Mauricio Zottarelli – Modern Drummer Magazine – Brazil – June 2009 - page 1

English Translation – Mauricio Zottarelli Traveling Around the World with great international musicians By Vlad Rocha “Mauricio Zottarelli comes from Rio Claro – SP; he graduated from Berklee College of Music, where he was a scholarship student; he has been living in the U.S. since 1999 and nowadays he is playing with pianist/keyboardist Hiromi. And now, the interview with this great drummer that takes the quality of Brazilian music to the world.” MD: Tell us the people you have played with and with whom you are playing now. Mauricio Zottarelli: Since I graduated in music in 2002, I have played with many Brazilian music artists, and also people/groups from the fusion, latin and pop/rock scenes. Nowadays I am touring worldwide with pianist Hiromi, but I also play regularly with Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Dom Salvador, Prasanna, Nilson Matta, Cláudio Roditi, Gustavo Assis Brasil, Marc Rossi Group, Jovino Santos Neto, Cidinho Teixeira, Oriente Lopez, among others. I have also performed with Rosa Passos, Esperanza Spalding, Toninho Horta, Tim Ries, among others.

MD: How was your training as a drummer? What did you value most in your studies? Mauricio Zottarelli: I started to play drums when I was 14. I believe the idea of playing drums was already in me since I was little, when I was playing with my mom’s pans and kitchen stuff, drumming on the couch or whatever else I could get a nice sound from. My Dad is also a musician, so sometimes I would accompany him playing bongos. One day, an opportunity to play full drumset came up, during a music festival in my school. I didn’t think twice. During the rehearsal for the show I used a keyboard and played the drum sounds with my fingers, since I didn’t have a drumset. On the day of the show, I finally played on a full kit, borrowed from a friend

“Modern Drummer Magazine”, BRAZIL Cover feature –June, 2009

Mauricio Zottarelli – Modern Drummer Magazine – Brazil – June 2009 - page 2

- for the first time, and it was very cool! I decided to take the video from the show to my Dad, and on the day after that he took me to a music store to buy my first kit. When I completed 19 years-old I started taking lessons and decided to study the instrument more seriously. On the beginning I studied a lot of reading, rhythmic ear training and I did a lot of playing with a metronome - for many hours each time, playing anything that came to my head – I always liked to do that. I also love to choose certain grooves and play them for a long time, exploring different dynamics, orchestrations around the kit, different tempos. A few years later I started to study the book “A New Breed”, by Gary Chester, and that book changed my life. Gary’s method opened the doors to the possibility of studying multiple things at once, in the same exercise. His “systems” group together the study of groove, reading, coordination, breathing and posture on the kit, our inner-clock, and more - with all that stuff happening simultaneously. That was incredible for me, and to this day this book is my major source of inspiration to study, and to develop new ideas. Early on I noticed that even though I love to play and I am always trying to improve, I couldn’t keep up with a very strict individual practicing routine, mainly because what I really like is to play and interact with other people. Therefore, what I always valued most (and even nowadays I try as hard as I can) is to try to play with other musicians as much as possible. Obviously, we always have stuff to practice by ourselves: technique, coordination, etc; but according to my point of view, and following my concept and personal goals, the best way to grow musically is to search for new experiences together with other musicians – and preferably, on a live situation!

MD: You are lefty, but you set up your kit as a right-handed player. How did you decide to apply this idea, and how does this help in your approach to the instrument? Mauricio Zottarelli: setting up as a right-handed player happen pretty much by accident. On that first show I did in my school, which I commented on earlier, there were other bands playing, and I couldn’t change the drum kit completely because we didn’t have much time in between acts. But I think that the idea to switch everything to a “lefty” kit didn’t even occurred to me at that point, because that was really my first time playing full kit, and I didn’t know any better. I changed the Ride cymbal to my left side, and that was it. I remember having some problems in the beginning with the coordination on my right foot on the bass drum, but I was able to play the basic stuff fairly quickly. After a little while, everything became very natural to me. One of the first drummers I saw, and I was very impressed with, was Simon Phillips – and I always loved his playing, and the fact that he plays “open” too. That stimulated me to continue playing that way and explore it further. When you don’t cross your hands when you play (left hand on the HH, and right hand on the snare) you have innumerous possibilities of HH or Ride patterns combined with the right hand playing floor tom, rack tons and/or snare – which could be very difficult to play otherwise. This approach contributed a lot to me and still helps me on my search for a unique sound. One disadvantage comes up when I have to read specific/complete drum parts - charts with all the grooves and fills written out for the drummer. The composers and arrangers have no way of knowing that I am lefty, and if I switch the positioning of the drum kit or not. Depending on the groove or fill that was written, sometimes I have to change and/or “adapt” the hand combination in order to properly execute that phrase. In some cases, that situation ends up “forcing” our weakest hand, and something that would normally be simple to play becomes very frustrating! But, with enough practicing and a little patience, everything starts to become easier, and the reward is extremely gratifying!

MD: How did you end up going to music school in the U.S.? Mauricio Zottarelli: During the years 1998-1999 I was studying with Alaor Neves in São Paulo, and he told me about the auditions that Berklee was doing in that city. Alaor helped me prepare for the test, and was very enthusiastic about it: he encouraged me to try to do something unique on the audition. My family was also very supportive. I decided to write a song and sequence everything myself, and I end up bringing a play-along CD with me to the test. It was a tremendous experience! The Berklee teachers there liked my performance very much and gave me the scholarship to the complete program. I moved to Boston in May of 1999, to enroll on the 4 year program. I was able to finish everything up in 3 years, and I have been living in the U.S. ever since. Nowadays, I am residing in New York.

Mauricio Zottarelli – Modern Drummer Magazine – Brazil – June 2009 - page 3

MD: Can you analyze your musical progress from when you left Brazil to the moment you

graduated at Berklee? Mauricio Zottarelli: I grew up in the “interior” of the state of São Paulo (meaning I never lived in a “big city” before). I think that because of this fact, some influences I had – be it cultural, musical and social – made me the way I am now, and made me think and act a certain way too. I was always very dedicated to music and to study, because I knew I would have to “face the big city” one day, and I wanted to be as prepared as I could be. Also, I had a very strong interest in jazz, fusion, blues, rock, funk – so the decision to move to the U.S. made a lot of sense to me. But something caught me completely off-guard here – the contact with Brazilian music. Even during my first semester at Berklee I noticed that everybody loved contemporary Brazilian music (both the MPB “popular Brazilian music” and instrumental music). Up to that point I didn’t know much about it at all, and that was a tremendous discovery, and a slap in the face too! That was a big help for me on my effort to develop my style of playing, and also on the way I appreciate music. I started to learn our things (speaking of Brazilian stuff), our music, and I would try to absorb as much as possible on my trips to Brazil. Berklee is a place that can be very tough and demanding. The curriculum pretty much obligates the student to study harmony, ear training and theory very deeply. Besides all that, I decided to take courses in arranging, film scoring and composition. All these subjects helped me “open” my head to this other side of music I didn’t know very well and changed my understanding of drumming. The fact that I was in another country, away from everything and everyone, also helped me to keep the focus and discipline. I believe these three years of college were the hardest and more intense years in terms of studying, self-discovery, development, happiness, growth, frustration, a deep longing for my family, my weekly existential crisis – but as a reward, I gained all this experience.

MD: When you graduated from Berklee, what were your biggest challenges? Have you ever though about coming back to Brazil? Mauricio Zottarelli: I was seriously considering going back to Brazil, but I already had some projects taking shape in the U.S. I decided to wait for another year, since Berklee offered this extra year as a “practical training” period to foreign students. During that year I started to perform regularly in the Boston area, playing any gigs I could get… any type of music, just to get more experience, and also to pay the bills! After that year, my “home sickness” became even bigger, but it was tough to think about going back and starting everything over again. In some weeks, I would play 7-8 gigs with 5 different projects, all musically different from each other! Today I see that this crazy schedule of working non-stop (even if a particular gig would not satisfy me musically) opened my eyes to the main requirements for a successful professional in our field, in my opinion: dedication, respect, and unconditional love towards what we do. I always try to maintain my focus, even on the toughest times – where do I want to go musically, and what do I want to be. Therefore, after four years of my graduation, I was restless again, and I felt it was time to move to a different place in order to search for new experiences, and to keep growing professionally. Obviously, Brazil was the logical choice, even though it meant starting everything from scratch. I decided to stop by New York for a bit, because I already had friends there, and I was fairly close by anyways. I found a very different scene in New York compared to what I was used to, extremely active 24/7, very competitive, and with hard access to new “out of town” musicians. In order to live in a place like this, one has to have a lot of willpower, dedication and, above all, patience for things to take their places naturally.

MD: Tell us about your work with the pianist Hiromi. Mauricio Zottarelli: Working with Hiromi is a dream come true experience for me! We met long ago at Berklee – we arrived there at the same time. I started to play with her officially since January of 2009, and this has been one of the coolest things I have ever done. Her music is extremely difficult, and it requires a lot of concentration and technical strength on the drum set. Her compositions blend straight-ahead jazz, fusion, rock, funk, Latin music, crazy odd meters and metric modulations – and everything is played with a lot of energy and dynamics. Hiromi is also the ultimate perfectionist. After the shows we always talk about what needs to be fixed/changed, where we need to concentrate more, as well as new ideas for grooves, solos, etc.

Mauricio Zottarelli – Modern Drummer Magazine – Brazil – June 2009 - page 4

Playing with her and the gang – bass player Tony Grey, guitarist and vocalist John Shannon, and guitarist Dave Fiuczynski (from the Screaming Headless Torsos) has been a fantastic experience.

MD: How is your daily routine? Mauricio Zottarelli: I believe it is not very different from other musicians. I am always thinking about music – sometimes it’s about a groove I just heard, something I played the night before, a new composition that is taking shape, and/or new ideas to practice. I try to divide my days in several parts, so I can do the necessary daily things but still have time to do the musical stuff. I try to leave an hour, maybe two, for practicing. When I have more free time, I try to go over something brand-new, and I try to play it and absorb it as much as possible. I also try to save some time to write music, which is something I always liked to do.

MD: Talk about your new projects. Mauricio Zottarelli: My main objective for the future is to work with my own group. I just released my first solo record, called “7 Lives”. The album has several of my own compositions on it, and also one song from each of the three pianists on the record. The music is an organic mixture of Brazilian music, jazz and fusion. I was privileged enough to have the participation of these incredible musicians: Dom Salvador, Cidinho Teixeira, Esperanza Spalding, Gustavo Assis Brasil, Rodrigo Ursaia, Itaiguara Brandão, Brandi Disterheft, Milene Corso and Oriente Lopez. Dave Darlington, who won a Grammy a few years ago mixing a disc by Wayne Shorter, mixed the album. Dave was also involved on Sting’s new project, but somehow found time to fit me in his crazy schedule. I couldn’t be happier with the result! Of course, besides my own project I want to continue working with many artists and projects. I recently worked with the incredible Indian guitarist Prasanna. His music is a blend of Classical Carnatic Music (from the south of India) with jazz,rock and fusion. I am also in the planning stages for another record with the guitarist Gustavo Assis Brasil (the first one was released in 2003, with the name “Dig trio”). I am also already starting to write some material for a new record, with some possible recording dates scheduled for later this year on next year.

MD: What can you say to people that want to live as a musician in the U.S.? Mauricio Zottarelli: Living as a fulltime musician is no easy task, and it doesn’t really matter where we live. To whoever wants to have a career in music, I would recommend a lot of dedication; be serious about what you do, and love it profoundly! I believe there is enough room for everybody and innumerous possibilities in the musical world, be it in the USA or in Brazil. Depending on the person’s attitude towards them, these opportunities will clearly present themselves or not. We need to be mentally and spiritually “ready” for when a good opportunity does come up. Another important detail for me: we have to respect the culture (musical and otherwise) and the place where we live. If somebody decides to live and have a career in music in the U.S., I think it is imperative that this person speaks fluent English, and that he/she respects and tries to understand the country and its culture for what they are. When we do that, we will be continually growing as individuals and opening our range of possibilities and experiences, instead of restricting our musical activity, and also ourselves.