9-year old plays at R&R hall of fame
When Marel Hidalgo was 4 years old, his teachers called home with a problem.
He doesn’t like music, they said. Impossible, his parents thought. Who doesn’t like music?
The real issue, Marel explains now, was that the class was sitting around singing
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star — and he was itching to learn to rock out on guitar to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung. And he did.
His parents, Mahonrry Hidalgo and Eslin Morris, took him to a music studio, where he first picked up an acoustic guitar, then an electric.
It took a little convincing to get the staff of Big Beat Music Studio to offer to teach the precocious tot — they usually start lessons at 6 — but note by note (six of them at his first lesson), Marel showed everyone what he could do. He nailed the song after four lessons.
And he hasn’t stopped. Now 9, the Bradley Beach, N.J., musician has racked up an impressive list of skills, gigs and accomplishments.
He played at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on July 29, as part of its Summer Stage Concert series, and will play the Hall’s stage again as part of the Latino Arts & Culture Celebration in the city Saturday.
He plays in two bands, Marel Hidalgo & The Stone Feathers with a group of local teenagers, and The Marel Hidalgo Band, collaborating with adult musicians.
He’s played venues, including New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, at a time when most kids are happily learning to string sentences together. At 5, he played a tribute to Prince on the New Jersey Performing Arts Center stage.
He was a 2015 recipient of the Tito Puente Award, which was presented to him at the 29th annual Hispanic Youth Showcase at the arts center.
After picking up the guitar, Marel’s thirst for learning led him to pick up the electric banjo, electric sitar, bass, keyboard, drums, vocals and more (well, the piano had to wait until he was tall enough to see over it).
“If you just stay with one instrument, anyone can do that,” Marel said.
If Marel doesn’t have a guitar in his hand, he has a book. “He reads more than anyone I know,” his mother said.
Asked why he plays, he says simply, “It makes people happy.”