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Marcelo Peralta

Marcelo Peralta Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 5th, 1961, Marcelo Peralta, performer, teacher, composer and arranger, plays all the saxes, piano, accordion, and the Latin American aerophones. 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 Iearn 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. ln 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). At 18, he began bis 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. ln 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 lmprovisation Group). It was with this group that he recorded bis first record as a soloist - Un Hilo de Luz(l987). Although he had been playing the quena, the accordion and other ethnic and percussion instruments alongside the standard ones for several years, bis 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 bis 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 bis 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.

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Gnu Trio

Point of Departure, WMPG-FM
2009

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Milonga

Melopea Records
1997

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