Marcelo Peralta

Marcelo Peralta (born March 5, 1961) is an Argentine performer, teacher, composer and arranger that plays all the saxophones, piano, accordion, and the Latin American aerophones.

Biography

Education

Peralta was born in Buenos Aires. He studied piano and music theory at the Antiguo Conservatorio Beethoven, where he obtained a teaching certificate in 1979. At the age of 18, he began to play the baritone sax, showing a particular interest in the music of Serge Chaloff; inspired by John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman, he went on to learn tenor sax, then alto and finally soprano. While studying harmony and composition under tango composer Sebastian Piana, he taught himself to play trumpet, trombone, tuba, violin, clarinet and other Latin American folk instruments.

Since that time he has taught at several schools. In 1980 he taught music in both elementary and high schools, as welI as at special education institutions. At the same time, he was hired as a saxophone and improvisation instructor at the Conservatorio Municipal Manuel de Falla (Buenos Aires).

Career

At 18, he began his career as a freelance musician and went on to play and record with a wide range of artists and in many styles: The Bucky Arcella Trio, Manolo Yanes, Litto Nebbia, Fabiana Cantilo, Cuatro Vientos (sax quartet), LRA National Radio Orchestra (as a soloist), to name a few.

In 1985 he met the guitar player Jorge Mancini, with whom he began to experiment in free improvisation and contemporary music; they were joined by the sax player Mariana Potenza and the percussionist Victor Da Cunha, together creating the Grupo de Improvisación Tercer Mundo (Third World improvisation Group). It was with this group that he recorded his first record as a soloist - Un Hilo de Luz (1987).

Although he had been playing the quena, the accordion and other ethnic and percussion instruments alongside the standard ones for several years, his interest in folk music was further developed in 1988 when he performed and recorded with the pianist and composer Eduardo Lagos (a great innovator in Argentine folklore).

He developed a truly personal view of improvised music when he formed his own quintet, with which he explored the deepest roots of Latin American music. Together with musicians such as Cesar Franov, Enrique Norris, Carlos Triolo, Diego Pojomovsky, and Guillermo Bazzola, among others, he made his second recording,"Escaleras de la Comprensión� (Melopea Records- 1990/91).

Over the next five years he headed the big band Los Saxópatas (1990/95) with which he recorded and performed throughout Argentina. In Buenos Aires he recorded Milonga (Melopea Records- 1997) and made the debut of bis solo set show in which he improvises freely on American folk tunes, interpreting bagualas, vidalas, bailecitos, chacareras and others in his own unique style.

He currently lives in Spain, where he teaches saxophone and improvisation at several music schools and performs both in:

Discography

Litto Nebbia Cuarteto - MELOPEA / INTERDISC (DSL 66094-1)
Grupo de Improvisación Tercer Mundo - MELOPEA (CM 008)
Gustavo Fedel - MELOPEA / INTERDISC (DSL 66071)
Litto Nebbia - MELOPEA / INTERDISC (SLI 67549-2)
Marcelo Peralta y Grupo Tercer Mundo - MELOPEA (DM 014)
Marcelo Peralta - MELOPEA (CM 017)
Marcelo Peralta - MELOPEA (CM 064)
Marcelo Peralta - Litto Nebbia MELOPEA
Marcelo Peralta - MELOPEA (CDM 014) - NUEVOS MEDIOS IMPORT
Santiago de la Muela – SATCHMO
Peter Dieterle - David Lenker - Marcelo Peralta
Tony Heimer – Bob Sands – Chris Kase – Ove Larson – Greg Moore –
Steve Jordan – Marcelo Peralta – MOCO DE PAVO PRODUCCIONS
(Jerry González – Diego Urcola – Gustavo Gregorio – Christian Howes, etc.)
PAI – 3068
TCB- The Montreaux Jazz Label
(Solistas: Chris Kase, Bobby Martínez, Roberto Cimadevilla, Marcelo Peralta etc)

External links