Check Out Eduardo Del Signore’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eduardo Del Signore.

Hi Eduardo, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I was born in Montevideo, Uruguay at a neighborhood highly influenced by Afro-Uruguayan traditions and the strong presence of Candombe, a rhythm that defined for me the “Call from Music to Music”, the “Llamadas”.

I listened to Candombe drummers perform in the streets late during summer nights and randomly on holidays and Sunday afternoons all year long.  The polyrhythmic nature of Candombe marked my approach to music from the beginning of my journey.  Other influences appeared as I was growing up with my grandmother Luisa listening to Tango on a little radio in the kitchen while she was preparing food for the family.

Things took a turn for me when the Beatles started to be present in radio airwaves. The first vinyl LP I ever bought was “Abbey Road”.  I didn’t have a turntable, but would walk every afternoon to my cousin Susy’s home to listen to the album in her stereo system.  Later I started to listen to Yes, Jazz, Fusion, and Music from different parts of the planet.  Music by Beethoven, Debussy, Satie, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and other incredibly beautiful composers from different times and places, became a home to my dreams and aspirations, including all the colors of the music I listened to from the beginning.  Looking back, something akin to a blossoming that will only end when I give back my last breath.

When I was 18 years old, my country fell under a military dictatorship that obviously affected the lives of everyone.  Nevertheless, Music has always been a beacon for me through good bad, happy and sad.

In 1977, I met Michel Link, a French adventurer who owned the “Parergon 3″, a 62” sailing boat of classic construction, who was traveling with a wonderful guy from Senegal, Babacar Sené.

They’ve crossed the Atlantic from Senegal, to Cape Verde Islands, to Brazil, in a journey of remarkable of courage.  They anchored in Uruguay on their way South to Buenos Aires, where they had plans to buy a new set of sails for the boat.  During their stay, they met with one of the band members of Karma (José Luis Pérez, Pito Varela, “Pato” Rovés, Pippo Spera and myself), a group that was performing a series of concerts in Montevideo.  He invited them to our last concert and we all became friends right away.  Michel invited the band to join him and Babá on their adventure, bringing together music and sailing.  From the five Karma musicians, three of us accepted the invitation and took off heading North towards Brazil and made it to “Ilha Grande”, a big island located South of Rio de Janeiro. We anchored at “Enseada Das Estrelas” a natural harbor/bay with its underwater floor covered with starfish of different sizes and colors.  We stayed there living from fishing and foraging expeditions into the island to gather tropical fruits.  During that time we met many other sailing adventurers who were traveling and living in the same fashion, incredibly amazing people with a very unique view of life and the World.

Later on we sailed North, arriving at Rio’s Guanabara Bay on October 12th 1977.  On October 19th, Chico Rodrigues, a poet friend who had been in exile in Uruguay during the time of the Brazilian military dictatorship, brought with him to our boat Brazilian singer and composer Milton Nascimento who was very curious about a group of Latin American Musicians living in a sailing boat and we played a wonderful “floating concert” for him and his friends.

A week after his visit, he invited us to his home to celebrate his birthday on October 26th.  Surprisingly we were his only guests that day, and we ended up cooking, sharing the table and playing music for him and vice-versa for most of the afternoon.  That evening he played for us the album “Native Dancer”, a collaboration with Wayne Shorter, which completely blew me away and opened the doors to appreciate the beginning of a new chapter of music in my life.

Milton invited us to record on his double LP “Clube da Esquina 2”, an invitation that changed our lives forever.  Following that event, we started receiving invitations to perform at College Venues around Brazil and to record and perform for Brazilian artists Geraldo Azevedo, Elba Ramalho, Amelinha, Fagner, Tulio Mourâo, etc.  We also recorded an independent production of our “Grupo Tacuabé” with participations from Milton, Geraldo, Elba and a wonderful group of Brazilian session players that hasn’t been released yet.

We sailed North to a place called Buzios, where we anchored the “Parergon 3” for several months. During our stay, I met someone who introduced me to the  message of Prem Rawat, an International Peace Ambassador, and best seller author (i.e. “Hear Yourself”, “Peace is Possible).  I received from Prem, the techniques of self-Knowledge, a way to go inside and enjoy the Peace that is inside my Heart.

On November 20th 1980 my son Alfonso was born, and I went back to Montevideo to be with him and his mother María.  Back in Uruguay, another musical chapter started as soon as I arrived, performing at a Jaime Roos concert in front of an audience of several thousands inside a sports arena, something that opened the doors for me to work with other Uruguayan artists.  My work with Uruguayan singer songwriter Eduardo Mateo is the highlight from that chapter, a landmark in my musical path of life.

In 1982, an opportunity appeared for me to travel to the USA to participate at a wonderful 3 days event with Prem in Miami, Florida, jump-starting the beginning of a new chapter.

Once in Miami, I communicated with Uruguayan guitarist Federico “Freddy” Ramos, who was settled in Los Angeles and suggested that I should come to California.  After the events I took a Greyhound bus from Miami to Los Angeles.  During the four days journey, I was exposed to discrimination and racism for the first time in my life somewhere at the so called “Red Neck Riviera” at a bus stop in a restaurant where servers and customers present at the establishment refused to talk or even look at me.  Years after I met people from the same area of the US, that are absolutely wonderful, something that allowed me not to generalize the hateful behavior of a few individuals.  I’d never forget going through the Arizona desert seeing a bunch of dancing “dirt devils” for the first time, followed by a heavy rain storm that almost brought the bus to a full stop.  When the rain stopped, a big rainbow showed itself over the mountains by the borderline with the State of California, which gave me a sense of being welcomed to this land, there was something beautiful on the other side of the storm.

During my first year in LA, I met my beloved music mentor Brazilian Maestro Moacir Santos and started performing a few concerts in small places around town.  A year later, life took me to Portland, Oregon where I came across a new musical chapter performing different styles of music and plays with different groups.  It was there that I met Wayne Shorter one afternoon outside of Key Largo, a club where he was going to perform that evening during the promotional tour of his solo album “Atlantis”.  I approached him and told him about our common friend Milton Nascimento, and we started enjoying a wonderful moment.  Wayne invited me to his concert and asked me to stay by the mixing board and to tell him if everything was sounding alright..!  After the concert, we went to hang out at his hotel and ended up talking the whole night, exchanging stories from our Brazilian adventures and some stories from his time working with Miles Davis.  I went back to Los Angeles to go to the Musicians Institute, where I met a bunch of incredible talented artists.  Percussionist Laudir De Oliveira was recording for the Windham Hill Records album “High Plateux”, a music work from “Rubaja & Hernandez”, produced by Mark Isham, that required someone who could play bass lines based on the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe rhythms and recommended me for the job.

I had the opportunity to work with Bernardo Rubaja, Cesar Hernandez, Mark Isham, Cesar Rojas, Alex Acuna, Gustavo Santaolalla and Stephen Krause.

In 1991 the group “Ritual” was formed with José Luis Pérez, Federico Ramos and myself to perform contemporary Uruguayan music, a union from which 3 music works were made (“Presencia”, “Ritual Live @ Teatro Solís” and “A New map of the World”).  This was followed by works with Jon Hassell, Jon Anderson (Yes), Dionne Warwick, Gabriel Lluch, Daya Rawat and many other incredibly beautiful and talented artists.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

My personal experience has been of dramatic contrasts between pure beauty and the ugliness of racism, with my car falling of a cliff in between.  I’ve been attacked physically twice and insulted many times because of looking different and/or talking with an accent.  But my suspicion is that the hate came from me being happy and in Peace regardless of the surrounding circumstances.  This is something that deeply frustrates those who have everything they need and more, but are still feeling miserable in their day to day, or perhaps those who have lost almost everything and can’t stand that someone they consider a second class citizen can pay rent every month and live with joy a decent and creative life.  I came across beautiful people as well, and we exchanged amazing experiences and shared the purest of divine moments.  This country has been a daily challenge, racism and financial discrimination are embedded in society.  In the other hand, being in the USA has allowed me to learn a lot about many areas of my work, things that perhaps I wouldn’t have access to somewhere else in the world.  After many albums, tours, productions, audio post-productions, live performances, lessons given and taken, I’ve founded a non-profit organization to help people and organizations in need of exposure as well as financial support through the “Avenue of Music” and the Arts in general.  The A Call 2Peace Foundation (www.acall2peace.org) was formed on February of 2019 and received 501(c)3 status on February 11th 2020.  We started many initiatives, including our Food Recovery Program that has recovered and distributed close to 4 million pounds of food to people in need affected in different ways by the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdown.  Also during 2019-2020 I received a Grammy nomination and two Independent Music Awards.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I’ve been creating music in the form of Suites that tell stories about individuals from different walks of life, skin color, beliefs and ages, in their pursuit of finding Peace in their lives.

In some cases, the story telling is about the human condition being the main factor governing the causes and consequences of climate change, which opened up collaborations with dedicated scientists sponsored by the ClimateMusic Project.

I created “Audyssey”, an 11:00 min. music work utilized in a video created by Italian Videographer Angelo Chiacchio, as platform to introduce a message about the options of becoming active part of the solution to the climate crisis or the option to keep going on in a business as usual mode, leaving things up to fate.

The scientists provided me with data from studies in changes of temperature, carbon dioxide re-absorption, and investment in reusable sources of energy from a period of time between the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to NOW, and with projections into 2050.  They created two sets of graphics to represent those options.  The graphics were transformed into numeric progressions, and those in turn were transformed via a special algorithm into musical notes.

I took their midi data of the notes and assigned sounds and tempos that worked well with the proposed musical adventure, incorporating them to “Audyssey”, creating passages of musical tension and release.  “Audyssey” had its private premiere presentation on 09/20/2022 year during the United Nations General Assembly Week in New York at an event organized by the World Economic Forum where I improvised with my bass standing between the big screen and an audience of CEO’s of some of the planet’s major corporations, dignitaries from different countries and UN representatives.  The purpose of the dinner/gala/concert was to inform all present representatives that if they didn’t start changing the ways of doing business, in a few years there’ll be no planet apt and able to make a profit from, and what was needed financially to accelerate a change towards a sustainable way of living that could heal the planet and ourselves.  It was successful by fulfilling the purpose of creating a very inspired atmosphere to help bringing the message to their hearts and minds in a clear and simple way.

I had the chance to communicate with the audience about the climate change in the “human condition” where we are being confronted with droughts of common sense, kindness and empathy.  On 10/11/2022, I was invited by the New York Times to perform at “Audyssey” public premiere” in San Francisco for an event named “Art & Tech in a Warming World” at the KQED studios.

As an epilogue, I represent in the USA, “Optima Strings Made in Germany”, the best strings for musical instruments in the whole world coated with 24K Gold (www.optima-strings.com)

How do you define success?

Awareness of the breath, a fulfilled heart and the feeling of gratitude for this amazing Gift of Life, plus my former students becoming artists with their own voices of the beauty of human expression.

There’s so much more to tell, maybe in a future book..!!!

Pricing:

• $9.00
• $90.00
• $900.00
• $9,000.00
• $90,000.00

Contact Info:

• E-mail:  [email protected]
• Website: www.acall2peace.org
• Instagram: @edudelsignore
• Facebook: Signore Music
• Linkedin: Eduardo Del Signore
• Twitter: #Ac2pFoundation
• Youtube: ac2p foundation
• Other: https://eduardodelsignore.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
World Economic Forum, Aldo Novick, Lizzie Bravo, Cafi.