We recently connected with Eduardo Del Signore and have shared our conversation below.
Eduardo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Feeling Peace; a process of discovery of such wonderful feeling, has been and still is the foundation from which I’m able to build my work along the way. I’ve realized that there’s a depth to the language of music and the arts in general that can be utilized as a vessel for communication.
I see music as a sincere expressions of humanity, something that can help understand that there are other options in life.
I started a project in 2002 called “A Call 2Peace-multimedia events” that offered a series of concerts embroidered with short videos sharing a message of “Peace as the responsibility of the individual”, something I heard Mr. Prem Rawat say during a speech he gave over 21 years ago.
At the end of his speech Prem asked “what can you do?”.
For me, music is something I can do, so the idea to start organizing concerts to share that realization in different parts of the World materialized.
This started a chapter that ended on 2011 after performances in Japan, France, Uruguay, Denmark, Switzerland, Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and Echo Valley Farm in Wisconsin, USA.
A second chapter started on 2015 with a concert at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Santa Paula, CA. establishing the “A Call 2Peace Ensemble”, a core group of artists organizing events in Southern California to raise awareness and funds for other likeminded institutions and their initiatives.
On 2019 the “A Call 2Peace Foundation” (501C3) was formed, marking the startup of a 3rd chapter during which we were able to keep supporting other organizations, as well as being able to create and support our own initiatives. We are vey close to start writing a new page that’ll allow us to expand our outreach and the outreach of the institutions we associate with to bring help to people and nature in need.
It is rather inspiring.
Eduardo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Music has always been present in my life. I was born in Montevideo, República Oriental Del Uruguay in the Ansina Neighborhood, where the sound of the Afro-Uruguayan rhythms of Candombe resonated in every room of our home.
Candombe carries a polyrhythmic pulse, the ritualistic interplay of Candombe drums brought something I started being conscious of when I was about 2 to 3 years old. I remember and relive the feeling I experienced dancing as a toddler next to the drummers as they were parading on late summer nights.
That feeling for me is “A Call” of music from music to music, a feeling I always look for in everything I do in the music realms.
I started to realize the same feeling listening to music from different places, people and cultures, it’s a common denominator in everything I perceive as the true beauty of human expression through the arts. These days, Ansina doesn’t exist anymore, its houses were demolished during a military dictatorship that took place in Uruguay between 1973-1985. Twelve Years during which the ruling regime dedicated itself to destroy anything that would shine with tones of consciousness or beauty of humanity.
A few years ago I visited Ansina and saw written in a surviving ruin, “A Country That Doesn’t Invest In The Arts Is Doomed To Mediocrity”. Something resonated loud and clear in me, something that I can see unfortunately happening in many places around the world including here in the USA.
Sometimes I wonder how would life be if a Constitution amendment stated: “the right to bear musical instruments”.
My first instrument of choice was a Candombe drum, later the Spanish guitar and finally the electric bass, which brings together all instruments for me. I started playing bass in a band formed by a group of friends at a beach resort called Solymar where my family owned a house and where I started creating my first bass lines.
Professionally, during winter of 1975 I was invited to perform at a group formed by pro-Uruguayan musicians named “Gula Matari”, inspired by the earlier works of Quincy Jones.
Everyone from the Montevideo music scene started coming to our rehearsals to jam with. One of our guests Eduardo Mateo invited us to participate in the recording of one of his songs “Amigo Lindo del Alma” which became a classic in the realms of Uruguayan Popular Music.
In 1977 I joined a group of adventurers traveling in a sailing boat that took us to Brazil and to the experience of being directly in touch with Nature and the Elements, which completely changed my life.
One week after having anchored in Rio de Janeiro, Milton Nascimento came to the boat and invited us to record with him for his double album “Clube da Esquina 2” which became a classic of Brazilian Popular Music as well, and opened the doors of Brazil to our group “Tacuabé”.
Later on as we were anchored in Buzios, I started to compose music on my beautiful Santurión guitar
In 1980 my son Alfonso was born and 5 days later I received the techniques of “self Knowledge” from Prem Rawat.
I went back to Montevideo where I became a very requested session bass player, recording with wonderful Uruguayan artists.
In 1982 I had the opportunity to travel to the USA to attend an event called “Festival of Light” that took place in Miami.
Once in the US I got in touch with Uruguayan guitarist Federico Ramos who was very influential on my decision to come to Los Angeles via a 4 days Greyhound bus journey.
Once on the West Coast different opportunities opened up. During a rehearsal with Brazilian singer Martha Santos’ band, I met Brazilian Maestro Moacir Santos, who became my dear mentor & beloved friend.
In 1986 I went to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood where I met Laudir De Oliveira, known for his work with Sergio Mendes and the group Chicago. Through Laudir I met Bernardo Rubaja and Cesar Hernandez who were recording “High Plateaux”, for the Wyndham Hill label. The album was produced by Mark Isham (also on soprano sax) and engineered by Stephen Krause. It features Alex Acuna, Laudir De Oliveira, Gustavo Santaolalla and myself on basses.
Many recordings later during a production for Valentina Vargas music work, I met Jon Anderson whom invited me to record on “Page of Life”/”Change We Must” his latest work with Greek Maestro Vangelis. Jon invited me to the mountains of Big Bear Lake to work on composing a series of music works for what came to be his albums “Deseo” & “Toltec”.
I had the opportunity to introduce Milton Nascimento to Jon Anderson and vice versa, which opened the doors to a few collaborations between them where I participated as a musician, a composer and production assistant.
In 1989 I met Dionne Warwick and Henry Carr, her manager at the time. They became my adopted/adoptive family here in the US and established a friendship and artistic relationship that resulted on Dionne’s participation on my first solo album “Captivated” and my assistance on her “Aquarelas do Brasil”, plus a sweet array of shared live performances.
In 1995 I had a serious car accident in Topanga Canyon, where I got severely injured, causing me to stop everything happening at the time and dedicate most of the time to help my body healing process.
The rehabilitation was painful, a drastic intermezzo splashing my moment with time to reflect on life and priorities. A hard transition taking the attention to new music & life directions, focusing on my own work as composer, performer and producer.
In 2002, after a few productions and tours, I was inspired to create what is known now as the “A Call 2Peace Foundation”. We’ve organized several events utilizing music, poetry, dance and painting as avenues to raise awareness and funds for other likeminded charity organizations.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, we started the “Food Recovery Program” to bring nourishment to the food challenged, victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, homeless, war veterans and families of Ukrainian refugees. From 2020 until present days we have distributed over 3.5 million pounds of food to people and institutions in need.
I have been producing an album from our A Call 2Peace Ensemble “core” group, plus working in tandem with scientists dedicated to study causes and effects of climate change for an organization named “The ClimateMusic Project”. This collaboration work with the CMP took me to New York on September 2022, to perform live at the World Premiere of “Audyssey” during last year’s World Economic Forum in Manhattan, New York during the United Nations General Assembly Week and to San Francisco for a New York Times event called “Art & Tech in a Warming World” at the KQED studios.
Having had the chance to be interviewed live for a World Economic Forum network of 25 million people was exhilarating and unforgettable.
A second collaboration with the CMP and Scarlet Rivera is in its final stages, and expected to be released on the fall of 2023.
My “Discovery Realization Suite” was recently released via Bandcamp, and general digital distribution via Songtradr featuring Peter Mawanga from Malawi, Marcel Adjibi from Benin and Rita Isabelle Andrade from the Viola multi-verse.
There are many other music works in production and lots of attention to the A Call 2Peace Foundation to keep us busy for quite a while.
Peace is inside and can be felt, we are all born with it. An every day effort to feel it is a beautifully necessary challenge, nothing to be taken for granted.
The A Call 2Peace Foundation is an open door for those who would like to participate in our initiatives or bring their own initiatives to our stages.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Moacir Santos, my dearest mentor said to me that an artist is not an artists because he or she wants to be an artist, it is a gift that requires dedication, effort and at times sacrifices, but the rewards of being in the presence of that creative force and become its instrument of communication, are extremely fulfilling.
I have been a witness of the transformation experienced by artists (including myself) and audiences in different parts of the World whilst being in the presence of the beauty of artistic expression, as well as embracing first hand the moment when an individual student realizes they have their own voice in the instrument or vocal chords. Moments of divine panoramas.
Knowing that those moments bring the best out of a human being, with enough clarity to see and feel for themselves that there are other options in life, and it is up to us to explore those options in our own ways. Challenging and priceless at the same time, same place.
It takes Courage to be Human.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
A society is formed by individuals and all individuals in today’s social conditions need to start paying attention. Paying attention, as described by Mary Oliver is the first step towards devotion. Paying attention to the self, to those around us and our environment are crucial to find common sense solutions to the problems affecting us all. Not only there’s a climate change affecting the whole planet, but also the inner climate change inside people’s hearts, droughts of empathy, kindness and common sense are affecting us all and everything.
Art is a reminder of that beauty we are meant to be experiencing and living by, a universal language that anyone can feel and understand.
The message shared during the 2022 UN General Assembly, stated that actions against causes and effects of climate change are assets for those in charge of multinational corporations and governments, other wise they won’t have a world to profit from. A thriving creative echo system can be very lucrative for everyone. Giving Peace a chance is a wonderful challenge to be had and something that hasn’t been tried to the fullest. When people find Peace in their Hearts through Music and Knowledge, the support for artists, creatives and a thriving ecosystems flows naturally. The “Status Quo” doesn’t have a good track record, time for a change. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.acall2peace.org
- Instagram: @edudelsignore
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eduardo.delsignore
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/signoremusic
- Twitter: @Ac2Pfoundation
- Youtube: ac2p foundation
- Other: www.signoremusic.com www.optima-strings.com
Image Credits
World Economic Forum Alain McLaughlin Aldo Novic