By Felecia Ford
At 17 years old, with only 200 pesos in his pocket, Gil Gutiérrez moved to San Miguel de Allende in the 1980s to play music and live in the beautiful city he’d recently fallen in love with. He found more than just music, as he married the love of his life, Rebecca, 3 years later. This month they celebrate their 41st anniversary.
Over the past 9 years, they have built a great following at their music venue, called Zandunga, located just outside San Miguel de Allende in the mountainous countryside. On any given Sunday you can hear world-class music which has become a vital part of the local culture. I am honored to interview this stalwart of music.
FF: Thank you for this interview, Gil. To start, I’d love to know what you are working on.
GG:I’m in the process of recording and composing a new album. I have new collaborations with musicians from Cuba, New York City, and Europe, including Germany and Spain, so we will do a global team together with newly composed music.
Another thing that’s really exciting is we are going to have a reunion with Doc Severinsen.It will be a private reunion concert. Very special. You know, this is the only thing he loves. When we traveled over the 17-18 years together (over 700 concerts), normally it would be a 12-hour day wherever you went. When we would land, they’d have to have a room for Doc to practice for at least another two hours. He was 80-something and in training three days a week. He still practices, at 98, for about 6 to 8 hours every day. He’s an inspirational fellow.
FF: He truly is. Will this reunion be recorded?
GG: Oh yeah, they are going to put something together for sure. In 2022 PBS did a documentary on the last performance.
FF: I hope there will be a follow-up documentary on this reunion concert! Doc is a living legend and you sure had a great run together. Even though not with Doc, didn’t you just tour in May?
GG: Yes, I was on the East Coast with my trio. We played at the Birdland Theater in New York for six concerts, and we also played in East Hampton, Sarasota Springs, and Rockport at Shalin Liu Performance Center.
They have perfect acoustics at Liu. It’s beautiful there. The backdrop behind the stage is just glass and you can see the Atlantic Ocean. We start around sunset and watch the sun go down as we’re playing.
FF: Sounds like heaven! Are any other tours this year on the horizon?
GG: Yes, in October I have another tour in New York with some other musicians that I found that are really fantastic so we are going to put together a new project.
FF: How many musicians are on that project?
GG: We will have a quintet plus, I am trying to put together a string quartet on top of that with a kind of jazz flamenco theme.
FF: What a prolific musician you are on stage and in the studio as a composer. Didn’t you just record a solo album in 2020, your 14th album?
GG: Yes, my last album was called SOLO. You can hear it on my website.
FF: All albums except “Solo” are released on Spotify and all the major music platforms, correct?
GG: Yes
FF: Which album of the 14 is your favorite?
GG: My favorite album is Delfis.
It is for my mother and my brother Jose Manuel Bueno.
FF: Do you remember the first song you played as a child?
GG: “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison
FF:Did you listen to the recordings as a child to learn your songs or did you have a teacher?
GG: I went to a fine art school at the age of nine. I started studying art and sculpture with a Japanese teacher who taught me how to do dishes with clay. Across the room was the dancer's room, the ballerinas, beautiful. I realized they always went to the other side of the school by the musicians. So finally, at 12 years, I moved to cello. I didn’t own a cello and I had to wait in line to practice, so I changed to the piano. I didn’t own a piano, so finally I said "Give me a guitar." “I started learning guitar when I was 13. Andres Segovia said, “The guitar is a small orchestra… every string is a different color, a different voice.” You know, the guitar is easy to play but difficult to master.
FF:Well, you have certainly mastered your guitar Gil, and we can thank the ballerinas for you becoming a guitarist and musician!
Go to www.GilGutiérrez.com for videos and music.
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