PASSION, FIRE AND GRACE DOMINIQUE DI PIAZZA Mike Flynn talks to a modern master of the electric bass about his journey into music and the highs and lows of his career so far. © Denis Barbier n the 30 years since Jaco Piazza’s name was now held among a landmark album with jazz legend players by the time they were 20 Pastorius fi rst turned the bass the modern greats of the bass; John McLaughlin, and his initial had already made great records – I guitar on its head and brought he was the name on everyone’s studies were intense to say the least. knew that [the drummer] Tony it from the back of the stage lips, and looked certain to have Coincidentally he was reminded Williams had done this at the age to the front, it almost seems a path set out ahead of him. But of this a short time ago: ‘It’s funny of 17, and Jaco made his solo album commonplace for bassists to then the unexpected happened: because someone recently gave me at the age of 23 or something, and Inow play lead melodies, pulsating he disappeared, the recordings a recording of a concert I did with Miles Davis at the age of 19. So for forthright basslines and explosive stopped and so did the live shows. a French guitarist in 1982 and I was me I was really in a hurry to get to solos. Yet in the intervening years Rumours began to surface that he’d amazed, because it sounded almost that level, to catch up.’ few bassists have built upon turned to religion and had quit like the way I play now! At the time While Dominique is a formidable Jaco’s founding techniques as playing altogether. It wasn’t until I had only been playing bass for two bassist, he drew on a vast range emphatically as French bassist the early 2000s that word spread or three years. It’s really funny as of musical sources to develop his Dominique Di Piazza, who in that he was back and playing my style is already there.’ own harmonic knowledge: ‘I not turn has been a huge infl uence again, better than ever, was giving Di Piazza’s playing style is both only learnt about the bass but I on the new generation of players masterclasses and that he had harmonically and rhythmically had a good tutor of the bebop that include Matthew Garrison, returned to music full-time. very distinctive, and for all his style because at that time I was Hadrien Feraud and countless With all this in mind, and with his speed and dazzling technical also listening to Charlie Parker others. Th e Lyon-born bassist London Jazz Festival appearance at ability, his basslines or solos have and all the old beboppers, and made a massive impact when he Charlie Wright’s jazz bar in Hoxton an abundance of rhythmic strength piano players like Oscar Peterson, appeared on jazz guitarist John on 18th November with his own and an innate sense of melody. and a lot of guitar players and McLaughlin’s classic 1991 trio trio featuring guitarist Nelson Dominique attributes this to his fl amenco too. I was self-taught album Que Alegria alongside Veras and drummer Manhu Roche, musical surroundings at the time: so I didn’t know what the limits Indian percussion maestro Trilok it was high time we discovered how ‘I was infl uenced by the Gypsy jazz were! So I didn’t just have Jaco in Gurtu. Di Piazza’s fi zzing basslines Di Piazza found his way back into sound but also by African rhythms. my mind when I was playing, I and solos zipped all over the music. Speaking on the phone from What really amazed me with Jaco also had people like John Coltrane, instrument, matching McLaughlin’s Paris, it turns out that Dominique was the way he played the 16th Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker, quicksilver lines note for note, was far from a child prodigy, as he notes; for me it sounded like music Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul. soloing with exceptionally melodic explained: ‘I grew up in a musical from Cameroon. You have this I was interested in all kinds of ideas and stunning technique. environment. My stepfather, who kind of feel [sings a bouncing 16th- improvisation.’ Th e bass centrepiece came in was a Gypsy, raised me, and by the note rhythm]; for me they have a Turning professional in 1979, the form of a startlingly beautiful age of 16 I could play a little bit of connection, and of course, I know playing in his hometown of Lyon, solo piece called ‘Marie’ that guitar. I learnt a little about chords that Jaco had a lot of Afro-Cuban Dominique moved to Paris in 1986 showed Di Piazza’s free-fl owing but I was not really caught up with infl uences in his playing style. But and immersed himself in the city’s use of guitaristic chords, classical music. I really got serious when I during those fi rst two years I really cultural melting pot. One of his and fl amenco lines, harmonic was 20; in fact, I started the bass worked like crazy, playing like…15 fi rst gigs was with highly acclaimed counterpoint and a revolutionary when I fi rst heard Jaco.’ hours a day. Since I started to fall in French jazz violinist Didier right-hand picking technique that It speaks volumes about Di love with the bass when I was 20 I Lockwood, while also playing in a used all fi ve digits. After playing Piazza’s natural musical talent that really felt like it was already too late huge variety of styles that included some 200 shows with this trio, Di just ten years later he was making for me because I knew all the great Brazilian and African bands, jazz, November 2009 BGM 29 Interview Dominique Di Piazza John, and it’s strange because even “I knew having played guitar that I could though it had been 16 years since we last toured together, after a few use my thumb, and because I was self- gigs it felt like nothing had changed. taught I didn’t think it was wrong at all” And it was great to discover these two great British players Gary Husband and Mark Mondesir.’ A DVD has just been released of this fired-up group in all their glory in Budapest and shows Dom has lost none of his ability to dazzle in his solos or lock in tight with the drums. Over the years Dominique has been associated with several bass manufacturers but currently plays both 5- and 6-string F Basses (though he says he’s now considering going back to just a 4-string!) and has moved from Markbass to TC Electronic now, using the RH450 amplifier and a variety of TC cabs. Yet greatest among his many contributions to © Marc Busquets © Marc the advancement of the bass is his The Di Piazza trio featuring Manhu Roche and Nelson Veras complex right-hand technique, which has revolutionised the way the likes of Hadrien and Matthew fusion and big bands (which helped laughs. ‘I also played a lot of songs With word spreading about Garrison have also expanded their his sight-reading), as well as session on Que Alegria with a 4-string Jazz this phenomenal new bass talent, plucking techniques. Born out of work in studios and jazz piano bass made by Philip Kubiki, and I Dominique’s ascent to the top of a need to cross strings – that he trios. He has fond memories of this already had my special bridge, that I the global bass tree seemed assured found particularly hard using the period: ‘I think it’s the best way to made myself, which makes the bass – yet after such a dramatic arrival… standard index and middle fingers grow as a musician, not only as a sound more like a fretless.’ silence. To say Dominique found – Dom followed his instincts to bass player, but in music, in your Dominique’s stunning solo bass religion is no exaggeration, but in create his unique approach. ‘I knew timing and your ability to adapt, to feature, ‘Marie’, from the same fact he was more inclined towards having played guitar that I could learn different rhythms. So it was album still sounds fresh today spirituality than any evangelical use my thumb, and because I was a really good period of preparation some 18 years after he first played calling. It’s rare for musicians, self-taught I didn’t think it was to play with people like John it; it’s even become something of artists or anyone immersed in an wrong at all, but funnily enough McLaughlin and Trilok Gurtu.’ a solo bass standard for plucky all-consuming career to step back when I first started this style no one The subsequent recording with bassists seeking to explore chords and contemplate another way was interested because it was too this trio, Que Alegria, still stands and advanced picking styles. Yet of life, and to his fans it came as far outside what everyone else was as one of John McLaughlin’s finest it was John McLaughlin who first something of a shock. ‘I can’t say doing. Jaco was big at the time, so I mid-career albums, with its stirring recognised that this was something it was like a cult but it got a bit actually had to learn the two-finger emotive melodies and highly unique to Dominique’s approach fundamentalist and it took me a technique because that’s what intuitive interplay between three to the bass, as Di Piazza explains while to fully remove myself from people wanted to learn when I gave world-class virtuosos.