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ANDRÉS COLL INTERVIEW

25

November, 2024

Text & Interviewer: José Cabello

Photos: Artist’s concession

It has been an absolute pleasure to chat with one of the rising stars of our country, Andrés Coll. Through his music, his projects, and his talent, he proves to be an artist who embodies innovation and surprise. But it’s not just his musicality that shines; his humility, kindness, and openness to new horizons also stand out. Andrés is already a clear role model for many of us, and we wish him continued growth as beautiful and powerful as what he has achieved since his beginnings. We hope you enjoy the interview, where he shares insights into many fascinating topics: his projects, his influences, his approach to his instrument, his compositional method, and much more.

In&OutJazz: ¿Cómo estás?

Andrés Coll: Nos saludamos en español y luego la entrevista en inglés, ¿te parece?.

Muy bien, muy bien, tío. ¿Estás allí en tu tierra o qué?

Sí, estoy aquí, en mi casa, en Ibiza. Y nada, bien, contento de conocerte. A ver, a ver…

Muy bien, pues es un placer tío, es un placer poder charlar contigo.

Nada, nada.

Tengo ganas, tengo ganas de preguntarte. Como la revista la tenemos planteada…, el enfoque es internacional, por eso, vamos, mejor hacer la entrevista en inglés, para que quede grabado y podamos gozar. Así que nada, tío, si quieres, empezamos.

Venga.

It’s a real pleasure to have you here. And, let me introduce you to everyone who doesn’t know who you are. You are Andrés Coll, born in Ibiza, Spain, and you’ve been…, you’re very young, a very young artist…, 23 right? Is it 23, or 24?

24, a month ago I turned 24.

Nice, nice. I turned out…, I turned 24 a couple weeks ago too so…

Oh!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, same generation man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

21st century going up, that’s cool. So yeah…, so you’ve been collaborating with huge artists such as Joachim Khün, and you’ve put out different projects like Andrés Coll Odyssey, with which you’ve recorded your last record Sunbird which is amazing. Congratulations for that record.

Thank you man.

And then you’ve also collaborated with this project called Ibiza Sun Band. And then, last thing I’ve known is that you’re also enrolled in a project with some cuban artists who I have the pleasure to know too, because they always show up here in Madrid, Carlos Sarduy, Ladrón de Guevara, all these, called Café Dakar. So, we could say…, and I don’t like to…, you know, to put labels to anybody’s art but you…, we could say that your music integrates folk from your homeland with jazz and different musics, world music, and…, so it turns out to be some kind of experimental music, right? So, yeah first of all, after this brief presentation, I’d like to know…, how are you? What are you up to right now? And then we’ll get into deeper questions.

Yeah, well I’m very good these days. I got back to practicing a lot, you know. Last night I was practicing until three in the morning. Most of these days have been like this. Like, you know, because the summer here in Ibiza tends to be very busy, so you don’t have a lot of time to really practice, you know. You can, you know, have some hours of practice to keep up, right? But, to really get into it, you don’t have enough time. And now that the summer is slowly ending and, you know, all this kind of chaos that we have here is slowly ending, I have more time to practice you know. And doing a lot of stuff man.

Are you are you having loads of concerts or not? Are you having like, all your?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a weekly residence with Martin Meléndez, a cello player.

Oh yeah!

That has played with Marco Mezquida trio. He’s in Formentera now, living for the summer and he will come more also, and we are playing a weekly concert in trio with an african percussionist. And apart from this, some, you know, some concerts with Café Dakar and Carlos Sarduy. There are things happening yeah, yeah. But, for me now, I want to practice, I want to…

Yeah man, I’m kind of jealous, I’m kind of jealous because I…, every time I get to practice at least like one hour or 30 minutes I’m just like “oh man, this is cool”. But, yeah, after all, life is getting busy and, you know, every little space you can find to practice, it’s like gold, it’s like a golden treasure.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’d like to ask you how did you get into music, and how does…, how has your evolution turned out through the years in your young career.

Well, I start…, I think music started in my life with…, there was a piano in my house since I was born, because my older sister played piano and saxophone, so there was always an upright piano in my house, and I used to bash on it, you know, when I was three years old. And, you know, maybe compose some little melody and I don’t know just bash around. And then, at seven years old, I was signed into the music school, into the local music school here. And then, there I started percussion, classical percussion, and that’s where you learn drums, you learn marimba, you learn all kinds of percussion. And I started to play in the bands, in the orchestras, and that has come from the school also. And that was my beginning, yeah.

Nice man, I’m gonna try to connect my computer to another wi-fi network, because it’s kind of getting chopped, oh there you go. It should work better now, okay. Sorry, sorry for that. Nice man, nice. And, what do you think about your evolution as a musician? Regarding this, you know, starting process in your house, the piano and then enrolling yourself into the, like institution of music. How has your evolution turned out, till nowadays?

Yeah, so I, you know, I was in the school of music like, maybe for 8, 9 or 10 years and also playing in the symphonic band for 10 years, in the orchestra also, more or less, so this was like my beginning. And I think this was, especially the orchestra, and the band, it’s a super nice foundation for, you know, to getting yourself to know a lot about music, you know, musically cultured. Because you get to know a lot of music involuntarily, like not because you want to know it, but because you have to play it, so this gets you to know a lot of kinds of music styles. And, what I did in the those 10 years, because I didn’t adjust myself to the sheet music, never, so I kind of improvised a little bit, always, when I was in the orchestra, especially in the band, because the orchestra is…, to improvise over Beethoven or something like this is not that easy, but maybe with the band we play some of the easy stuff that you can improvise on, so it was always improvising, you know. I was reading also, but you know, I was creating at the same time. So this is like for 10 years, it’s a great base and for the evolution, that it’s what the question was about, when I met Joachim Khün, I was 10 years you know, like pushing and pushing, but it was like…, it had to blow up, you know. Because it was a lot of energy, there concentrated. And when I met him, all this blew up, you know. The first sessions, we played, I was playing drums and then marimba. It was…, I had never played free jazz in my life before, or jazz or, you know, real music, real jazz. And from those sessions, the first ones…, man, that blew up. And there was a lot of creativity, there was magic, man.

That’s amazing yeah. And, what are your biggest influences regarding both your instrument and your musical concept? Yeah, what’s your musical approach after your influences or your mentors too? I guess Joachim Khün is one of those, but you could tell us more about this.

Well, for the instruments, I think one of the guys I like to listen the most and that I think is great is Bobby Hutcherson…

Nice.

On vibraphone and marimba. I think his approach on emotion on the instrument and the clearness you know, in the notes he’s hitting…, he’s like a bullet man. It’s like… And as for my music the inspirations I have…, maybe in the world of jazz and rock-pop music I would say they are…, Pharaoh Sanders so for the emotion and freedom and power and all this, it’s something I really look up to when I’m playing also the marimba, this power of the saxophone you know. I switch a bit of overdrive in my marimba so I can get…, it’s not really distracting but yes, you have some more punch. And also McCoy Tyner, also for the power, the energy. I think in the artists that I like, I like the power and the energy. I think this is the thing I like the most. McCoy Tyner, also Carlos Santana because since I was a kid I listened a lot to Carlos Santana in my father’s car, he had his records there. And this kind of stuck with me and yeah. It’s something I like.

Yeah, those are great influences man. You cannot be wrong with those influences. What do you think…, I’m just curious about this. In case you know them, what do you think about this young vibe players like Joel Ross, Lewis Wright, Simon Moullier…, what do you think about these guys? Do you know them at all?

Yeah, yeah, I know them. I know Joel Ross. He was here in Ibiza, and we made kind of a lesson you know. It was not a lesson, but we were just you know we were talking about some things and giving some advice and man, that was really helpful for me, because I was just starting on the vibraphone like seriously. And that was really a very nice lesson from him. I got to know very basic concepts. He didn’t say much, but the things he said were incredible. And as a player yeah I like him. When I was starting, for me Joel Ross was a very nice, like inspiration, because when you’re starting something you need to have an inspiration. Not right now, because when you find another inspirations you know, you find another styles and all these things, you kind of grow up with your instrument, with your music, you don’t need an inspiration. But when you’re starting it’s important to have… You know, this guy made it on the vibraphone, on this music so why not me? So, let’s start. And this gives you hope and he’s a nice friend. I like him.

That’s cool. So, what do you play more, marimba or vibraphone, or both in the same, you know, quantity?

No, I play like maybe 90-95% marimba more than vibraphone.

What are your thoughts about both instruments? Like, what are the differences? What are the, I mean, I guess the obvious differences, we all know them, but in terms of interpretation and performance, how do you find yourself, like, in different contexts with each instrument?

Well, I think the vibraphone is more of a jazz instrument, you know, I think it’s more rooted in jazz, and the marimba can be more, can fit more in world music -jazz, but also jazz thing. Which is something which I’m doing. Also, since I play four mallets, the marimba, I think, has a sweeter and, you know, more, it’s a better tone for playing in four mallets. I think, if you play four mallets in vibraphone, you really have to know what you’re doing, because a lot of the voices, it can get very mushy and not…, and all this. Gary Burton did it well, but, you know, it’s something you have to figure out, and for me, the marimba was the thing, because voices are killed in, kind of, in a time of seconds, so, yeah, I think the marimba is the instrument that fit my kind of playing, my music, and my vision of the music well, so, yeah. I think, also, as I play the electric version one, which is MIDI, it’s very different from the acoustic, so I had to, you know, find a new way to play. I think, also, not that also the marimba has a better sound to it, and for the vibraphone, they still haven’t figured out how to put it in there, but, yeah, also, yeah, I think the marimba is the one, the better one for my music.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s a nice one. That’s cool. That’s cool. I’m really hoping, looking forward to hearing your live, man. So, going back to the first thing you were saying before, what are you… Oops, I think it got chunked. Can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah, I hear you.

Okay. So, what are the, what aspects, what concepts, what are you practicing right now? What’s your routine? Now that you’re finding more time and space to practice on your own?

It’s interesting to just… So, my practice routine tends to be, you know, I kind of flow around an order sometimes. But, what I’m practicing now for the instruments, is obviously mostly marimba, but some weeks ago, I took drums again, just, you know, play some music. I don’t… you know, I’m not a drummer, I don’t need to be a drummer. So, I’m not focusing on technique and anything like this. But I, you know, just play for fun, the music I like, you know. And this is good for the rhythm. I think it’s good for any player to learn some drums and, you know, keep up the groove and all this. Then I play also piano as a secondary instrument. So, I’m also playing piano. And, for the marimba, what I’m doing for practice, as I said, I have some kind of order, if you want to call it that way, or whatever you want to call it. I make some technique with a really nice book, it’s Thesaurus of Scales and Patterns by Slonimsky. It’s a book that… It’s used by John Coltrane, Frank Zappa and Joachim Khün recommended to me, like, a lot of years ago. So, I went on with it and it’s really helpful. I play those scales and patterns, you know, with all kinds of ways, you know, with both hands, with one hand, with the left hand, alternating with the mallets, playing with chords. It’s also harmonizing the scales, all kinds. And with rhythm, playing on top of a rhythm. I put a track of some desert musicians I have from Morocco and they are keeping up the rhythm and I [sings the rhythm], you know, I think it is good for the rhythm. And then also I play, you know, maybe this goes on for half an hour or… 40 minutes. This, I do a page, one page, and then I go on with some classical for also 30 minutes of classical, 40. What I play the most is, for example, Bartok. I play the Microcosmos.

Oh, yeah.

The Microcosmos books or…, yesterday I was playing some Mozart sonatas and they were very fun to play over. You know, I play with over piano track. I reproduce the piano track and I play the marimba on top, the leading voice, or sometimes also the chords. But it’s nice, like playing a duo, like if you got together with a piano player and you say “let’s play a sonata and you play the first part and he does that too”, it’s fun to do and it’s good, you know, to be in touch with the art of composers. And classical music and several inspirations. For example, Bartok was a huge inspiration for me as he delves into folk from Hungary and Romania and I’m into the folk of Ibiza. There are some things which can be, you know, featured along, so I like to get inspiration from the classical. And then also what I’m doing is play with an album or a live concert recording, one each day. So, this…, maybe I play with a live concert of John Coltrane, or of Pharoah Sanders or wherever. It can be whatever you like, even a concert of The Doors, even a concert of Santana, even whatever you feel like playing. I play, you know, there’s in YouTube a lot of concerts, concerts in this city, and this goes for one hour and a half. You play the whole set, you know, concentrated like a concert. So there’s the bass solo, you sit down, you listen to the bass solo, the drum solo, you listen, maybe you play along with the drum solo, there is no rules, but you play like it was a concert, you know, and it’s a very good exercise. Because if you don’t know the music, you have to, you know, learn the learning in the way, it’s a good exercise for this. And yeah, there are some new ideas each time. So, as I said, I kind of flow. So, every day there are some new ideas. There are no rules, yeah, actually.

Man, that’s super interesting. Thank you for handing out your approach to practice sessions. And I can see in your eyes and in how you express all this stuff that that you’re real, you’re a real artist. As you said, you flow and you like what you do, and you don’t really care about, you know, the laws or the, you know, the different like norms of music and stuff. You just…

Well, yeah, feeling, feeling comes first, I think, you know, if it feels good, if you like it, if…, that’s the first thing, you know.

Amazing. I’d like to…, it has to do with this last question and then I’ll give you the last question of all and that would be it. But do you do you get any time to compose these days? Are you, are you also integrating a little bit of…, a little time into your practice sessions to compose or is that something that just comes and you record some voice memo or you write down the idea or whatever, and you just leave it there until it pops out again?

You know, this summer has been busy, as I said in the beginning, so I really don’t have a lot, a lot of time for composing. But, you know, since I found the time to practice more, I’ve been composing new stuff and things I like. You know, I like composing. It’s super important and I think one should find the time to compose at least one tune every day. It’s something I learned from Joachim because I have a funny story. I will tell right now. About Ornette Coleman and his way of composing. Yeah, I think one should compose one tune every day. It doesn’t have to be short, it can be…, it can be short you know, it can be a little melody, only eight bars, four bars, ten…, well whatever you like. And if it can be about your life, about your experience, your stuff, best. Because then you will be passionate about that composition. It doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to feel forced, like “I have to compose” and that’s it. No, it should feel like “yeah, just write this idea and develop it and write something that means for you”. So, yeah I’ve been composing, but I will get into it, you know. And yeah, what I learned from Joachim and what he learned about Ornette, he played with him for years, is that Ornette Coleman, well they played like 17 concerts together, over 10 years and for each concert Ornette Coleman composed 10 new songs and then he didn’t play them again in their life.

Oh, wow!

So, in 10 years he wrote 170 songs, only for these concerts and they are amazing tunes, like they are like standards, you know it’s different from any kind of standard but they are super nice melodies man. And this is what I learned from them, you know, just write.

Yeah, that’s amazing it’s real…, it makes me happy man. You think about all these great guys and also to feel that you’re going through that path too, which yeah makes me proud of my generation too. It’s great, it’s great. So, last question man, I’m really curious about knowing what is the purpose…, what the purpose is behind your artistry, behind your music? Like, is there any purpose any yeah concrete purpose? Or it’s just flowing and feeling? I mean it could be anything, but I was just curious. If you’re searching something, if you’re looking for something, if you’re yeah…, if there’s some depth into it or you know, just what’s the purpose behind your music?

Well as I started playing concerts with my own bands, I realized that with my music I want to…, well if I play a concert obviously, for the people in the public, I want to you know, like show what will inspire them, to see what a person you know, filled with passion and motivation can do, you know. I just want to inspire people to do the thing they like the most and the thing that inspires them as I’m doing, on the stage, in the concert, you know. I’m playing there, you know I’m very into it, and really moving and you know really feeling the music. So, I found that people in the concerts are very inspired by them. And, you know, just inspire joy and good feelings, positive feelings into people. And, yeah. So the way of the music goes is not…, it’s not a very complicated music actually. It’s very rooted in traditional musics from Ibiza, from Morocco…, I’m talking about the Odyssey for example, or my compositions. Is music that is rooted in traditions of Ibiza, Morocco, so the melodies tend to be very very simple, and so are the grooves, very simple. But then the solo gets, you know, different.

Okay!

Then, there’s where the thing happens, right. And, yeah as the music is simple, also it is kind of a message for the people. Like, life should be simple and then you have to flow with it and do what you like, and the solos maybe, if I get complicated in the solo, then life also can get complicated, but then you resolve into simple things you know. I want to also tell human things when I’m soloing, like human experience. That’s I think, one of the reasons I was never into Bebop lines and all this stuff. Because I think the greatest Bebop players are really good but, you know, it’s a way of playing, it’s only a kind of way, it’s okay, but there are more ways to play jazz, or to play music, or to play a solo, than Bebop lines and traditional jazz lines. You can also play, you know, screaming on the instrument, and then play some kind of melody and then, you know, tell human experiences in the instrument. Play life.

Yeah, definitely man that’s…, that’s beautiful. Would you say then that the live context, or playing live is something that casts your music better than the recording process of, you know, being in the studio?

Well I just…, I just released one album and it was even a live concert, so…

Yeah, in Poland, right?

Yeah, yeah. So, in the studio I really have been only one time recording Baldo Martínez album

Oh yeah, I got…, sorry man but I got to interview him…

Yeah!

He was man, he was talking about you so proud and you know, admiring your musicianship and your, you know, the, yeah, your concept and all your artistry. So…

Yeah, he’s a very nice friend. And, yeah I was in the studio with him in Madrid with the group, recording his album. It was the first time I was you know professionally recording an album. And it really changed my mind about how I saw the studio and how is it to record an album, you know. I think it has to be relaxed, you know, you don’t have to move. So, you just have to play music for the people to listen in the CD. So, it’s different from a live concert. It’s very different. So, well I think the live…, obviously is…, live concerts can be interesting because you know, the instrument I play is very visual and even more…, I kind of move a lot in the concerts and I interact a lot with the musicians. For example, with my group Odyssey, Ramón maybe, even sometimes he’s screaming or he’s you know doing some stuff or I give some signals…, so it tends to be very active and visual. For the studio, we’ll have to see when we go to the studio, we’ll see what comes out and what can happen.

Definitely, man. Well man I’m really thankful for having had this opportunity, hearing about you and hearing all your approach to music and your energy and your kindness. So, thank you so much. I hope we get to meet each other again soon in real person, in real life. You’re talking to a passionate drummer, so yeah so it’d be awesome to get to know each other also in a musical context.

Yeah!

And I encourage you to keep going man. It’s amazing to hear about you and to hear your music. I was before the interview, I was listening to your record again and I’m always…, yeah my mind was blown man. Again I was like…, this shit is amazing man, this is…, this is real shit. So, so man keep going. It’s awesome to have people like you and in Spain and our generation and you know pushing the edge and pushing forward. It makes me proud man, really. So, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity of staying with us, in In&Out magazine and In&OutJazz. And, yeah we’ll…, at some time we’ll post some… we’ll put out some posts about you if that’s fine, and…

Yes!

Yeah man we’ll just keep going, and flowing man and enjoying life together.

Oh yeah, thank you. I’m happy to represent this generation and be like, I don’t know maybe someday an inspiration to someone who is young and needs for the start, someone. to see that it’s possible, right? And, just, that it’s possible to go along with music. And, yeah happy to talk with you man. Happy to talk with you.

It’s been a real pleasure man. I send hugs from Spain and…, I mean from Madrid, and keep going with all your practice and all your music man. It’s amazing!

Thank you!

Yeah, we’ll see each other soon, for sure man.

Yes, hopefully, hope so.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bye, man.

November 25, 2024

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