Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Angel Navarro.
Jose Angel, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Using his technical expertise in the guitar, Mr. Jose Angel Navarro has been able to bring to the concert halls throughout the world the sounds and the concepts of Afro-Cuban music. His compositions on the Afro concept have been honored and celebrated by the masters of the instrument as being a total innovation in the sense of conceptual sonority and sound as a patrimony inside the composition for the guitar of Latin America. His personally developed technique is acclaimed by top musicians worldwide as unique in the world. Included in this technique, is his ability to imitate the sounds of the traditional ceremonial drums on the guitar strings by applying a left-handed muffled harmonic with simultaneous played notes. While he is classified by the guitar world as being one of the fastest guitar players in the world, he has an ability to make his hands seem to be at a standstill.
One can appreciate the brilliance of his speed and technique in all of his music whether he plays Classical, Flamenco, Jazz, Fusion, or New Age. In his artistic career, he has participated as Master in 18 Guitar International Festivals. Internationally he has shared the stage with, and in many occasions played together with, such masters of the Guitar as John McLaughlin, Stanley Jordan, Paco De Lucia, Vicente Amigo, Tomatito, Reimundo Amador, Larry Coryell, Joan Bibiloni, Bireli Lagrene, Javier Vargas, Ray Gomez, Luis Salinas, Strunz and Farah among others.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Jose Angel Navarro is a composer, guitarist and innovator of new technique in the guitar that proposes a unique style when it comes to bringing the sounds of Afro-Cuban percussion instruments. Despite being a self-taught Navarro has the ability to move easily in different styles of music and types of guitar, and I am referring to the classical and electric guitar. Navarro always says that what he does is give spiritual food in each of his performers and not follow musical scholastic routines. His musical messages are completely positive and he always says that he never forgets to make beautiful music even if it has virtuosity or a simple song, For Navarro, the complex is conceptual and not technical.
The respect that Jose Angel Navarro has for the audience that listens to his music is that he recognizes that his work has great responsibility because his message can change the mood of a listener and can also make him reflect on his actions to remove resentment, negative feelings, defeatism, among others similar. So, he does not forget for a second that every musical notes he plays can have an impact on the soul of those who receive it. Navarro has been asked many times about his sources of inspiration and he will always answer the same: everything comes from life, from God, from the universe, without exception of everything that surrounds us because everything has its charm and we just have to find it. Everything can be beautiful if we know how to look at it. About his work Navarro says: _ I do not compose thinking about who may or may not like it since the fact that someone likes blue more than green does not mean that one color is better than another, but that there are different tastes.
What you cannot forget is to do it well, authentically and transmit the sentiment you want. Simplicity, modesty and cunning must be combined in each musical work putting a touch of good taste and love in what is done. Navarro says: the most beautiful experience I’ve had in my life is having been able to share scenarios with people who were my idols when I was a child and then discover that these great musicians are the simplest people I’ve ever met. That’s why I have no other choice but to follow those examples so I can try to approach that superior world that far surpasses human arrogance. Each talent always took a great effort behind, therefore, accepting to always excel, knowing how to listen to advice and recognizing an error is the best thing that can happen to us as artists. An error does not become a mistake until we refuse to correct it.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
The biggest challenge of current artists is definitely to compete with structures and negotiation systems related to music in what type or style of music is now popular, what the majority prefer to listen to and what they prefer to distribute the media, or rather, who pays the best audiovisual promotion. The dilemma between the popular and the exclusive has always been a matter of debate among those who work within the music industry. In Navarro’s personal criteria, there are only two types of music: the bad and the good.
Unfortunately, for musicians who want to make “good music” is the disjunctive that the “easy” music has been found and digging a deep hole in the music market, without benevolence to separate tastes and exclusivities, since the “canned” music with bad lyrics and a simple loop marked by a deep and fixed beat has occupied an immense space in the preferences of the new generations that have been absent from references of other types of music that can help them to really observe another musical panorama that has been eclipsed by the music business. In my words there are no criticisms but reflection, because I still feel the ability to touch the heart and soul of those who listen to my music, either live or on my records, Navarro says that. So, the biggest challenge for artists today is to discern between authentic music with aesthetic and conceptual values, without discriminating any genre and learning to adapt to the musical system created without making concessions with quality, good taste and without forgetting that music is still included among the seven universal arts.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
At present Jose Angel only makes a few concerts a year, choosing previously each place and studying each audience well with their preferences and peculiarities. In the change of concept that has been in relation to seeing art as entertainment many artists have been affected with their authentic proposals, simple, without searching for a show to get attention and therefore many venues have become machines to prepare big shows, where everything is shown some pyrotechnics of effects and lights, accompanied by exuberant stages and all this is quite far from the solid proposal of an “intelligent” music where the musician is the only protagonist.
This does not mean that a concert can be “decorated” with good lighting effects and a good stage design but without ever forgetting the true proposal that is the music itself. After more than 12 years traveling through Europe, America and the Caribbean, Jose Angel Navarro has preferred to focus on his record work with the super objective of releasing an album every year that has a fresh, pleasant and authentic proposal that continues to serve as ” spiritual food “to all those who love music. He is currently recording his 22nd musical production with the title: MEANING. Of course, Navarro will continue to show his art from time to time in theaters, concert halls and big stages but without the “desperation” of playing “to eat”… I mean, choosing venues where we both feel good: public and artist. The best way to support his music, says Navarro, is to allow every musical note played by him to enter through all the listening senses and send me their feedback in a way of emotion with a simple smile or a face of thanks. Payment? we all need it to cover our material needs in this society. Quantity? it will never be possible to calculate how much “talent” is worth. Proposals? I always listen to all the offers and I choose the one that is worth my effort.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1736 S.W. 9th Street. Miami, FL 33135
- Website: www.joseangelnavarro.com
- Phone: 786-223-3736
- Email: angelguitarist@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/navarrocolibri
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelguitarist
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseangelnavarro/
Image Credit:
Delio Regueral
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