month and on the twentieth I already want to come back.
News: Are you going to your town?
Loiacono: Yes, everything I can. My parents and two of my sisters are there. A while ago I was named Outstanding Citizen and also in Rosario recently, Illustrious Visitor. I lived for seven years in Rosario, I taught, I played in the Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Orchestra. And recently I was with the New York Quintet.
News: Any important pending?
Loiacono: Play at the Village Vanguard in New York. It is a club from the early 1930s, where emblematic albums were recorded. When you go down the stairs and feel the energy of the place and see all those photos, you say: “Wow.” I would like to play there sometime. Hopefully.
