Dafnis Prieto: To the Sunset… and Beyond

Back to The Sunset – Dafnis Prieto Big Band in the recording studio

RdG: How much of teaching is directed at the intellect and how much to fire up the feeling that comes from the guts?

DP: I like to use both of them, the intellect and the guts will always do great things together. Most of the time there is a great deal of understanding that has to be done through an intellectual process. The guts or intuition comes into play when there is human action and reaction. The fun part starts when everything becomes just one whole ‘thing’.

RdG: Do you think that teaching restricts intuition?

DP: I don’t think teaching restricts intuition. Teaching doesn’t only mean to teach students how to read music, or teach rules and theory, but how to play and interpret music in different ways and different levels, and for that you’ll require a lot of intuitive decisions. I personally teach from a creative point of view, not from preconceived notions that exist in this world. So intuition is always part of the mix, at all times… Of course, everyone; every teacher is also different, and will make their own (optimal) individual decisions based on their current knowledge, and their intuition.

On Music and Cuba

RdG: Do you believe that because you come from Cuba there is a certain musical expectation?

Grammy© Award Winning trumpeter Brian Lynch

DP: I think that depends on who is looking at me. Of course, people will make first associations based on their previous experiences. I don’t really pay attention to what people expect, or not. I once played somewhere in Europe and someone came after the concert and said that he was disappointed that I didn’t play Cuban music. What can I say to that?

RdG: What is the difference between teaching institutions in Cuba and those in the United States?

DP: I have always seen teaching as a relationship between the teacher and the student, and not between an institution and the students. The two systems are certainly different, but what really makes any school is the quality of the teachers and the students, regardless where they come from.

RdG: Do you consider your music Afro-Caribbean if you do not use recognizable Afro-Caribbean harmonic rhythmic or motifs?

DP: I don’t consider my music Afro-Caribbean. I don’t think or create music by genres or categories. I like to write the music I “hear” and want people to hear; not the one I’ve already heard.

RdG: Is “expectation” a crippling factor in music?

DP: It depends what is expected.

On Music

RdG: Composition or Improvisation…? How do you make both aspects work in your own music?

DP: They both come out of each other, I’m improvising when I compose, and I’m composing when I improvise.

RdG: Can music be composed on the drums? What do you use?

DP: Of course, music can be composed on the drum set, but certainly not the music I’ve written for my albums. I normally use the piano to compose and arrange, and the process is always an open journey. Many times, the last thing I think of in the composition process is the drum part, maybe because is so close to me.

RdG: Thank you Dafnis…

DP: My pleasure, thank you.

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