ArtistInfo

Franco Aguirre

b,

The first time I remember feeling something through my ears, it was when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It was the time when the last novelty was the stereo. My old man had bought a sound system and I stopped in front of the amps saying: "listen to this". What sounded was the Alleluia. I almost fainted. I will never forget the impression left on me by that shock. One or two years later I remember participating, singing, at a summer festival in southern Chile. They gave me a mention because I was the youngest participant (the average age was 16 and I was 6 or something like that). I moved to Ecuador at 7 years old. The first person who taught me the notes was the teacher Emilio Lara. This was at school and I was studying the recorder. Years later at the beginning of school, my guitar teacher was Pedro Pino (from the Umbral group). During the last years of the school I shared the dream of having a band with my great friend Stephan Vinueza. We made noise for some time, he on drums and I on guitar. We graduated from school, everyone to college. One day Stephan introduced me to Paúl Segovia, his classmate in Psychology at the U. Central. The crush was instantaneous. We had an ephemeral life shot, called Astro - Labia (a show, lining up Vinueza, Aguirre and Segovia). I always maintained my friendship with Paul to whom I must attribute the presentation of my first bass. Polito already knew that this instrument would suit me. In that concert of Astro - Labia I met Igor Icaza. Some time later we met Icaza, Segovia and his server making music at the first one. Some years passed. Paúl went to look for me in the university to propose to me to be the bass player of Sal y Mileto. I saw a concert of the band at the Fenix ​​theater, playing for about twenty-five friends. I loved. I thought: "This is how my band should sound." I accepted one. This was in the mid-nineties. In Mileto I acquired friction with the bass and I learned to love the instrument. We made music with Paúl for plays, radio soap operas, horror series and so on. Thanks to that release I had the opportunity to share the stage with Ecuadorian musicians that I admired myself. I have also shared the stage with musicians I have criticized (in the long run, everything is part of the same feeling: identity). My respect and gratitude is total for all of them. As well as my ñaño Igor, also I have militated (and milito) in other bands: Guardarraya, Meru; Zumbo After the death of my son Paúl, I tried to vacillate jazz music (it was very difficult for me to play with Igor and without Paúl at that time), my dalliances led me to be honored with the invitation, to be the bassist of the quartet of Juan Valdano (another of the masters of Ecuadorian music). In these meats and with him, Andrés Caicedo and Luis Carrera, I had the beautiful opportunity to share the stage with one of the greatest musicians in the history of Jazz: Randy Brecker. Brecker was a musician of Charles Mingus as well as Jacco Pastorius, two of my bass idols. This happened back in 2003 at the Jazz Festival in Guayaquil. Years before and together with Mileto I had the opportunity to play Ecuadorian Free Rock for the Colombian public at Rock al Parque. It must be the free festival with the largest audience on the Pacific coast. We did well. We learned that it is possible to do great things, long before our sports idols established the famous slogan. The loss of Paul has been one of the blows I have suffered in my life. These years of mourning have taught me that Mileto for me is the place where I can pour my creativity as a human being and therefore seek my fulfillment. That's why I need to play that music so much. After all, it's not fair to throw away more than a decade of work.

Plays With

ArtistInfo App

Acknowledgements

ArtistInfo for Mac, iPad, and iPhone