Get ready to embark on a musical journey with Sergio Pamies - a gifted jazz pianist, composer and assistant professor for jazz piano at the University of Cincinnati - as he takes us through his remarkable career. This episode draws you into Pamies’ world, from his early days as a professional musician in Spain to becoming a respected educator in the United States. His tale is one of passion, dedication and the transformative power of music, influenced by an encounter with Stefan Karlsson, his jazz piano professor.
We also journey with Pamies, who holds a doctorate in Musical Arts, into his impressive recording career, where he successfully marries flamenco with jazz, creating a unique fusion of styles that reflects his Spanish roots. He shares his experiences of recording and touring, providing fascinating insights into the world of jazz and its inherent collaborative spirit. As if that weren’t enough, Pamies also gives us a sneak peek into his upcoming performance at the UT Tyler Jazz Camp at Braithwaite Recital Hall on the UT Tyler campus.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. The guest artist for the sixth annual UT Tyler Jazz Camp will be performing tonight with the faculty jazz band. He is jazz pianist, composer and assistant professor for jazz piano at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Sergio Pamies. And, he’s our guest today. Welcome.
Sergio Pamies: Thank you so much. I’m really happy to be here, Mike.
Mike Landess: It’s good to have you here. Now, you were born in Spain, where you learned to play piano. You went to school, you played in a number of groups there, and then you came to Texas. Why’d you do that?
Sergio Pamies: Well, I was in Spain, and I was already a professional musician there. I just finished school, and I was doing lots of performances and gigs. But I met the person who was, at the time, the jazz piano professor at UNT (University of North Texas). His name is Stefan Karlsson, and he’s a phenomenal pianist. But not only that — he was a very inspiring person and very helpful — so he helped me to make this important decision to come to the states. And he was very generous and gave me the opportunity to be a teaching assistant at UNT, so I came in here to study my master’s, and then I decided to stay and do my doctoral studies. And then, I just stayed. So after that, I applied for an artist visa, and I have been performing and teaching since then.
Mike Landess: It’s interesting you’ve gone on to Ohio now from Texas, but this is a more important teaching position that you’re involved in, in Cincinnati. Tell us about that.
Sergio Pamies: Yeah, this position at CCM in Cincinnati. It’s a full-time position. I’m assistant professor there. Before that, here in Texas, I was teaching in different places. I was teaching at Mountain View. It’s one of the community colleges in the Dallas area, and I was teaching at UT Arlington, and that was a great experience. That’s when I got to really work closely with lots of students, piano students. I was teaching arranging and composition. I was leading combos. I led the Latin jazz combo there and some other combos. And I was the head of the small group program for a little bit, and I got to be assistant director for a semester. So that was an unbelievable experience. And after that, I got this position at CCM, and it has been great. I have been there for 3 years now, but I call Texas home because I was here maybe for 12 or 13 years. So that’s probably it’s very close to the time I spent in my hometown. I left my hometown when I was 18.
Mike Landess: So we’ve talked a lot about your professional career, as it involves education, but you have been a prolific recording artist. You have been involved in a lot of recordings. Tell us a little bit about that.
Sergio Pamies: Yeah, I started while I was still in Spain recording for other people, and I was leading, co-leading a group with some musicians in Spain that we got to record and tour with. But then my first recording was still in Spain, I believe in 2007 or something. So since then, I kept that project even when I was here in the states. I would travel back to Spain during Christmas time or during the summers. And I would do some tours and some more recordings, and that was a project based on flamenco music, so it was flamenco jazz, a combination of the music of my childhood with all the beautiful things that I was learning here, and I got to play with lots of important musicians as guest artists who participated in my projects, like Christian Scott or Dave Liebman, I don’t know. I got to share a stage with people that I really admire, so that was great. And also in the states, I started having the producer role, too. So there were some musicians who trusted me and my ears and my arranging skills, and they wanted me to help them with their own recordings, and that’s something that I really enjoy. If there’s something I can help and someone to get the best out of their talent, there’s nothing that makes me happier than that. So I got to produce some important records here.
Mike Landess: That certainly fits right in with your role as an educator and being able to take your knowledge and your talent and to be able to share it with someone or help someone move along.
Sergio Pamies: I think, yeah, the sharing part is what connects all these roles: the musician, the educator and the producer. Because that’s what we do. When you play with someone, especially in jazz, that it’s so spontaneous. You have to respect what they do, you have to be open to different, let’s say opinions, and then you have to build on that and create together. So I think that’s very unique in jazz. You don’t hear that much of that element in other music. And it’s what, as I said, that’s what connects with the educator and with the producer.
Mike Landess: It is interesting that in jazz because there is a spontaneity there, and there is a — I don’t even know what to call it — it’s almost a muse that takes place among the musicians, and they feed off of each other’s energy. It’s really quite remarkable.
Sergio Pamies: It’s remarkable, yeah, and it’s not, as I said, present in some other popular musics around the world. I think flamenco music shares some of that, so that’s why I felt very empathetic. But, yeah, in flamenco music, you know, there’s a leader in the group all the time. It could be the dancer or the singer or the guitar player, but everybody’s in service of the music, and in jazz it’s the same. We’re always trying to help our peers to sound better. And I think there’s there’s nothing more beautiful than that.
Mike Landess: Now, tonight is the performance with the Faculty Jazz Band at Braithwaite Hall in the Center for Musical Arts Complex here on UT Tyler Campus. Tell us what folks might expect as they come tonight. What kind of music will they hear?
Sergio Pamies: My music has many elements from jazz: the harmonic element, the improvisation. But Dr. Roberts, who she’s like a great friend of mine — and I call her Sarah, but she asked me if I could do some sort of Latin-Jazz emphasis for this camp because she knows my background very well and she knows some of the projects that I took part in the past. So we’re doing some of my original music that has that Latin-Jazz emphasis. And then we’re doing some standards and some renditions of things by Chick Corea, for example. He recently passed away. So one of the goals I made for the next few years is that every time I have a chance, I’m going to make pay my respect to Chick Corea. That’s something that I do in every gig. And then about the concert, something I want to emphasize is that we’re going to do two sets. And on the first set, I’m going to play with my trio. And on the second set, I’m going to play with the faculty for the camp. And I’m very excited because I did the arrangements specifically for this occasion. So I just got the instrumentation from Sarah. I discussed that with her, and I have created parts that would feature their talents. And the reason why I’m playing with my trio. First, it’s maybe a sentimental reason, but I have been in Cincinnati for the last 3 years. And, as I said, I call Texas home. So my bass player and my drummer friends, you know, they live in Dallas. So I thought Tyler is so close that I should take advantage of that. So I proposed the idea to Dr. Roberts, and she was very happy to do it. So I’m going to get to play with my old friends again, so that’s very important for me, very special.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been UT Tyler Jazz Camp guest artist Dr. Sergio Pamies. Tonight’s performance at the Braithwaite Recital Hall begins at 7. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)