Jersey Shore Guitar Prodigy Marel Hidalgo Led His First Band at Age 6

[caption id="attachment_854504" align="alignnone" width="1638"] Marel Hidalgo began playing guitar at age four. Photo: Kristsa Schlueter[/caption] If you close your eyes while you listen to Marel Hidalgo play his guitar, his music will usher you to a place of energy, layered rhythms and improvisation that has a satisfying depth. Open your eyes, and you will find a 17-year-old musical phenom, likely spiffily dressed in a full suit, who draws soul from his instrument as though he has been mastering it for a lifetime. Hidalgo, a Neptune native, picked up his first guitar at age four, and the connection quickly grew from play to commitment. “The passion grows as you learn and are challenged more and more. You start thinking that there’s nothing in the world you would rather do all day long than play music,” he says, adding, “That’s when everyone around you gets worried.” Hidalgo calls his father, Mahonrry Hidalgo, his “unintentionally first musical mentor.” Mahonrry, who, with his wife, Eslin Morris, owns Luna Verde, a vegan Mexican restaurant in Bradley Beach, enjoyed playing music for his toddler son. “One of my earliest memories is listening to Charlie Parker and [Russian composer Igor] Stravinsky,” Hidalgo says. “My dad thought that playing those two completely different artists for me was a way to open my mind to complexity.”  By six, Hidalgo had earned the respect of other musicians and was leading a band, directing it as he saw fit. “I was very strict; since I was a little kid and they were adults, I was given a pass,” he says. “I wanted the band to sound like the original recordings of Jeff Beck, Santana and Joe Satriani’s albums to the note.” Hidalgo received his first guitar instruction from Jerry Franklin, a teacher at Big Beat Music Studio in Neptune. Fine-tuning his natural talent, he learned how to “recognize patterns, rhythms, sounds, pitch, melodies, chords and harmony, all by ear.” He experimented with different genres before settling on jazz, for the moment, while still recognizing the gifts of other genres. “Blues is the root of everything, reggae gave me a sense of groove, progressive rock developed my ear and guitar technique, Latin and jazz fusion [gave me] a more sophisticated understanding of rhythm and the feeling of syncopation.” That musical fluency has allowed him to share stages with contemporary greats like Billy Hart, Monty Alexander, Roger Humphries and John Lee. Hidalgo says carrying the tradition of jazz into the next generation is not just an honor, but a responsibility. “If we understand this art form as one that is passed from generation to generation, musician to musician, when you are in the presence of someone, let’s say, like Mr. Alexander, you are also in the presence of Oscar Peterson,” he says, naming a succession of artists whose influences spring from jazz’s musical lineage. “A little secret: If you listen carefully, you can always hear the voices of the ones you came from cutting through the noise.” Leading ensembles and playing solo jazz guitar are both edifying as Hidalago continues to explore music. “Solo jazz guitar is by nature freer,” he says, “and gives more room to explore the song from top to bottom. I don’t have to be tied down to the original form, and I can come up with arrangements/sections on the fly. Within the more traditional jazz group, the interaction between all the members is what makes the song sound best. As Wynton Marsalis put it, ‘Jazz is democracy in action.’” Self-assured beyond his years, Hidalgo recognizes the scope of opportunities his talent has garnered. At the age of six, he played at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; at nine, he made his first appearance on the Exit Zero Jazz Festival Mainstage; last year, he brought his Jamaican Jazz Group to the New York Guitar Festival in Bryant Park; and in April, he acted as arranger, orchestrator and soloist, leading his jazz quartet in front of a large wind orchestra at the Teatro Nacional in Costa Rica. “The scenery doesn’t change the essence of the music,” he says. “It reaffirms that music is a universal language.” Hidalgo keeps a tight schedule, performing, writing arrangements for large ensembles, orchestrating and practicing. While this is not the life of a typical Jersey teen, he sees little sacrifice in his busy schedule. “A few hours of lost sleep or long flights....Doing what you love is a privilege that most people unfortunately don’t have,” he notes. That sense of purpose has remained a constant. After one of his earliest performances, Hidalgo told an interviewer, “I like to play music because it makes me happy, and it makes people happy.” He says today, “Nothing has changed ever since.” To learn more, visit @marelhidalgo on Instagram or marelhildagomusic.com. The post Jersey Shore Guitar Prodigy Marel Hidalgo Led His First Band at Age 6 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly .