Jorge Calandrelli

JP: Your great grandfather wrote a dictionary of philology?

JC: Yes, that’s right. Philology, as you know, is the study of the origins of language and literature. My great-grandfather, an Italian gentleman who lived in Rome and studied at the Vatican, was an expert in ancient and modern languages. An outstanding scholar, he was hired by the Argentine government to teach in the University of Buenos Aires so he moved to Argentina in the 1870s. Later he wrote an amazing dictionary “Philological Dictionary of the Compared Languages” that he completed through the letter “N” before he died. It was a magnificent undertaking¯a great work of art.

JP: You obviously inherited his love of and facility with languages. You speak many languages, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian and French, and seem to be comfortable anywhere in the world.

JC: I have had the good fortune of being able, as a musician, to travel extensively. I have worked in Europe, Japan, China, (Taiwan) and almost all South America. I wouldn’t say I speak fluently anything but English and Spanish, but I certainly can defend myself in French, Italian, Portuguese, and even German.

JP: Did your parents support the idea of you becoming a musician?

JC: My mother always did, my father not at first. He and my grandfather were both medical doctors. I think my father thought I would be a doctor, maybe a lawyer, but once he accepted the fact that I wanted to be a professional musician, he encouraged me to study every aspect of the craft. He said, “If you are going to be a musician, you better study everything in music, from A to Z.”

JP: And your mother?

I always had incredible support from my mother. I lived with her for many years and she was the most adorable person I had in my life… I loved her dearly! My father, grandfather, and uncle all played instruments by ear. My mother had studied piano seriously and played frequently in our home. I remember her playing beautifully Debussy, Faure and Chopin since I was very young. She passed away a few years ago at the age of 94. I’ll always miss her.

JP: Tell us more about your father.

JC: My father loved music and was a brilliant chess player besides being a very good doctor. Every Saturday when my brother and I expected to receive our allowance, our father would make us sit and listen to acts of a Wagner opera with him. After what seemed to be forever, he would finally give us our allowance and we ran off to see a John Wayne movie or something like that… He probably did this because he was a little nervous that we loved jazz and he wanted us to be “cultured people”. As a result Wagner’s music was not my favorite for most of my life, although eventually I rediscovered him with a new appreciation!..

JP: How old were you when you began playing the piano?

JC: I was four. I played by ear and tried to play anything that I heard. Beginning at age 8, I had formal lessons and studied Czerny, Bach and Mozart. Of course, I played tangos, and being from Argentina, the music I heard as a child was incredibly diverse¯tango, samba, bossa nova, folkloric music, modern jazz and classical. I organized my brothers and sisters in a vocal quartet and we learned to sing “Dream” in four-part harmonies. My parents were proud of that and made us sing for company in our home. Later in my life I wrote a new arrangement of “Dream,” based on the one I had done when I was a teenager. Without knowing it, I wanted to be an arranger even then, I guess.

JP: As a teenager you were in a band?

JC: When I went to Europe I joined a band when I was 19. We played Brazilian music, bossa nova and jazz. Can you imagine, someone raised in the conservative society of Buenos Aires, having an opportunity to spend three years in Europe? We were in Germany for a year and played everywhere in the country. I knew Germany better than most Germans. We also played in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, Spain and Belgium. When we were playing in Switzerland, the music director of Radio Geneva, Tony D’adario, pushed me to do my first arrangements. I had started to study on my own, with Russell Garcia’s book “The Composer Arranger”. He coached me to do it and the moment I heard it (my first arrangement), I almost fell on the floor. It was absolutely the biggest thrill of my life. I realized at that moment that that’s what I really wanted to do!

JP. What did you do after that tour?

JC: At age 22, I went back to Argentina and formed my jazz trio. When I met Astor Piazzola, he heard my trio and encouraged me, like my father, to seriously study music. He was a superhero in Argentina at that time. He was a powerful performer and always had the best musicians. We were playing in the club “676” and he was the headliner, with his fantastic quintet. He said, “Jorge, I like those harmonies, they are very good. But you should study seriously and become a real musici - By Jeannie Pool