By Sue Zalokar, Staff Writer (Photo by Kristina Wright)
Portland is a hub for musicians from all over the world. In the case of Martin Zarzar, percussionist for Pink Martini, he brings the world to our city through his music. Having lived and played all over the world, he is a quintessential global percussionist.
At the ripe age of 3, he began to explore music on the keyboard of Eugene Skeef, a South African percussionist, composer, poet and educator living in London. It was just a year later that he remembers falling in love with the bass at a performance by American-born jazz musician Stanley Clarke.
The depths of his worldview are readily available to tap into on his first solo album, “Two Dollars to Ride the Train.” The album combines a multitude of rhythms — many of which, Zarzar explains, are evolutions of African beats. The songs are written in five different languages: French, Spanish, English, Portuguese and Arabic, which he sings mostly himself.
The album integrates global friendship and sounds. Though joined by a phenomenal cross section of international musicians, Zarzar shows his proficiency on many instruments on the album, including guitar, piano, percussion, and Middle Eastern oud.
After a decade of touring with Pink Martini, Zarzar is now taking his own album on tour.
S.Z.: Tell me about the album. How did it come to be?
M.Z.: This album really coalesced between the end of December and the beginning of March. I pretty much recorded the entire thing. I wrote most of the material and had the overarching vision come together for the album.
Being on the road all of the time, you change so much. It’s hard to come back to the same vision that you had before, so I inevitably started over again each time I would come back home.
This time I set a deadline for myself. You reach the crucifixion age. I’m 33. My grandfather always joked about that – the age of crucifixion. That’s when you get married and you do things that mark your life story.
But the story leading up to these few months (when I recorded the album) is basically the story of my life. I tried to encompass that — it comes through in the album – what you do, who you are. What you live, informs what you’re doing.
S.Z.: You have a rich cultural background, born to a Peruvian mother and Palestinian father. Tell us a bit about your cultural heritage?
M.Z.: [Martin waves to a friend] This is Sean Ghazi, speaking of cultural heritage.
(We are joined by Martin’s friend, Sean Ghazi for coffee in the Powell’s coffee shop in downtown Portland Ghazi is an actor, dancer and singer from Malaysia. After introductions and pleasantries, we dive back into the conversation._
S.Z.: So we were talking about cultural heritage, specifically yours.
M.Z.: Peru is a place that in the heyday of its social political power, it was a melting pot. It was a magnet for immigration and people came from all over. From Asia, from Europe, a lot of Middle Eastern people — especially Palestinian. But this happened before World War II and before the creation of the Israeli state. A lot of movement toward Peru happened all the way from late 1800s to mid 1900s. Somewhere in there, my father’s family moved from Palestine to Peru and they kind of remained in the Palestinian community. My father was the first person in his family to marry outside of the Arab colony. It was very much a Palestinian family in that sense, but he wasn’t born in Palestine, if that’s even a place.
My mom’s family is also kind of an immigrant family, but it goes a little bit further back. I think it is a testament to all humanity being made up of immigration – migrations forever.
That’s kind of what the album is about, so I brought this cultural vision and identity. The music, to me, was inspired by the transformation of African rhythms and their travels throughout the world. Also, it kind of parallels the story of the migration of humanity. And when you trace the music you can pretty much retrace the history of our world civilization.
S.Z.: So what are your thought about immigration, specifically in terms of the United States, but also a larger, global perspective.
M.Z.: I’ve always had horrible and funny experiences with immigration. I think partially because I have almost a unibrow and I look very Middle Eastern, but also because I had a Peruvian passport for most of my life and the amount of inefficient bureaucracy that you are subjected to as an individual when you are trying to travel is completely inhumane. And lines go around the block for a season. (He looks to Sean who is still sitting with us. Sean has recently moved to Portland from Malaysia.) I’m sure you’ve dealt with this too.
Sean Ghazi: What is very interesting to me is on face value there is a lot of judging that goes on. You look different, you sound different, your passport is a different color. It takes a little bit of due diligence to get that perception changed. On my way to the U.S. from Malaysia, I would be stopped by very gruff immigration agents. And then they see the level of Visa that I have and the demeanor would immediately change.
M.Z.: It’s a situation that feels like you are guilty until proven innocent. It is a global issue, and it’s one of the conundrum of our species.
S.G.: (In a mock French accent) “Will you be having the Conundrum de Species? It’s slightly on the spicy side. You might want to have the white wine with that.” (Laughter)
M.Z.: The challenge to me, having lived in many places in the world, how do we break away from that guilty-until-proven-innocent approach to others, to other people. It takes a lot of trust. The general tendency in the political climate today, which is security — national security and all of this. It is basically just banner waving. It is not really giving us any more security. I don’t believe that. We are basically creating more resentment throughout the world and less security. Ultimately, constantly seeing people with suspicion just breeds more discontent and less understanding. I think we can learn to appreciate one another a little more. And then it goes both ways, when you extend appreciation, it comes back to you.
S.Z.: What was it like moving to the United States?
M.Z.: I was 15 years old when I moved to Portland. We had lived in New York for a while, when I was 13. I went to middle school there for about six months. And it was a disaster. So we moved back to Peru.
S.Z.: What was disastrous about it?
M.Z.: Well, my mom came to school one day to see what was going on because she was surprised that I didn’t have really any homework.
I like school. I like learning. I had good teachers everywhere I went. I found people who really loved to teach. At the school in New York, there was hardly any class, much less homework. We lived in a pretty bad neighborhood — a horrible neighborhood. It was violent. Someone shot at the car once. The bullet ricocheted off the side (of the car). It didn’t hit any of us, but it was … kind of frightening.
My mother came to school one day and saw that kids were basically just shouting and throwing paper, and the teacher was just reading the newspaper, sitting there waiting for class to end. There was nothing they could do. A lot of these kids had weapons and the teachers had no authority. Try as they might, there was nothing the teachers could do.
S.Z.: You left New York, went back to Peru and then moved to Portland when you were 15 years old. What brought your family here?
M.Z.: My mom, Luciana Proaño. She is a bit of an adventurer, and my stepdad, who is from here. His name is John Butler. He is a jazz guitarist – a fantastic musician. He taught me how to play guitar. In fact, I learned how to play guitar before I played drums. That’s one thing that most people don’t know, they say, “Oh you’re playing guitar on the album, what’s going on?” I have always (played guitar) I just didn’t really do it much because it wasn’t the focus of my career.
S.Z.: You’re really blessed with a rich musical family, not only here in Portland, but worldwide as well.
M.Z.: That’s right. Portland is a bit of a Mecca for creativity. I don’t know what it is, but people seem to come here for music and art.
S.Z.: Is this a help or a hindrance to you as a musician?
M.Z.: I’m pretty well placed in it. So, for me, it has been a help. People are actually pretty open about receiving newcomers and embracing other people. It’s very community-oriented — as much as it can be in the United States. I would like to see more of that. When we have all of these wonderful, creative people in one place, then why not get out of your house? Instead of renting a movie or buying some beer at the pub, why not go buy some beer where they are playing live music?
S.Z.: The album title is a catchy one that pays homage to city public transportation system.
M.Z.: The title of the album was suggested by Dave Eggar; he studied with Leonard Bernstein. He also co-produced my album. He and I wrote the string arrangements together and he played them all. He has been an inspiration and a good friend. So I asked him what the title of the album should be and he had me read down the list of song titles. When I got to “Two Dollars to Ride the Train,” he said, “Stop. that’s it.”
S.Z.: What is it like to tour with Pink Martini?
M.Z.: I can sum it up in one phrase which was just written in the Portland Monthly Arts and Entertainment guide: “Despite a decade with Pink Martini, Martin Zarzar retains a youthful face.” I don’t know what more could be said about a rigorous tour schedule.
sue@streetroots.org
