It doesn't seem easy to navigate the world as a musician when your last name is as pretentious as Maestro.
The Israeli pianist and composer Shay Maestro actually likes this combination and sees only advantages in it.
"My last name raises a lot of questions," he says, "it starts with 'is that your real last name?', continues with 'your whole family are musicians?', and ends with 'that must be a name with a lot of commitment'. It's really funny me every time. And my answers: 'Only my sister and I are professional musicians, and it's really not a big commitment. I play because I love it.'
Where does this name come from?
"We are from Spain, and this has been our name for many years. I think I was lucky in this matter. Many musicians change their name to be remembered, like 'Madonna' or 'Sher', I was born that way. The name only helped me. You could say I also succeeded with God's help."
And he did succeed.
Maestro, only 35 years old, is considered one of the leading musicians in his field in the world and he often performs in the USA and Europe. He has been the leader of bands for more than a decade, released six albums, two of them on ECM, one of the most prestigious record companies in world jazz. His latest album released Last year, "Human", is a unique musical gem that was chosen by the British "Guardian" as one of the ten best jazz albums in the world for 2021. In addition, for the past two years he has been writing music for films, and will soon go on a tour of meetings in Los Angeles to to give the impetus to the new musical direction.
Due to the fact that two of his musicians live in New York and due to the corona virus, Maestro has never performed in Israel with his international quartet.
This evening (Tuesday) it will happen at the "Hagray" club in Tel Aviv.
Together with the maestro play the young and talented Israeli drummer Ofari Nehemiah, the Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder and the trumpeter Philippe Dizak.
Maestro started playing the piano at the age of five, when he tried to imitate on the keys sounds he heard in the forest near his home in Karemi Yosef.
"I tried to play the sounds of the forest: the highs were the rain, the middle of the piano was the animals running everywhere, and the lows were the thunder," Maestro recalled.
In high school he continued to Thelma Yellin and from there to Berklee College in Boston.
He received his first international recognition when he joined in 2006 the trio of Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen, together with drummer Mark Juliana.
After five years of performances, he set out on his own and founded his own trio.
The successful match
What made you leave Avishai's band and start your own band?
"It was with a lot of apprehensions, I already had a few songs that I had written and I decided to go for it. I was living in New York at the time. What's most beautiful about this city is that people want to play. People play at other musicians' houses all the time. At these meetings at my house in Brooklyn it happened. It It was just like a romantic relationship. You meet your partner in life, you talk and then you find out that you actually know each other, even though you've never met. And when we found it, we stuck with it."
Maestro and the piano.
"When the agenda was to be loved, I became miserable,"
Although jazz is considered the least popular musical genre, Maestro's music on digital media receives tens of millions of views.
The viewing figures make him very happy, but he attaches less importance to them than to the music itself.
"Success in the digital channels allows me to do what I love - and that is to get on stage and play," says Maestro.
What will you play at the concert?
"The audience that comes to our concerts goes on an adventure with us. We never have a song list. We just start playing and the music wants something different every night, so we are there to serve exactly that. I have amazing musicians with me, sensitive, intelligent, full of initiative, and among us A very big trust. This will be a conversation between four equal sides of one vehicle."
The key to humanity
What place does the audience occupy in your work?
"I went through a lot of processes with it and today I feel comfortable with it. At first I thought it was necessary to connect the audience to me, when the agenda behind it is for the audience to like me. It turned me into an unhappy, stressed person who builds his self-esteem on the opinions of others For example, if I release a CD that you don't like - it means that I'm not good. It's something unhealthy and I realized that I don't sleep well, I was stressed before going on stage, and then if the drummer played something that wasn't exactly in the arrangement, I wouldn't get upset but Disappointed in myself and the band. It's a sick relationship between an artist and his music."
"Everything changed at one of our shows in France. We played a song that I dedicated to my little sister, a section with a very clear musical framework. We started with a free improvisation with a great groove, and then in the process I hinted to the guys to go back to the song, but it came out different from what I planned. When we finished the producer in me was stressed, I was convinced that I had ruined the song. After the show, when we signed CDs, everyone mentioned this song in particular. It was a defining moment. I discovered that the audience responds to humanity, spontaneity and what happens to us on stage as human beings. It was a turning point that changed my career. I realized that instead To try to succeed, I will try to express humanity."
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