Xavier Padilla profile picture

Xavier Padilla

As life, music isn't explanation

About Me


Bass player, composer and arranger, XAVIER PADILLA was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1963, then established in Europe in 1988. Early professional experiences in his country include award wining group AUTANA. He lived five years in Germany, four in Greece and since 1997 lives in France. His varied experience has roamed in a number of musical styles, while his own musical material as a player-composer intends to approach all genres with a distinctive artistic signature. Xavier Padilla lives in Paris, where he takes part in the jazz and Latin local scenes. He has either played bass, arranged or composed for Orlando Poleo, Allen Hoist, Julien Lourau, Alfredo Rodríguez, Bobby Rangell, as well as for the Gipsy Kings, Bernard Lavilliers, Alfredo Cutuflá Franchesqui, Javier Plaza and French progressive rock group Taï Phong. His international background includes recording and touring with artists such as Aldemaro Romero, Senta Berger, Dunkel Ziffer, Polikandriotis, Conexión Latina, Pix-Lax, Julia Migenes, Ricardo Hernández, Garou, Tito Allen and Celia Cruz. From 2001 to 2005 he was the bass player with the Gipsy Kings, touring extensively around the world, especially in the USA. Xavier continues to grow and expand his musical horizons in the art form he loves the most. ============================================================ ============================================================ ===================== BASS DESIGN:======== Xavier Padilla has also been interested in designing basses, check out his Little twisted-neck bass at www.littleguitarworks.com, a result of his own research in the field of ergonomics and the revolutionary invention of Austin based luthier Jerome Little, as well as the input of two other innovators, Chuck Burge (Kalamazo) and Harris Thor (Binghamton). ============================================================ ============================================================ ================================= DISCOGRAPHY:======= Roots , Gipsy Kings - lyrics Como Siento Yo - (Sony Music UK) - Live at Kenwood House, London, Gipsy Kings DVD live (Warner) - Arrêt sur Image, Bernard Lavilliers (Universal) - Romeo Machado, Bernard Lavilliers (PolyGram-Barclay) - Eso es el Amor, musique film « Un cri d’amour », Tito Puentes (Delabel) - Lo Bueno de la Vida, Orlando Poleo (Sony Music France) - El Buen Camino, Orlando Poleo (Sony Music France) - Mein Kind, Senta Berger (EMI Deutschland) - Monica y su mecanica, Monicalipso (Fantastica) - Mi musica, Javier Plaza, (-I-C-U-B4-T) - La Harpa Vagabunda, Pascal Coulon (PASLLCD05) - Un Paso Alante, Kent Biswell (KENBIS78778) - Romeo Machado, Bernard Lavilliers (PolyGram-Barclay) - Espirituamente, Alfredo Cutufla (Estela) - Songs for Everyone, Dunkelziffer (Funf und Vierzig) - Atacama, Rodrigo Alvarado (Musik Welt) - Valpurgis, Georg Pommer (Atlantic) - Valparaiso, Ramon Gorigoitia (Musik Welt) - El Maestro, Ricardo Hernandez (Sonografica) - Tropic Jazz, Brunin Von Alten (BVAlten Musik ============================================================ ============================================================ ================================== FESTIVALS:========= Festival Jazz im Zemtrum, Alemania, 30/04/1990 - - Drum Jazz Festival, Holanda, 09/08/1990 - - Wissen International Jazz Festival, Alemania, 1990 - - Crete Jazz festival, Grecia, 1995 - - Saint-Louis Jazz Festival, Senegal, 10/05/1997 - - Festival Vic-Fezensac Tempo Latino, 27/07/1997 - - Festival Jazz Chatellerault, Francia, 15/05/1998 - - Festival Internationale di Musica, Roma, Italia, 26/06/1998 - - Festival de Thau/Méze, Francia, 18/07/1998 - - Dunhill International Jazz Festival, Costa de Marfil, 18/03/1999 - - Casa Latina Festival at Jazz Cafe, Londres, Inglaterra, 11/07/2000 - - Megéve 12me Jazz Festival, Francia, 13/08/1999 - - Jazz in Marciac, Francia, 1998/ 1999/ 2001 - - Muzillac 98, Francia, 22/08/1998 - - Jazz sur Son 31, Francia, 17/10/1998 - - Jazz en Touraine 98, Francia, 17/09/1998 - - La Villette Rythmes Caraibes, Paris, Francia, 31/05/1998 - - Festival Latino Americano di Milano, Italia, 26/06/1998 - - Festival Chalons-en Champagne, Francia, 20/07/2001 - - Tahiti Festival Jazz, Polynesia francesa, 15/04/2000 - - Nice Jazz Festival, Francia, 22/07/2001 - - Royal Festival Hall, Londres, Inglaterra, 26/09/1999 - - Musiks à Manosque, Francia, 24/07/1998 - - Midem 99, Mónaco, 24/01/1999 - - Jazz à Colombes, Francia, 13/05/2000 - - Teatro de la Opera de Hong Kong, China, 2003 - - Jazz à Vannes, France, 25/07/1998 - - Jazz à Montreux 2004 - - Summer Nights at the Pier, Seattle, Washington, USA, 2004 - - Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California, USA , 2004 - - Teatro Oficial, Palacio del Kremlin, Plaza Roja de Moscú, Rusia, 2003 - - Teatro de la Opera de San Petersburgo, Rusia, 2003 - - Mizner Park, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, 2003, 2005 - - Radio City Music Hall, New York, USA, 2003, 2004, 2005 - - Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, Canadá, 2002 - - Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - - Westbury Music Fair, Westbury, New York, USA, 2002, 2003 - - Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 2004 - - Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virgina, Washington D.C., USA, 2002, 2004, 2005 - - Foxwoods Casino, Mashantucket, CT, USA, 2005 - - Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, Woodinville, Washington, USA, 2002, 2005 - - Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, Colorado, USA, 2003, 2004 - - Midtown Music Festival, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2003 - - Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2002, 2003, 2004 - - Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pen., USA, 2004, 2005 - - Greek Theatre, Berkeley, California, USA, 2002, 2003, 2004 - - Fleet Boston Pavilion, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 2003, 2004 - - Kenwood House, London, England, UK, 2004 - - NTELOS Pavillion, Harbor Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA, 2003 - - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, USA, 2003 - - Santa Barbara County Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 2002, 2004 - - Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Atlanta, USA, 2002, 2005 - - Mountain Winery, Saratoga, California, USA, 2002, 2003, 2005 - - Journal Pavillion, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, 2002 - - Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 2002, 2003 - - Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Ft. Myers, Florida, USA, 2003 - - The Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, New Jersey, USA, 2003 - - Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, 2003 - - Orlando House of Blues, Orlando, Florida, USA, 2003 - - Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 2003 - - Majestic Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2003, 2005 - - The Backyard, Austin, Texas, USA, 2003 - - Grove Theatre, Anaheim, California, USA, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - - The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 2003 - - Casino del Sol Anselmo Val. Tori Amph., Tucson, AZ, USA, 2003, 2005 - - Nissan Pavillion, Bristow, Virginia, USA, 2003 - - United Islands of Prague, Czec Replublik, USA, 2004 - - North Fork Theatre, Westbury, NY, USA, 2005 - - Teatro de la Opera de Budapest, Hungría, 2004 - - Bank of America Pavillion, Boston, MA, USA, 2005 - - Pier Six Concert Pavillion, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2005 - - House of Blues, Toronto, ON, Canadá, USA, 2005 - - Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canadá, USA, 2005 - - Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, FL, USA, 2005 - - Dodge Arena, Hidalgo, TX, USA, 2005 - - Bass Performance Hall, Ft. Worth, TX, USA, 2005 - - Performing Arts Center, Austin, TX, USA, 2005 - - Jones Hall for Performing Arts, Houston, TX, 2005 - - Hampton Court Festival, East Molesey, Surrey, UK, 2005 - - Princess Diana’ s Family Château, Northampton, UK, 2005 - - Roots Festival Concert Building, Amsterdam, Holanda, 2005 - - Dyrham Park, Nr. Bath, UK, 2005 - - The Point, Dublin, Irlanda, 2005 - - Charlecote Park, Nr. Stratford, UK, 2005 - - Oregon Zoo Amphitheater, Portland, OR, USA, 2005 - - Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, CA, USA, 2005 - - Chumash Casino, Santa Ynez, CA, USA, 2005 - - The Showgrounds, Cork, Irlanda, 2005 - - Sandia Casino Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM, USA, 2004, 2005 - - Viejas Casino, Alpine, CA (San Diego), USA, 2004, 2005, - - Green Valley Ranch, Henderson, NV (Las Vegas), USA, 2005 - - The Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, NM, USA, 2005 - - Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO, USA, 2005 - - Ravinia Pavilion, Chicago, IL, USA, 2005 - - Niagara Fallsview Casino, Niagra Falls, Canadá, 2005 - - State Theater, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2005 ==================================.. ================================== ======================================================.. ============================================================ ============================================================ ============================================================ ============= ============================================================ ================================ ============================================================ ================================ ============================================================ ================================

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/25/2006
Band Members: Tools for Tales, Xavier's first record as a leader, includes 31 musicians, most of them comming from the French jazz scene, but originally from various countries like US, Spain, Venezuela, Cuba, Greece, Vietnam, Argentina and France. The record consists of 15 originals and runs for 76 minutes. Xavier played electric bass, composed and arranged all the music. He produced it and recorded it in Paris, at Studio Labroue in Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Here is the list of musicians:Drums: Luis Augusto Cavani, Andre Ceccarelli, Daniel García Bruno, Iannis Stavropoulos, David Pouradier-Duteil, Stephane Lambotte.Percussion: Gustavo Ovalles, Anga Díaz, Joel "Pibo" Márquez, Orlando Poleo, Luís Viloria, Rafael Mejías, Minino Garay.Trumpet: Tony Russo, Nicolas Folmer, Philippe Slominski, Christian Martínez.Sax: Thierry Farrougia, Allen Hoist, Cacau Queiroz, Leandro Guffanti, Pablo Gil.Flute: Pierre Mimran, Bobby Rangell.Piano: Julio Font, Mario Canonge, Vihn Lee, Frederic Gallardet, Franklin Lozada.Guitar: Roldan Peña, Michael Felberbaum, and Xavier Padilla (on Water Call)
Influences: Xavier says: "I'm interested in everything, but especially good music, made by real people. I'm also interested, well... "concerned" may be a better word, about the uncertain times our world is now going through: many things are plainly wrong and we should be doing something about it. I think the best way is that everybody (... well, that isn't obviously going to happen, but 'say at least "as many humans as possible") use common sense now: we just can't keep killing nature, children and polluting the air under any circumstance anymore. There is nothing (NOTHING) out there that justifies such an outrageous nonsense. The world can't endure anymore our worthless apologies upon killing and destroying. We have, or should have already learned from past eras and great men and women how to live in harmony; yeah, we have been given the opportunity. But logically THE time has arrived: either we prove the right behaviour now, or we'll loose everything for always. This is not a mystic prophecy, it's pure math folks. What a shame that we are at such a large extinction risk when the world is richer than it has ever been..."============================= As for INFLUENCES: "...we should remember what the great Argentinean poet and thinker Antonio Porchía once said, "no one is a light of him(her)self, not even the sun". Influences are everywhere, and it's important to understand that an artist is never influenced exclusively by other artists of the same art form, nor even by artists exclusively. I've been influenced, besides nature and other meaningful things on this planet, by all sorts of people, like (here it goes): my father Fernando Padilla Arteaga, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar "El Cid Campeador", Simón Bolívar, Jesus, Socrates, Lao-tze, Antonio Porchía, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pico de la Mirandola, Alan Watts, Johan Sebastian Bach, Igor Stravinski, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Alí Primera, Bill Evans, Bethoven, Israel López "Cachao", George Carlin, Barry Rogers, Claudio Arrau, Bruce Lee, Jaco Pastorius, Dario Deidda, Voltaire, Papo Pepín, Leroi Jones, Honoré de Balzac, Marie-Henri Beyle "Stendhal", Pablo Picasso, Paul McCartney, César Vallejo, Jean-Pierre Petit, Bill Bruford, Chick Corea, Malcom X, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nicolo Paganini, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Don Alias, Andrea del Sarto, El "Pavo" Frank, John Locke, Thelonius Monk, Ricardo Hernández, Samuel Moncada, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Eduardo Requena, Vasilis Saltikis, Bobby Rodríguez, Jean Ziegler, Marvin Santiago, Heraclitus, Chopin, Simón Díaz, Derrida, Carles Benavent, Mahatma Gandhi, Lester Young, Muhammad Ali, Yannis Stavropoulos, Ray Barreto, Andrés Segovia, Orlando "El Diablo" Blanco, Miguel de Unamuno, Héctor Lavoe, Shadia Drury, Raúl Bolívar, Chris Squire, Joaquín Trincado, "Joselo", Charlie Chaplin, Benoit Vanderstraeten, Bertrand Russell, Daniel Berinboim, Nikos Pipinelis, Rowan Atkinson, Rodrigo Mendoza, Dieudoné, Nathan East, Sexto Empírico, Joan Manuel Serrat, Octavio Cabrera, Charles Mingus, Bartolomeo de las Casas, Ellis Regina, Manolo Badrena, Iván Herrera, Antonio Lauro, Miles Davis, Eddie Palmieri, John Scofield, Eduardo Galeano, Zorro's horse "Tornado", Jeff Berlin, Stevie Wonder, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Marley, José Ortega y Gasset, Clifford Brown, James Jammerson, Linley Marthe, Django Reinhardt, Plato, Félix Suárez, Buster Williams, Mario Moreno "Cantinflas", Michael C. Ruppert, Ricardo Chitty, Pat Martino, Eddie Gómez, Camille Flammarion, Jerry González, Dante Alighieri, John McLaughlin, Jesús "Chucho" Manzanares, Juan José Benítez, José "Patúo" Velázquez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mauricio Silva, Jorge Luís Borges, Pandelis Benetatos, Duke Ellington, Marcolino Dimond, Guy Williams, Paul Chambers, Oscar D'León, Jerome Little, Antonio Alcalá, Batacumbele, Luisito Quintero, Astor Piazzola, Dave Holland, Néstor Pérez, Francisco de Miranda, Profesor Eduardo ("Lupa") Rotte, Tito Allen, Jeff Gardner, Michael Moore, Bireli Lagrene, Johny Pacheco, Henri Bergson, Michael Berti, Diógenes Laercio, Noam Chomsky, Paco Sery, Carl Gustav Jung, Octavio Cabrera, Hadrien Feraud, Alirio Díaz, Joni Mitchell, Edmund Husserl, Simón Rodríguez, Elvin Jones, Marcia Maria, Rafael Sanzio, Frank Zappa, Renoir, Allan Kardec, Nicky Marrero, Felipe "Mandingo" Rengifo, Oscar Peterson, Friedrich Nietzche, Alex acuña, Egberto Gismonti, Otmaro Ruiz, Joe Pass, horse "Seabiscuit", Eddie Martínez, Benito Mieses, Ray Brown, Didier Loubere, Jimmie Hendrix, Aldous Huxley, Lee Smith (bassist with Mongo Santamaría), Hank Jones, Lorenzo "El Diablo" Barriendos, George Galloway, McCoy Tyner, Domenico Dragonetti, Pat Metheny, Max Roach, Soha, Jimmy Garrison, Diana Krall, Henry Miller, Edgar "Dolor" Quijada, Rostropovich, Rubén Blades, Jean-Michel Pilc, Pablo Neruda, Pharoa Sanders, Mozart, Javier Darío Restrepo, Mike Stern, Bobby Valentín, Christel Seval, Louis Armstrong, Scott Ritter, Andy González, Albert Einstein, Rafael Correa, Allan Holdsworth, Julio Font, Eddie "Guagua" Rivera, Emmanuel Kant, Aldemaro Romero, Joe Zawinul, Salvador Cuevas, Billie Holiday, Pablo García, Antonio "Yeci" Ramos, Tania Maria, Charles Bukowski, Hermeto Pascoal, Aristófanes, Michael Brecker, Terry Bozzio, Ismael Rivera, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Robert Fripp, Miguel de Cervantes, Goethe, Carlos Gardel, Richard Bona, Victor Hugo, Mongo Santamaría, Richard Feynman, Francisco Pacheco, Bunny Brunel, Gerardo Rosales, Paco de Lucía, Arturo Michelena, Scott Thunes, Domenico Scarlatti, Wayne Shorter, Jair Oliveira, Marcus Miller, Eric Harland, Karl Marx, Jimmy Sabater, Sigmund Freud, West Montgomery, Alexander Kobrin, Cheo Feliciano, Giovanni Bottesini, Nat King Cole, Maurice Ravel..."
Sounds Like: I can't say what it would sound like to you, for me it sounds like what I hear in my head. A friend told me it would most probably sound to anyone like music...
Record Label: None
Type of Label: None

My Blog

End of human times?

I'm interested in everything, but especially good music, made by real people. I'm also interested, well... "concerned" may be a better word, about the uncertain times our world is now going through: m...
Posted by Xavier Padilla on Sat, 12 Aug 2006 06:29:00 PST

On Don Alias

Dear Tommie, those are really nice words. Both guys were great artists from our time, each of them an unique example of greatness. As for Don, I've been all my live telling percussionists to look at h...
Posted by Xavier Padilla on Thu, 06 Apr 2006 03:57:00 PST