Interview with guitarist Cheryl Rinovato. An interview by email in writing.
Dear readers, get to know more about our EU Jazz – Blues Festivals and the activities of our EU Jazz – Blues Association in the capitals of Europe, we will soon publish program for 2024, enjoy in the August – Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, new addreses this year, also in Amsterdam, Budapest.
JB: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?
Cheryl Rinovato: – I grew up in a small paper mill town and fell in love with music when I heard the Beatles in 1964. My taste varied from contemporary pop to southern blues/rock (Allman Brothers) to Jimi Hendrix, Tower of Power, Marvin Gaye and Burt Bacharach.
JB: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?
Being heavily exposed to jazz at Berklee, I fell in love with Robben Ford, Larry Carlton as well as Kenny Burrell and Return to Forever. I believe my sound is a mixture of R&B and jazz. I will always be a student, now studying with Jerry Cortez from Tower of Power.
OUR EU Jazz and Blues Festivals
JB: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?
CHR: – I continue to take lessons weekly and challenge myself to improve. I am a natural rhythm player and playing double stops and chordal harmonies adds to my knowledge as well as sound.
JB: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?
CHR: – I will say I have become a more well-rounded player over the years but I have always had my own style and approach to music. I was never one to copy any one else’s “licks” or solos. But having been exposed to music my entire life has made the evolution more natural for me.
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JB: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?
CHR: – Above all else, you must FEEL what you are performing (THAT’S the soul of music, no matter the style). The understanding of what you need to play is the LEAST important aspect, in my view. I can know what to play, but if I’m not FEELING the music, what I play is of little consequence.
JB: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?
CHR: – I also believe that in order to reach an audience, you have to be spiritually and emotionally ensconced in the music and the performance.
JB: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?
CHR: – Jazz, like all other genres, has evolved over time. I felt that shift when Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, George Benson, Larry Coryell, Robben Ford, Pat Metheny and many others came on the scene. Miles Davis is a perfect example of this shift when he recorded Bitches Brew. I think young musicians tend to listen to this type of progressive jazz fusion and then begin to understand the idiosyncrasies of the music and its’ roots in traditional jazz.
JB: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?
CHR: – For me personally, music has been my means of self-expression my entire life. My writing is clear evidence of this. I do believe that music is how I relate to this extremely complicated world and how I express what I am feeling spiritually and emotionally. As far as the meaning of life, I strongly believe I should use our short time here to elevate ourselves and others through music and emotion. I am a strong proponent of “paying forward” and paving the way for others so that they may find their own way.
JB: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?
CHR: – That music would become less of a commodity.
OUR EU Jazz and Blues Association
JB: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?
CHR: – Always Robben Ford, Jazz Crusaders, Joe Pass, Eric Gales, the late Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Aretha, Lettuce, Andy Timmons, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and always the original Allman Brothers.
JB: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?
CHR: – Back to the 60’s. That’s when music was really evolving. Hendrix, Beatles, Aretha, Allman Brothers, BS&T, Jerry Butler, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, 5th Dimension, Laura Nyro, Flock with Jerry Goodman on violin, Zepplin, the Band, Doobies, Todd Rundgren, Stylistics, Chilites, Temptations, Staple Singers, I could go on and on.
JB: – Do You like our questions? So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…
CHR: – Your questions are atypical in the sense that many interviews delve no deeper than “who are your influences”? Did the depth of your questions evolve over time?
JB: – We don’t have influences, we influence through our association, and of course the issues get deeper and deeper over time, but you hardly understand and appreciate it because you don’t communicate properly with the media.
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Interview by Elléa Beauchêne