Parties & Traditions: Daniel Prim Speaks

Photo by Janelle Jones

by Sarah Thomas

Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, drummer/percussionist Daniel Prim grew up in a musical household before studying formally in Venezuela’s famed National youth orchestra system. Now a resident of New York City, he’s collaborated with artists from Luis Perdomo to Edmar Castańeda to Ricky Martin, and has played at The Jazz Gallery with the collaborative group Caracas Trio.

This Thursday, March 7, Prim celebrates the release of Home, his debut album with the band Daniel Prim y Su Parampampan. We caught up with Prim to talk about playing traditional Venezuelan music in untraditional ways and capturing the spirit Venezuelan house parties—the aforementioned parampampan.

The Jazz Gallery: You just released your first album. Congrats!

Daniel Prim: Thanks! I’m super excited about that.

TJG: Could you tell me about the inspiration behind the album?

DP: I had an idea around two years ago to play traditional Afro-Venezuelan music and put those songs in a new format. Around that time, I was playing with Adam O'Farrill and when I talked to him about that idea he was super down to do it. I was also playing with a guitar player and very good friend of mine, Juanma Trujillo, at that time. 

So the three of us decided to do a first rehearsal. I selected eight or nine traditional songs. My idea was not to tell everyone what and when to play, and to take a drum solo forever. I didn't want to do a record for a drummer—just me showing how fast I can play or taking three solos for each song. I wanted to do an album for the music itself. 

How we created the arrangements was so beautiful, because I basically put the traditional songs in a speaker in the middle of my house. Juanma, Adam, and I listened together and we were like, “Okay, let's create.” I really wanted to hear their suggestions, because I believe if you call someone to play with you it’s because you trust their vision, approach, playing, and vibe. And that’s how we started to create. That's how the magic started happening. 

I’m extremely happy about the music and about what we created. It was super beautiful. I love it. It's so funny because, like a lot of musicians I know, I criticize a lot of the things I create. I’m always pushing myself to be the best I can be. But with this record, I love it. Every time I hear it, it's amazing. I'm super excited about that.

You might hear that it’s a bass-less album. That’s because I wanted to recreate the vibe of the traditional music from Venezuela. It's weird to see a bass playing in those songs. I wanted to recreate that vibe through the drums. For Juanma and Adam, they were recreating what the people are doing—what the crowd is singing. A lot of that music is question and answer, and the whole town is responding. 

I think that's the beauty about that music. That's also why the name of the project is Daniel Prim y Su Parampampan. “Parampampan” in Venezuela is slang for “party.” You have these parampampans with your family, friends, community, and neighbors. There’s always a lot of playing, singing, and eating at these parties. That's when you learn a lot of things—how to play music and how to be with the community.

TJG: How many people were usually making music at these parties, and with what types of instruments?

DP: The instruments could be anything—tambor, drums. It could even be a chair or a desk, a cheese grater or a beer bottle with a spoon. And it could be a lot of people—as many as possible. It always starts in a very organic way. Someone starts to sing something, and then other people start responding. Sometimes the music doesn't stop. When you get tired, you give the tambor to someone else and they will keep the music moving. Then eventually if you want to play again, you join back in. 

That's the beauty of that music. The music can be going for hours. Of course, sometimes the music stops for people to get some drinks or eat something. It's very organic and normal. It's not like, “Okay, we have to play at 10:30.” Instead, it’s when you feel it. If you want to sing something, you sing. There’s also cooking. Sometimes there’s a giant stew and everybody's eating. It's beautiful.

TJG: What was it like working on this traditional music in the context of your trio?

DP: Well, I also have a jazz background and I'm playing a lot of improvised music. I was curious to see how the Venezuelan music could be involved with the improvisational language. 

I thought about Juanma and Adam on guitar and trumpet because those two guys are very creative. That's something I’m always looking for from musicians when I'm playing. You need to be able to create in the moment and leave the egos outside. It’s not about showing off how fast you can play or anything, it’s just to express. I think it was also very organic playing this music together because we have a good connection as friends.

My idea for the future with this “Parampampan” project is to bring other instruments in. In the future, why not have a bass? I want to have the same vibe, but bring more instruments to try to have that party. The energy and the vibe are more important than how many instruments or how many solos. If you hear the record, we are not thinking about solos. We’re thinking about conversations. We're thinking about question and answer. We're thinking about vibe. We’re thinking about emotions and colors and textures. That's more important, at least in this format and for this project, than solos. 

Of course, we have some rules. We wanted to keep as much as possible the original harmony of the song, while also bringing something new in the playing.

TJG: How did you choose the tunes for the record?

DP: That was a thing, actually, because we have a lot of different rhythms and a lot of different music. One thing I knew is that I couldn’t put everything on it. I also knew that if I made this first record, I would probably do a second one and a third one. So I will have more time and put other songs on those. 

But I knew there were some I really enjoyed. Some of those were songs I grew up listening to. For example, I have listened to “La Lavandera” my whole life, because that record was in my house. My grandmother, my mom, my uncles—they all used to put that record on over and over and over. That song was always there. 

There’s also one song that Juanma wrote for this project called “El Festejo.” It’s based on a rhythm called Tambor Mina. That's the only original song on the album. 

Also, when picking the songs I wanted to have variations—to have different flavors, colors, and textures across the record. So that's also how I decided.

TJG: You also had a guest percussionist on your album, right?

DP: Yes, that's a very good friend of mine. His name is Manuel Márquez and he is also Venezuelan. He’s an amazing percussionist. He’s playing with Pedrito Martinez right now in his band.

When I recorded the album, as I said before, I was so extremely happy. But I was like, “Okay, it needs one more thing.” I wasn't sure what it was, but I woke up one day and realized I wanted to do a song with only tambores. But I wanted to do it with traditional tambores in a very untraditional way. 

In Venezuela, they only play the drums in a very specific way, and that’s it. “You cannot play like that, you need to tune it like this, you need to sing like that.” They have so much respect for that, and it's good because in that way the tradition is not modified. But I liked the idea of trying to mix different rhythms and have conversations with the tambores in an untraditional way. 

So I went to the studio with my friend Manuel Márquez and we created it there. I was like, “I don't have anything in mind. Let's create.” He's also a very open guy. That tune is called, “The Tambor Salad,” and now you know why. We combined a lot of different rhythms and it’s like a salad. Sometimes we didn’t play with a certain rhythm or groove, but just played what we felt.

TJG: For your show at the Gallery, you have another guitarist joining you.

DP: Yes. Juanma Trujillo, who is the guy who recorded on the album, moved to Barcelona. So for obvious reasons he's not able to join me at the Gallery. But I will be playing with Leandro Pellegrino, who is an amazing guitar player from São Paulo, Brazil. 

What I like about him is he has roots. He knows a lot about his folklore and his music. As you can tell in this project, I'm very connected with my roots and with the Venezuelan folklore. I think that’s important—to have something to express and to say who you are. 

Of course, he is an amazing improviser. He can play jazz—he can play anything. But one of the things I like about him so much is that he is also very connected with his roots and who he is. And he's expressing perfectly in this format and in this group.

TJG: Can you tell me about the album artwork?

DP: The artwork was made by my uncle, Rafael Prim. He’s from Venezuela and right now he's living in Rome, Italy, with my cousin Patricia. If you see the art, there is a classical Venezuelan window and you can tell there is a party happening inside the window.

TJG: Do you have a favorite track on the record?

For me, it's hard to say which one is my favorite. But there is one I really like without drums. It’s only guitar and trumpet, and it’s called “Dios Mio Dame un Dios.” I don't know how to translate it exactly, but it’s something like, “Oh Lord, grant me a God.” I’m really happy about what happened there, because the original tune is a traditional, strong golpe de tambor. But the version we made is a beautiful kind of ballad. It’s like the opposite.

Like I said before, this album is for the music. It’s not to prove something. For me, the music is the most important thing. We are playing music. We're trying to be connected and to express something. Sometimes, I think we forget about that detail and something is missing. It’s that connection with reality—with the ocean, with the air, with the sand, with the mountains, with a leaf. That's the reality.

TJG: Do you have any other shows or projects you’d like people to know about?

DP: I don't have anything else coming out with Daniel Prim y Su Parampampan, but I have another project I'm extremely excited about. That’s called Caracas Trio, which I made with two very good friends of mine from Venezuela. We are combining contemporary music with Venezuelan flavor. We are playing a lot around the city and we recorded an album recently too. So we are in the process of bringing that album to life.

Daniel Prim plays The Jazz Gallery on Thursday, March 7 for his Daniel Prim y Su Parampampan album release. The group features Daniel Prim on drums, Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, and Leandro Pellegrino on guitar. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. ET. $25 general admission (FREE for members), $35 cabaret seating ($20 for members), $20 Livestream (FREE for members). Purchase tickets here.