Page 28 - SPIRE Apr-Jun 2022 2nd Issue DIGITAL

the audience. This is the music that sends the most powerful We have so many teachers in our lives. Who especially inspired
message and can certainly heal people. you? What qualities did they have that you admired?
CARLOS ODRIA LATIN JAZZ TRIO Who inspires you? Yes, my first guitar instructor, Pepe Torres, who taught me to
Peruvian-born guitarist Carlos Odria has been described as a “breathtakingly My immediate family, my wife and daughters, are the most vital appreciate the beauty of Peruvian traditional music and the
talented musician…with an immense technical skill” (Worcester Telegram) and as a part of my creative life. They nourish all the love and hope I want superb literature written for the classical guitar. I started
“guitar wizard” (Gamble Rogers Fest). His original compositions and arrangements of to pour into my music. They give me the strength to keep studying with Pepe when I was thirteen back in Peru. He
jazz standards and Latin American tunes deliver an exciting blend of international practicing, learning, and performing with an open heart. Being an introduced me to the technical aspects of playing the instrument
styles such as bossanova, Afro-Peruvian festejo, rumba flamenca, and Afro-Caribbean artist is not always a glamorous endeavor. There are always ups but also instilled in me a passion for Latin American folk music.
vibes with an improvisational approach inspired by the rich tradition of American and downs and through my life I had fought constantly to achieve Also, Leo Welsh, my college mentor. He is not only a classical and
jazz. He holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Florida State University, where he also a sense of stability. My family has helped me to find this balance jazz guitarist, but a published author and educator who taught me
obtained a Certificate in Music of the Americas. He studied classical and Latin between sensibility, empathy, and discipline, which have been how to arrange music for the guitar and how to incorporate jazz
American folk guitar with acclaimed Peruvian guitarist Pepe Torres. Later on, he very important in my professional career. My family has taught theory into my improvisations. Most of the music I play today
pursued advanced jazz studies with Richie Zellon, jazz guitar arranging with Leo me how to become a better version of myself and I believe this builds from the legacy of these two wonderful people.
Welch, and Venezuelan cuatro at the Jose Luis Paz Conservatory in Maracaibo, has improved my ability to communicate a clear message through
Venezuela. music. What is your process for helping your students connect to their
own musicality? As a teacher, how are you sharing your gift with
My second biggest inspiration is the wonderful music composed the next generation?
QUESTIONS WITH space where they can connect with their own emotional realities. creativity in the world! This music has accompanied me through As a teacher, I build from my own past experiences. Even today, I
or recorded by my favorite artists. There is so much talent and
I aspire to use my music to create empathy and sensibility. I find
continue to feel like a freshmen student and I put lots of
the hardest moments, giving me encouragement, joy, and
this to be my own personal way to open people’s hearts so that
importance on the learning process itself. Since I am not a quick
pleasure.
they can connect with themselves and with others in a profound
manner. learner (actually, as a musician I am a late bloomer), I know the
value of persistence and patience. It took me years of continuous
Could you describe your creative process when you write new practicing and studying in order to feel confident about my music.
music and how you incorporate different worldly influences? Because of this experience, I want to pass on to my students the
importance of developing patience and persistency as the
When I write music and improvise, I try to build from an stepping stone to accomplish real progress.
CARLOS ODRIA exploration of my own emotions and memories. I feel that my
music aims to be a vehicle for expressing my life experiences and Furthermore, in my current teaching position at Worcester State
In your paper for Improvising Transcendence for Health and the sensations and moods that accompany my memories. This is University, I want to awaken in my students the passion to
Healing: A Literature Review and Pilot Study, you talk about the why I tend to see my music as a “land of memories” (this is actually innovate by developing new music out of experimentation. I
healing capabilities of music. How do you use music as vehicle to a tentative name for a future album!). Moreover, when I believe that the best modern-day music is the product of unusual
health and healing? combinations involving the blending of dissimilar cultural
improvise, I make a conscious effort to avoid too much analytical
One of the beauties of my work as a musician is that through the thinking or to focus excessively on the technical aspects of traditions. For this reason, I ask my students to open their minds
years, I have been fortunate enough to perform for a wide variety playing my instrument. Even though I pay an important value to to new ways of expressing their sensibilities and creative visions
of audiences. From concert halls and festivals, to schools, practicing and to the craft of music, I think it is very important to by combining rhythms, harmonies, and melodies from different
hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters, senior centers, therapy avoid limiting my creative freedom by placing an emphasis on the genres of music. This is the approach I have followed myself and I
sessions, even Covid-vaccination clinics, in all these contexts I details of the process. This, however, is very hard! The brain is believe it can become an endless source of inspiration.
have witnessed the positive reactions that music can bring to always working, trying to direct things and produce neat results…
people. Audiences smile, tap their feet, dance, enjoy themselves but art is not supposed to be neat and perfect but human and real.
as a response to the energy of music. But it is not only joy and I know that the best music I have played in my life came to be as a CARLOS ODRIA LATIN JAZZ TRIO
good times that music instills in people. There is plenty of serious result of me suspending my own judgment. This is what many jazz THU, MAY 05 I 7:30PM
scientific research carried out in the last decades that show very musicians call “be in the zone.” When you are in the zone, your $15
clearly how certain types of music can help people resolve human experience flows spontaneously in the form of pure sonic
emotional, physical, and cognitive problems. With my own music, expression, you and your instrument become vessels of WWW.CARLOSODRIA.COM
I focus on the social and emotional aspects of the listener. I want something larger and perhaps impossible to define. And this is the
to shape the listeners’ experiences by providing an inviting sonic type of music that always sound magical and connects better with
2 6 | T H E S P I R E C E N T E R M A G A Z I N E T H E S P I R E C E N T E R M A G A Z I N E | 2 7