On the first night, I was happy to agree with Maria Ana Bobone to meet for an interview. Maria Ana sings fado beautifully, but her musicianship also includes some elements that make her a bit unusual in the world of fado. So in the morning of April 1 my wife and I met with Maria Ana at Centro Cultural de Belém for an interesting conversation over coffee. This is what we talked about.

Conversation over coffee at Centro Cultural de Belém

With the exception of a few years, Maria Ana’s school was an English private school. This means that she speaks excellent English. At the age of twelve, she started in the Conservatory in order to study piano alongside with the ordinary school. In sixth grade, she switched from piano to classical singing. Maria Ana started to sing fado at the age of 16, and continued with singing courses until she was 23.

Unsure whether singing would be her future she started to study public information and journalism. She laughingly calls it her “plan B”, so I suppose this was not her main option after all. But Maria Ana wants to have many options. She is not a planner in life, and assures us that too much planning bores her. Maybe journalism fitted into that frame. Being able to know a little bit of everything, kept many doors open. So, actually Maria Ana did not consciously aim for a music career. It happened anyway. She calls herself “a late bloomer”.

While writing this post I wonder if we sometimes unconsciously aim for a goal by moving into certain positions and options that will make the attainment of that goal more probable. It is not planning, but the effect can be the same – or even better. You avoid the boredom, the rigidity or the anxiety of conscious planning, but you might anyway get where you want. Some of that applies to me, but I do not know if it applies to Maria Ana. That is for her to say.

However, some are born in the tradition, and they learn from people close to them. There is a vocal characteristic that seems to run in the family, a kind of coloratura with ornaments. Others learn fado from the outside. There is almost like a genetic thing which marks the difference between coming from the inside or the outside, says Maria Ana. It is not that one or the other is better, but they are different. And the Portuguese listener can tell the difference.

From my perception of Maria Ana compared to fadistas with a more obvious origin in the fado tradition, I believe I can sense another difference. I hesitate to describe that difference with my own words, but maybe the difference has to do with treating the voice as a beautiful and clear instrument or telling a story with the voice as a theatrical instrument. If I am on the right track, I would still stress that it very much is a matter of emphasis, not of mutually exclusive categories. Exactly where on such a scale Maria Ana Bobone and other fadistas are positioned, I let others argue about. I very much enjoy the whole scale.

But new instruments are introduced, and Maria Ana Bobone is one of the fadistas who does that. Not only the piano, but also less expected instruments. In her album Luz Destino there is a harpsichord, and in the album Senhora da Lapa a saxophone. But, as Maria Ana points out, even Amalia Rodrigues experimented with the saxophone by Don Byas in 1973.

Most often fadistas do not accompany themselves on an instrument, but Maria Ana Bobone does. Often on a piano, and sometimes on a classical guitar. And the bass player Rodrigo Serrão, who often accompanies her, plays an upright bass, sometimes one with a futuristic design. So there are some things in Maria Ana Bobone’s performances and albums that differ from the kind of fado you most often experience in the fado houses of today. But it is beautiful and exciting music, sometimes with melody and/or lyrics by Maria Ana.

But Maria Ana has also recorded music far from fado. I am thinking of her album Smooth. Actually, I cannot see any relation at all to fado. The English title indicates instead that this album positions itself in the North American/North European culture sphere. When I saw that album for the first time, I got suspicious. I have experienced beautiful fadistas reduce themselves into much less significant singers, trying to interpret songs from the American tradition. They have not been able to compete with singers raised in that tradition, and they have not been able to bring interesting elements of fado into the American tradition. But Maria Ana Bobone is exceptional. She is in this album well in class with her most well-known American colleagues, and she has a part in most of the songs as composer and/or lyricist. My respect for this multi-talented artist continues to grow.

Can it be that Maria Ana still “keeps many doors open”? If so, I only hope that her audience will have the capacity to appreciate her capacity to vary between expressions. So far, the brilliant album Smooth does not have the attention it deserves, neither in Portugal nor in the US.

Which kind of venue does she prefer? They are different experiences, she says. Maria Ana likes the human contact without barriers and technique in a fado house or other small venue, but she also enjoys the show of a big concert, for instance in the great auditorium in Centro Cultural de Belém. She earlier used to sing in churches, which of course is a kind of venue suitable for her way of singing. Maria Ana has also performed internationally in different countries – in big concert halls and at small venues.

I agree with Maria Ana. Empathy and passion are two of the feelings that give depth to a fado experience – even if you only understand the emotional expression, not the language. Actually, I believe that is why you have to be quiet and concentrate on the performance in a fado house. If you think of something else your experience will be disturbed. And if you talk or eat during the performance, the fado experience will be ruined for everyone in the room.

The theme of maturity and empathy ends our fado discussion with Maria Ana, but we do not split just yet. We talk for a while about differences in the world, how climate in different regions influences culture, how nature provides different possibilities to find one’s dignity, and that different people consider different things essential.

However, not everything that is different is good. How can we know what is good and what is bad? What should we avoid? Maria Ana has given her children one role of thumb:

If it does not make sense to you, trust yourself and your thoughts.

That principle is of course not the only one you need in life, but maybe that rule of thumb can provide some sort of guidance to an open mind. An open mind like Maria Ana Bobone’s.

Here is a mix of songs from different times, venues and albums. Enjoy!

Porque Voltas de Que Lei
Zanguei-Me Com o Meu Amor
Senhora do Almortao
Auto Retrato
Que Deus Me Perdoe
Fado da Sina
Senhora do Monte
Minha Mãe Chamou por Ana
Com que voz
Estranha Forma de Vida
Sabe-se lá
Fadinho Serrano
Marcha de São Vicente
Nome de Mar
Imagem
Leve, Breve, Suave
Leves Véus
Pálida a Lua
My Wings
Pretty Song
Karmission
If The Stars Were To Waltz (feat. Mikkel Solnado)
Mirror You

Photo: Lili Bonmati

The message on WhatsApp came three minutes earlier than expected, and I took the elevator down to let Èlia into the house where my wife and I rented an apartment during our stay in Barcelona. Èlia and I had agreed three months earlier to meet for this interview – unless she was booked for a concert outside Barcelona. Fortunately for me, no such concert was booked.

Actually we had agreed to meet at 15.30, but when Èlia after leaving another meeting realised that she would not be in time, she sent me a message and informed me that she would be ten minutes late. She was very sorry about that. Not everyone would even pay attention to being ten minutes late, and in the end it was only seven. The impression I got of Èlia in connection to an interview I conducted with her, Joan Chamorro and Carla Motis last year proved to be very right. Èlia is a reliable person. A person to be trusted. A person I would be happy to depend on, if I was a leader of a youth band and had Èlia as a senior band member.

And actually Èlia Bastida has for six years been a member of the excellent youth band Sant Andreu Jazz Band (SAJB), led by Joan Chamorro. She is now 23 years old, but as she joined the band at the age of 17 she was never a very young band member, as many of the other members have been. Although junior in the jazz context at the time she joined the band, she was not junior as a musician, having played classical music on her violin since she was four. But for the last seven years the jazz music of SAJB and different projects connected to the band have been a very important part of her musical life. And music is what dominates her daily life.

The specific reason I wanted to interview Èlia at this particular time in her life was because she is on the brink of establishing a new musical base. As Joan, Èlia and Carla unanimously declared in my interview last year, SAJB is a band that regenerates; older members at some point leave and thereby open up room for younger member to be recruited. This is where Èlia is now in life and I wanted to know how that feels and how her new music base emerges. After all, SAJB is not just any youth band. It combines the double ambition of making young people grow as musicians as well as persons in a social context – and the band is very successful in both respects. That experience is of course a wonderful asset to a young person, but to leave a wonderful experience can also be threatening. So “life after SAJB” was my concern, a common situation for all “aging” band members of SAJB.

The other thing that has changed is her opportunity to play her second instrument in the band. She is still the only violinist, so she can continue with that. But in the saxophone section there are new younger musicians, who have taken her place.

The Joan Chamorro New Quartet – a new project with Joan Chamorro, Alba Armengou, Èlia Bastida and Carla Motis. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

The dimension of SAJB that has not changed for Èlia is her opportunities to play with musicians in one way or another connected to SAJB; meaning current band members, former band members and professionals who have collaborated with SAJB. These kind of smaller band projects connected to SAJB go on all the time, Joan Chamorro being the centre of it all, and Èlia has been part of such projects most of her years as a SAJB member. So in this respect there is not really a big difference having left the big band of SAJB. In these projects she can still play her two instruments (violin and tenor saxophone), and also sing. She very much wants to continue with all of these musical forms of expression.

The SAJB string section. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

The SAJB saxophone section. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

But the narrow scope of opportunities might actually be two-sided. I believe Èlia and her fellow musicians in SAJB might not want to play in just any kind of band, playing any kind of music. They have learned to play and love some forms of jazz, and there might not be so many bands like that around these days. So even if there are bands who would welcome good musicians like Èlia and her friends in their bands, the former SAJB members might not like to play the kind of music that is requested in those bands. In the new documentary about Andrea Motis, The silent Trumpet, Andrea Motis points out that her mission in music is jazz. And Èlia tells me that starting to play jazz changed her life. Her eyes glimmer when she tells me that, and I realise that something very positive was released within her as she turned to jazz music. She appreciates the freedom of jazz and the demand to make use of that freedom. I do not think that Èlia at this point in her life can imagine playing music she does not have that kind of passion for, and a very personal relation to. So Èlia and her music friends might have to continue to create their own job market, like they so successfully have done so far. Actually, all around the world!

So, why did Èlia become a musician? Since her mother is a music teacher, playing piano herself, there was music in the family from the beginning. Èlia’s father obviously also has an interest in music, which shows in his expressive paintings of jazz musicians. When Èlia was three years old her parents wanted her to sing in the music school choir, but Èlia did not like that.

Èlia, five years old.

She wanted to play the violin! Her mother then said – if you study violin at an early age, the teacher has to be a good teacher for children. A friend of her mother who taught violin became Èlia’s teacher and she started to play when she was four. His method was built on the foundation of natural thinking. The music was classical, and if Joan Chamorro later had not appeared on the scene maybe Èlia would still be playing classic violin. Or not. Maybe turning to jazz was what was needed to release Èlia’s musical self and make her continue with music. That we will never know, but Èlia’s assurance that jazz changed her life points in that direction.

At the age of twelve Èlia started in Oriol Martorell music school, where music is integrated in the curriculum alongside other subjects. The pupils range from 6 to 18 years old, and in the school she met Andrea Motis and Joan Mar Sauqué, two of her future music friends in SAJB.

Since Èlia’s mother and Joan Chamorro both were part of music life in Barcelona they knew each other. Joan was interested in adding a violin to SAJB so he asked if Èlia would like to try to play Joe Venuti’s Pretty Trix. And yes, she wanted to give it a try. Never having played jazz before she first rehearsed this classic jazz violin piece for herself, and then asked her friend Andrea Motis to listen and judge whether Èlia’s way of playing the song was good enough. Andrea had no doubt, and Èlia then played the song for Joan, who also liked what he heard. This was in 2012. Èlia was 17 and from that day she was a member of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. The band had by that time existed for five years. Two weeks later she rehearsed with the band for the first time and three weeks later she performed with the band at Teatre Greek in Barcelona.

The second song Joan asked Èlia to play was another jazz classic, Django Reinhardt’s and Stéphane Grappelli’s Minor Swing. Most SAJB fans have enjoyed the YouTube clip with SAJB playing that song in the outdoor concert at Plaça Reial in Barcelona, 2013.

After Oriol Martorell, Èlia started to study for a bachelor degree at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). She now attends her last year of four. The last year includes a final project, but she will do that project next year since she has so many other things to do now. Apart from a lot of concerts Èlia has lately worked on the preparation and recording of the album “The Magic Sound of the Violin”, a project she co-leads with Joan Chamorro. Carla Motis is one of the other musicians in this project. Èlia enjoys co-leading the project together with Joan, choosing songs etc. The album will be released in November 2019 at the Barcelona Jazz Festival. (At Luz de Gas.)

Èlia Bastida makes magic. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

If it had not been for Joan Chamorro and SAJB Èlia would not have started to play jazz, and she is very thankful for this turn in her life. How did that change feel?

“It totally changed my mind-set”, Èlia answers. Joan has no limits, is very open, tells you to listen, and to play a lot. In the classical world you play by the scores. In jazz you listen and play. There is no special reference for the violin. It’s the same language as for other instruments. You can sing, play saxophone, or violin – it’s the same ideas. A lot in jazz is different from classical music. They are different worlds, Èlia concludes, and she wants to live her life in the world of jazz.

Èlia Bastida with her tenor saxophone. Photo by Angel Tejo.

So Èlia’s first instrument in the band was the violin, but she later also wanted to play the clarinet. Joan recommended that she try the saxophone instead. She did that and started with alto saxophone. After a few months there was a position free in the band as a tenor saxophonist, and if she wanted to play saxophone in the band it had to be tenor. So she started to play tenor saxophone, and now she likes that instrument better. She devotes more time to the violin, but she also loves the saxophone. And she likes to sing – Bossa Nova and other Brazilian music. Over the years with SAJB Èlia has done both lead and backing vocals. So violin, saxophone and vocals are, so far, her three musical modes of expression.

Èlia Bastida and Joan Chamorro, Photo by Lili Bonmati.

In addition, Èlia points at the opportunity to play in concerts, sometimes with big and famous jazz musicians. Often the concerts are recorded on videos of high quality, which are uploaded to YouTube. And you get the opportunity to record CDs. To get all this, the band members do not have to pay anything at all. When Èlia tells us about all this you can see that she appreciates these magnificent gifts. We know since earlier about the SAJB formula, but to hear a senior SAJB member like Èlia tell about the features of SAJB with strong emotions and gratitude gives an extra dimension to our understanding of SAJB. And probably this is only the beginning of the rich music life of a young and very talented musician.

Èlia as vocalist and saxophonist with the band. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

Èlia ends our rich and long conversation with three statements:

Being part of SAJB has been a gift of great importance.

If you work for your dream; work hard with happiness and a positive mind. Then you have a better chance to reach it. This is a philosophy often expressed by Joan Chamorro that I try to bear in mind.

Music is very important, one of the most important things in life. It is my life. We don´t know the power of music in the world. Music is most important.

And I conclude for myself – it has been a pleasure to talk to this pleasant and devoted young musician, and I am looking forward to follow her career. As I will do with Joan Chamorro and Sant Andreu Jazz Band, with new young musicians to follow in the footsteps of Èlia Bastida, Andrea Motis and all the others. This part of the future is bright, and like Èlia I will try to live by the Joan Chamorro motto.

Interviewing Èlia

__________

Music videos where Èlia Bastida appears together with music friends, in one way or another connected to Sant Andreu Jazz Band

Source: YouTube

The music of Céu is for sure Brazilian, but not in any traditional way. I don’t know exactly what it is in her music that makes me begin to listen more intensely. Her music has dimensions that are completely new to me, but yet Céu builds some sort of a bridge to my previous music experiences.

The more I listen, the more I broaden my perspective. It is as if Céu meets me at the Brazilian seashore and leads me into some musical kind of rainforest. There awaits an evocative fabric of sounds and Céu starts to sing. 10 Contados. I’m hooked.

I let go of things in music that I previously have held dear. I trust Céu. We continue a little bit longer, and there her band turns up. It has only a few members, and they play with discernment. Everything is parsimonious and slow, but swings anyway. Malemolência.

Then I listen all day to a kind of music that I have never listened to before. Grains de Beauté Some of it sounds strange, but I don’t let myself become disturbed. The music is released on her three albums CéU (2005), Vagarosa (2009) and Caravana Sereia Bloom (2012). And so evening comes, and Céu sings Véu da Noite – the Veil of the Night. This could be the start of something new.

This was in May 2013. I continued to listen to Céu’s first album, but not so much to the two others. The first one appealed more to me. Three years passed and in 2016 her fourth original album was released, titled Tropix. (In between, her first live album Céu – Ao Vivo was released.) I like Tropix as much as her first album. Her music has developed, but the base is the same. And last Saturday, April 13, Céu performed in Stockholm at the music club Fasching. I was there to see her live for the first time, and I was a little bit worried. Were my expectations too high?

Céu at Fasching, April 2019

They were not. It was a great night, and the audience was enthusiastic. Her band was in some songs not at all “parsimonious”, but they matched Céu and her songs perfectly, and with a lot of happiness. There were songs from all albums, and I could experience the dream sequence above become live reality. I am now waiting for the next concert and the next album. Céu still appears new and exciting to me.

More

Malemolência

Grains de Beauté

Véu da Noite

Perfume do Invisível

Amor Pixelado

Minhas Bics

Concert at Palau de la Música Catalana November 28, 2018

This is an add-on to the post The Sant Andreu Jazz Band Formula from October 26, 2018. If you have not read that post, I recommend you to do that first and then return to this add-on.

I finished the October post with the assumption that I would not be able to resist the temptation to go to Barcelona to enjoy the Sant Andreu Jazz Band concert at Palau de la Música Catalana. I was right. The day before the concert my wife and I arrived in Barcelona with the necessary concert tickets in our luggage. We had decided to expand an already planned trip to Paris with a couple of extra days in Barcelona. For climate reasons we nowadays always travel by train, so we arrived at Barcelona Sants in the centre of the lovely city.

Palau de la Música Catalana is a very special concert building. To be able to experience the full beauty of the building you should see it in daylight. Therefore we joined a guided tour in the morning and returned for the concert in the evening.

The Concert Auditorium of Palau de la Música Catalana

The concert was part of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Over the years many of the world’s most celebrated jazz musicians have participated in the festival concerts at the Palau – Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Oscar Peterson, Django Reinhardt, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan and many more. In 2011 Sant Andreu Jazz Band participated at the Palau for the first time. Like in 2018 the band played together with some specially invited well-known jazz musicians. The concert in 2011 was a big success, and there are many beautiful video recordings from the concert on YouTube. And some of the scenes in Ramón Tort’s documentary Kids and Music, la Sant Andreu Jazz Band originate from that concert.

The specially invited musicians at the 2018 concert were Ignazi Terraza (piano), Andrea Motis (vocal and trumpet), Èlia Bastida (violin and tenor saxophone), Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophone), Luigi Grasso (alto saxophone), and Ray Colom (trumpet). Being a member of the Joan Chamorro Quartet (sometimes Quintet) Ignazi has played a lot together with members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band.  Colom was new to me, but Hamilton and Grasso have played a lot with the band, and you can find many beautiful music videos on YouTube showing their collaborations.  Motis had been a regular member of the band, but appears nowadays as a guest. From this concert the senior band member Bastida has the same status. Specially invited to this concert were also the gospel choir Barcelona Gospel Messengers and the two dancers Clara Martínez and Paula Farran. And, of course, everything was supervised by the dynamic leader of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, Joan Chamorro.

This is not supposed to be a review of the concert, but before I come to the intended subject of this add-on I have to declare that the two and a half hour long concert was one of the most enjoyable music evenings I have experienced. Of course I am biased since I love Sant Andreu Jazz Band, but my love emanates from the band’s musical brilliance and charm. And the invited guests of course added even more musical brilliance. All concert photos in this post are from the concert November 28, 2018.

The complexity of success factors

Now for the themes I want to discuss in this add-on. Everyone can see that the project of Sant Andreu Jazz Band is a huge success, but it might be harder to point to specific features as being more important than others to create this success. The question of critical success factors can be complex.  But to those who want to educate young musicians and/or start a youth band this question is important, and of course Sant Andreu Jazz Band is very interesting as a reference point.  This is the general theme of this post. I will formulate as many questions as answers, and my aim is to stimulate analysis and contemplation of possible success factors.

I have no doubt that the four features that Joan Chamorro points to in the former post are very important – listening to learn, the belief that young persons can play jazz, the importance of presence, and the positive energy of the group – but are they equally important? And might there be additional, equally important features that might be interesting to take notice of in the creation of a youth band and/or music education?

I have read statements claiming that one of Joan’s four factors need to be introduced into contemporary music education to improve it, but maybe that factor alone would not do the trick if introduced in music education? The road to success might be much more complex. Even if all four features were copied and practiced in institutional music education those institutions would still miss one crucial factor – Joan Chamorro. Obviously he is very important. He might not be the only one in the world who can build and sustain a project like Sant Andreu Jazz Band – but certainly not just anyone can do it.

And mentioning the importance of individuals we should not forget the individual young musicians in Sant Andreu Jazz Band, their skills and their readiness to contribute to the positive energy of the group. The younger learn from the older, and you are perceived as important regardless of the size of your contribution. And eventually the younger become more experienced and take on the roles of seniors and role models. They are all part of a living and sustainable music culture that goes on and creates new experiences for us to enjoy.

Cultural background

What about the cultural background of the members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band? Is there something about the general culture of the society where the members grew up that facilitates the evolution of positive group energy and professional music culture? I am not saying that there is; just that the question of finding the important factors behind the Sant Andreu Jazz Band success is a complex one, and that some common dimension of the cultural background might be one important factor – or not. I have not investigated this question any further, but an investigation by a sociologist would be interesting. And the possible influence of cultural background might be an interesting question to reflect on if you want to create something like Sant Andreu Jazz Band in your city.

View from Sant Andreu, Barcelona

Economy

A question that touches on culture relates to finances. Joan Chamorro shared my post The Sant Andreu Jazz Band Formula on Facebook, and one of the followers asked if the students in the band had to pay tuition fees. Joan’s answer was that they did not.

This is a question that did not pop up in my mind during my interview because most education in my country is free. In other cultures the question of fees is more natural. Of course I understand that there are costs involved in running a youth band, and that they have to be paid for by someone. Joan’s answer to the question on Facebook was that the income of concerts covered the costs. But then you have to become interesting enough to make people come to your concerts and pay for the tickets. The same goes for buying your albums. Joan Chamorro and Sant Andreu Jazz Band have obviously managed to create the necessary quality and public interest in the band.

The role of money might have effects on recruitment to a youth band. If students do not have to pay fees, everyone can afford to be part of a band like the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. This means that you as a band leader can find your talents anywhere in society. You are not restrained to look for talent only with those whose parents can afford the fees. This kind of recruitment situation may also influence the internal culture of the band you form.

To be fair, I should add that most of the members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band get musical training outside the band as they go to music schools or universities. But the training you get during section and band rehearsals (led by Joan Chamorro) is a very important part of the training. And Joan gives special classes to the saxophonists and to everyone who wants to deepen in jazz.

Independence

Sant Andreu Jazz Band in fact started from a music class in a music school, but is now an independent project run by Joan Chamorro. The start from a music school was probably necessary, but can a formal institution in the long run harbour a band like the Sant Andreu Jazz Band? There are many valuable assets in a formalized educational institution, but there are also restraints and obligations that I would guess would not be advantageous to everything that Sant Andreu Jazz Band has achieved over the years. If this is so, it might be difficult to import the features of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula and make it work equally well in an institution. If you still want to try, you should be aware of the frame you work within.

Richness

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band concept is a very rich concept, and I believe this richness means a lot to the success. When I say “rich” I do not mean rich in terms of money. I mean the multiplicity of different music activities. The big band itself is the base, but a number of different smaller (in terms of the number of musicians involved) projects with different band members are linked to the band. Sometimes these projects feature one or two of the band members. The big band and these smaller constellations are often combined with professional musicians. This means that the young musicians get to know, and can learn from, these professional musicians. They might play the roles of juniors and seniors, but they are all musicians in the constellation. That probably means a lot to the young musicians.

Soloists Alba Armengou and Scott Hamilton

This richness in terms of activities, projects and collaborations is of course in itself a dimension of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band success, but it probably also strengthens other dimensions of the success. The multitude of different projects, rehearsals, travels and concerts frequently provide new challenges and something to look forward to for the young musicians. These young individuals will probably have few hours of having nothing interesting to do. Rather, there is almost always something interesting, fun and challenging waiting. You are part of something that makes you happy, and together with the others in the band you make other people (like me) happy. Musicianship also provides a possibility to express oneself, a rewarding aspect of an activity for a young person.

Soloists Èlia Bastida and Scott Hamilton

Eventually the young musicians are not so young any longer, and they leave the big band. But then the small projects provide opportunities for these musicians to carry on playing with Joan, other senior band members and also the professional musicians that Joan Chamorro collaborates with. The result is a large and strong network of musicians of different ages.

Concerts and recordings

Sant Andreu Jazz Band and all the other project groups run by Joan Chamorro do a lot of concerts. There are also many albums available for current and potential fans. Even more impressive is the phenomenal releasing of music videos on YouTube. It is phenomenal both in terms of quality and in terms of quantity. This means that the fans get a lot of opportunities to experience Sant Andreu Jazz Band and the other projects. And the concerts let the band members frequently meet their audience.

The extensive releasing of YouTube videos shows an interesting policy. When new distribution channels such as YouTube emerge, traditional distributing companies can see the new phenomenon as a threat to their business. This view can be shared by the artists connected to the traditional distributing companies, not least if they earn a living through concerts. The result is that you often can find only a few official video recordings by established artists on YouTube.

But regarding concerts you can think the other way around. YouTube can be seen as a place where you can make a band well-known and liked in order to make people wanting to experience the band live. After all, a live performance is very different to a video recording. This is obviously the way it has worked out for Sant Andreu Jazz Band.

The extensive realising of videos on YouTube has also triggered the interest in the band as an educational project. This is a road I believe music education in general should go down.

Multi-instrumentalism

One feature of the band that has really struck me as impressive is the multi-instrumental approach. Many members play more than one instrument, sometimes more than two, and there are many instrumentalists who are also good singers. In the general discussion about whether you should force specialisation at an early age (in sport, music and other activities) the Sant Andreu Jazz Band model is very interesting. Maybe you as a young person sometimes will find that your second instrument was actually more suitable for you than the first one – or not. Or you just like to alternate now and then. Variation can be fun!

This is not to say that it is always better to play several instruments than to focus on one. Maybe the practices of different instruments can fertilize each other, but maybe not to focus on one instrument sometimes also comes with a cost.

However, what I find attractive with Sant Andreu Jazz Band is the possibility to play several instruments and also to sing, if you want to. And if you want to, I assume you are also encouraged. For those band members who have found combinations of several instruments (and singing) rewarding, I sincerely hope there will be such opportunities when they leave Sant Andreu Jazz Band.

Joan Chamorro and Èlia Bastida with their string instruments and saxophones

Musicianship and life

A quote from the end of the documentary Kids and Music, la Sant Andreu Jazz Band shows the double ambition of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band project: “Driven and directed by Joan Chamorro, the orchestra aims to educate children from 7 to 18 years old both as musicians and as people.” Joan has in reality stretched the age span a bit, but the double ambition is still there. And he continues to give his care even further.

I have recently watched Ramón Tort’s beautiful new documentary The Silent Trumpet, featuring the former band member Andrea Motis, and I believe I could see signs of a very fruitful nurturing culture there. In the movie Andrea tells the story of how she, her father and Joan Chamorro earlier have discussed whether to accept two tempting consecutive offers of record label contracts. It seems that they all three show a thoughtful engagement in Andrea’s future as a musician and as a person. In the discussion Andrea herself stresses the importance of being a jazz musician, not just any kind of musician. Both offers are in the end turned down, not to disturb Andrea’s development. The combination of these three persons’ serious and balanced attitude towards musicianship, life and fame indicates a posture that I believe is beneficial for a steady and long-term development.

Soloists Andrea Motis and Luigi Grasso

Soloists Alba Armengou and Andrea Motis

What to do?

Well, what should you do if you want to form a fruitful music education, a youth band, or a combination of the two? My assumption about the complexity of success factors should of course not stop you from trying to form your own concept, but it is probably wise to first reflect for a while on the issue of success factors. After doing that, your own belief has to decide your choice of action, and your own belief is probably also a positive force in itself. Maybe a well-considered selection of features from the ones that are accessible to you, supported by your own conviction and commitment, can be fruitful.

But you cannot avoid studying the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. Their example is remarkable and a great source of inspiration. Their formula is bound to incorporate a number of interesting success factors.

__________

What’s your favourite music video by Sant Andreu Jazz Band?
I know that Sant Andreu Jazz Band has a lot of fans around the world, and some of the fans also read my posts.  This is my fifth post on Sant Andreu Jazz Band and connecting constellations. I usually end my posts with links to music videos on YouTube, but this time I thought you might want to contribute. Please send me a YouTube link to your favourite music video by Sant Andreu Jazz Band, or other connected constellation, and I will put at least some of the ones I get in the end of this post.
Send the link by e-mail to post@musik.pm .

Related posts

Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?    (June 26, 2020)
To be sincere    (May 30, 2020)
Joan Chamorro New Quartet (February 3, 2020)
Joan Chamorro    (August 9, 2019)
Èlia Bastida    (May 24, 2019)
Added reflections on The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula    (January 3, 2019)
The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula    (October 26, 2018)
La Màgia de la Veu & Jazz Ensemble    (July 8, 2017)
Sant Andreu Jazz Band live    (April 30, 2017)
Sant Andreu Jazz Band    (September 22, 2016)

Here are some videos suggested by some of you. You can still suggest more videos!

Wave
Someone To Watch Over Me
Flor de Lis
Triste
Minor Swing
Embraceable You
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Groove Merchant
How High the Moon
Easter Parade
Black and Tan Fantasy
Andrea Motis and Joan Chamorro Grup in Concert
Georgia on My Mind
After You’ve Gone
Mood Indigo
Louisiana Fairy Tale
That’s All
Pra Machucar Meu Coração
Saudades da Guanabara
Lover Come Back to Me
When I Fall In Love
What’s New
On the Sunny Sid of the Steet

Five observations and one conclusion

1

2

Some people instead believe that my interest in music means that I have a vast knowledge of genres, composers, lyric writers, songs, musicians, singers etc. Well, if you listen to a lot of music, as I do, you eventually pick up a thing or two. You know a bit more than the average person, but my ”being into music” is not in the first place fact oriented. Learning facts is only a by-product of my interest, and it can help me to find more music to pursue the true goal of my music interest.

If I do not play music myself, or am not very interested in the facts associated with music, what does then constitute my interest in music? The simple answer is enjoyment of other people’s musical expressions. Of course not any music or any musician, but I love to listen to soulful music of different genres, and I love to experience the different expressions and identities of soulful artists. And I love the beauty of melodies, voices, instruments and arrangements.

3

This is an interesting and pleasurable way to get to know both the music and yourself better. This is why the tag line of Musik.pm spells “exploring, and expressing the experience of music”. I want to explore my experiences and express my conclusions. This is what I often try to do at Musik.pm. (Most obvious in Personality and music preferences.)

Sometimes the answers of these analyses also makes me understand why I am indifferent, or even negative, to some music, but those observations are not in the focus of my attention. This is another important feature of Musik.pm. I do not, as critics have to do, write about music I do not like.

Even if I take myself and my own favourites as a departure point for these analysis, I want to stimulate the reader to do similar analysis of their personalities and music taste.

4

When it comes to experiencing music played by others, are there any differences between non-musicians and musicians? If there are, how could those differences effect the quality of the experience?

One difference is probably the degree of awareness of the technique and the effort that the performing musicians put into their performance. Maybe you as a musician, more than a non-musician, can discern and apprehend “the construction” of a music performance. And probably musicians can do that more easily the more the performed music is close to their own expertise as musicians. Maybe such awareness somewhat can hinder musicians from enjoying the experience in terms of passion. The non-musician might not have that filter blocking his or her passion when experiencing a music performance.

Another difference might be that musicians use most of their passion for music to make music, simply because they find making music more rewarding than listening to music. Hence, there might not be as much engagement and passion left for “consuming” music, not as much as the non-musicians have. Non-musicians can focus all of their passion for music on experiencing music performed by others.

5

I used the word “consuming” above to name the activity of the members of an audience. But “consuming” is actually not a good word when you talk about something you have a passion for. The emotional relation of passion means that you are an active participant in the creation of your experience, and often also in creating the experience of the musician. For instance, this is how the relation between a fadista and the guests in a Portuguese fado house often is described. The fado loving guest in a fado house is not a passive consumer. Although silent during a fado song, he or she is still a co-creator of the fado experience. An experience of passion.

Conclusion

&

The photos above illustrates another passion of mine, a passion for nature. I live close by a forest. At the end of my walks in that forest, I always pass this small lake.

Here are a few examples of music I have a passion for. In interaction, the musicians and I  create my experiences; experiences that make my life warmer, sometimes more exciting, and anyhow more meaningful.

What’s your passion in music?

Sant Andreu Jazz Band at the home of Joan Chamorro. Photo by Joan Chamorro.

Sant Andreu is one of Barcelona’s nine main districts. The start of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band was a small music class at the local music school Escola Municipal de Música de Sant Andreu. Joan Chamorro was a teacher there and as a passionate jazz musician he introduced jazz to a small group of eight young students who had not played jazz before. Their training in the school had so far been focused on classical music. Their first attempts to play jazz was of course not very deft and did not involve much (if any) of the improvisational elements of jazz. This was back in 2006 and a lot has happened during the twelve years since then.

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band is today an independent music project with some twenty members of different ages. They play jazz and related genres with high quality, although there are some very young musicians in the band. This is not to say that everyone in every way and all the time play like experienced professionals, but as a whole the band is of a remarkably high quality. They play sophisticated arrangements with strength and elegance and the solo improvisations are mature and played with passion. It is quite a remarkable development. Together with the charm of youth the band is irresistible. You just have to love them!

Carla Motis. Photo by Josep Colet.

Èlia Bastida. Photo by Lili Bonmati.

I arrived at the concert hall in good time for our meeting, and on the side of the hall I saw a well-known Swedish jazz musician walking in the opposite direction on the pavement, the trombonist, singer and band leader Nils Landgren. You see a lot of well-known people in Stockholm, so there is nothing peculiar about that. I continued to the main entrance where Joan and I were supposed to meet some fifteen minutes later. Joan was already there and he told me that he was looking for a person he was supposed to meet at the stage entrance. We found out that the person he was looking for was in fact Nils Landgren, who wanted to make a connection with Joan because he was interested in Joan’s work. We walked together in the direction where I earlier saw Nils Landgren and we spotted him almost immediately. We said hello and Nils politely asked me if he could talk to Joan just for a few minutes. There is no other answer to such a question than a “yes”. I waited at the main entrance and a few minutes later Joan came back, anxious to keep his appointment with me. So, Joan is a busy person who many want to talk to and learn from. He is also generous with his time and his ambition is obviously to give everyone what is agreed.

Joan Chamorro

When we entered the café (exactly on time) we had thirty minutes before the band´s rehearsal, but there was not a sign that Joan and the two band members would not give me and my questions full attention for the full half hour. Although the band now has quite a reputation around the world, Joan and the girls did not have the slightest touch of diva manners. Instead, it was almost as if we worked together. Joan told me to sit at the top of the table. Then he went to buy coffee for all of us, so I could start the discussion with Carla and Èlia. When he came back we continued the discussion, and we conducted it in English since I cannot speak a word of Spanish. They helped each other to understand and answer my questions. English and Spanish discussions were mingled around the table.

I have a good reason to give you these pictures of the social settings around my interview ­– about what happened before my interview and about the interaction during the interview. My hypothesis is that these settings indicate an important cultural dimension of the success formula of the band. Music, people, sharing and cooperation lie at the centre of the band’s focus, not image building, glamour and other surface phenomena.

Joan, Carla, Bengt-Ove and Èlia

Firstly, said Joan, the young people need to hear a lot of jazz. Listening makes you feel the qualities and the soul of the music, and how it differs from other kinds of music. Of course you have to learn the songs and to play your instrument, but hearing jazz played is more important than the command of transcriptions.

Secondly, there is the belief that young people, children and teenagers, actually can play jazz. As a leader and teacher of young musicians you have to have that belief. The young musicians then feel your confidence in them, and they also feel their own confidence in themselves. This might sound like a simple idea to adopt, but admit; quite many of us have the more or less conscious notion that jazz is music for grown-ups. Of course you cannot as a child play difficult things right from the start. Your contributions to the band’s music are small in the beginning, and senior members perform the more advanced tasks. But gradually you become more and more senior, both in age and tasks. And all the time there is this belief in you – the basic belief that you actually can play jazz.

Thirdly, there is the sense of presence. When you play you have to be there, not somewhere else. You have to be in the music and together with the others in the group. You must not observe yourself from the outside, from the views of spectators or a camera. The spectators or the camera might not be there, but you could anyway observe yourself from that kind of perspective, and such preoccupation would split your focus.

Fourthly, there is the positive energy of the group. The younger learn from the older and you are perceived as important regardless of the size of your contribution. And eventually the younger become more experienced and take on the roles of seniors and role models.

There are a couple of connecting features of the band that fit neatly together with these four principles. Many members take on different roles in the band. Sometimes you are the front figure as vocalist/instrumentalist, sometimes you sit in the band backing up other band members who are the front figures in those songs. And many members play more than one instrument and sing very well too. It should also be mentioned that several senior members have been featured in special albums, backed up by the others and/or professional musicians. Altogether this means that the band really works as a school where everybody is supposed to have his or her chance, but the band uses this modus operandi and still keeps up an exceptional quality.

Joan Chamorro. Photo: Toni Ricart

What about the musical side of the band, then? Who works with all this? As the musical director, Joan of course is in charge of the music in terms of planning, repertoire, arrangements, rehearsals and performances. Joan leads rehearsals not only of the band as a whole, but also of the different sections separately – trombones, trumpets, rhythmic section and saxophones. In addition, the saxophone players receive Joan’s individual saxophone classes since they started those classes with him when very young. Other members get a lot of their training as musicians in their basic music schools and universities, but anyone who wants to deepen in jazz music could receive Joan’s classes. Again, Sant Andreu Jazz Band is a music school to its members. Joan’s main instrument is tenor saxophone, but he also plays other saxophones as well as double base.

Joan is obviously a very important person to the band, being in the centre of both music and organisational tasks. However, you can now and then see signs of an ambition to make the musicians take on leadership responsibility. On stage, you can sometimes see that Joan has delegated the setting of tempo and other guidance of the band to the soloists. And sometimes there are micro discussions between soloists and Joan before starting the songs. A culture of sharing and involvement.

An earlier version of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band

Carla is now the only original member of the band. She is 21 and was 9 when the band started. Èlia joined the band 2012 when she was 17. She is now 23. Both had played their main instruments (guitar and violin) several years before they started in the band ­– Carla since she was six and Èlia since she was four. Two years after Èlia joined the band she started to play the saxophone, inspired by others in the band and given the possibility by Joan.

Joan Chamorro

If you search for the band on YouTube you get a mix of videos from different years, and you can see that there over some years has been a strong core of members developing in the band, a core that is probably now getting close to moving somewhere else in musical life. However, there is no reason to believe that the Sant Andreu Jazz Band will not be successful in its future regeneration. If you can create a band like that from almost nothing, you will probably also be successful in regenerating the band. And the Sant Andreu Jazz Band must today be a very attractive band for young musicians to be a part of.

The only problem I see for the future is when it is time to find a successor to Joan Chamorro. Sant Andreu Jazz Band is very much a music project built on his vision and sustained by his passion. The four principles above might seem easy enough to formulate and to accede to in theory. But the formula does not rest on theoretical principles; it rests on a very personal and lived practice. Regeneration of leaders can be difficult. Fortunately that moment is probably far away in time.

As a last question I asked Joan, Carla and Èlia for advice on where to see the band next time. They all agreed that I should come to the performance on November 28 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, in Barcelona. Seeing the magnificent hall and the program (photo and links below), I cannot resist…

Palau de la Música Catalana
Sant Andreu Jazz Band at Palau de la Música Catalana

Follow Sant Andreu Jazz Band on blogspot.com and on social media. And of course on YouTube!

Below you’ll find links to a mix of YouTube videos from different years and with different constellations, often also involving professional musicians. The video list is not arranged in categories. To me, this unsorted mix of ages and constellations is an important part of the charm of this band. And the list only gives you the song titles. You will find information about who is playing in connection to each video.

You can easily find many, many more nice music videos if you search for Sant Andreu Jazz Band and/or Joan Chamorro on YouTube!

A register

Musik.pm started September 27, 2012. It will take some time to complete the register, starting with the most recent posts and working slowly towards 2012. But you can already use the register to find nice music. You can see a few of the artists in the photo collage above.

Source: Pixabay

Why do I write about climate change in a post on Musik.pm, a site that focuses on our experiences and love of music? It will soon be evident. An important connection is the Portuguese concept “saudade”, the sentiment of many fado songs.

The Internet is a fantastic tool to discover music that is previously unknown to you. The associations provided by general search engines, different streaming services and online stores let you start the association game wherever you want and invites you to experience artists somewhat related to the musical neighbourhood of your starting point.

Anyhow, the association helped me to discover fado, a genre that found a passage into my identity and soul. (See Personality and music preferences) I then listened a lot to fado, and reading about fado I learned about the many fado houses in Portugal. Naturally my wife and I then wanted to go to Portugal and experience fado in those fado houses. We did so in 2016, and once more in 2017. (See A Fado Experience, A Lisbon week of Fado and The Conserva-te Experience.) We also attended fado concerts in Sweden.

After our fado excursions in Portugal I came to feel Portugal as a country that is particularly close to me. It is not my home country, but the cultural experiences in Portugal have made me connect emotionally more closely to Portugal than to most countries. I suppose this is an effect of sharing a cultural expression, and to do that on location. It is also a fruit of the connections we have made with Portuguese people living in Sweden.

From these thoughts I suddenly realised something. It was not a revolutionary and inventive thought, just a line of thinking that I have not pursued the full way before. Maybe you haven’t either. We tend to think about climate change primarily as something that concerns nature and our possibilities to live a good physical life in our world. Can we sustain the heat, can we get food and water enough, and can we at all continue to live where we today live?

But climate change is not only about nature and our physical well-being. Culture is also at risk – in my first glimpse of this thought represented by my loved fado. What would happen to fado? But of course fado is only one of many cultural expressions. There are enormous amounts of cultural expressions in terms of music, art, literature, poetry, theatre, philosophy and science in Portugal and in all other countries in the world.

To imagine that our generation would not be able to save climate, not be able to save the living planet, and not be able to save the culture that humanity has developed and passed on from generation to generation – that is a truly devastating thought. Can there be a thought more relevant for the fado sentiment of “saudade” – sorrow for something valuable that forever is lost? The bitter irony is that among the fruitful seeds of human culture there have also grown some seeds that have created the situation where mankind and all its culture are at risk.

• We must encourage our politicians to agree on climate-friendly policies. Presumably, they must be encouraged by us because they may think we would react negatively to the necessary reorientations in our lives.
• Ourselves, we have to consume in a more climate-friendly way. One example of many is to avoid flying.
• Climate-friendly consumption will in turn direct production of goods and services to climate-friendly goods and services.

Let us all do this! Let us do this to save the climate of our planet, thereby saving life on this planet and thereby saving culture created by mankind.

______________

Climate-friendly choices are fully compatible with a good life. My wife and I will soon visit Portugal again, but we have stopped flying. Next time we go to our loved Portugal we will travel by train. On our way we will enjoy some nice experiences in the countries we pass. Not being able to travel to Portugal and experience fado would be a sacrifice. Going by train is not.

Mariza in Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, December 2014. Source: Facebook

Since music can touch very personal and strong emotions it might happen that one transfers those emotions to the performing artist. You might in fact subconsciously feel a sort of emotional bond with the singer. It is like you actually have a close relation. And, after all, in your own life it is people close to you that normally can arouse such feelings. Intellectually you know that this is not the case with the artist, but emotionally you can still feel the emotions of a close relation.

If you do not understand the true nature of this relation such feelings can be problematic, especially in combination with dissatisfaction with your own life. Then you might build a dreamworld with you and the artist as a substitute for your own life, and dreamworlds are never adequate solutions to real existential problems. Such a situation can also trigger a person to become a stalker.

Source: SaultOnline

But this is not the ordinary situation. Most of us can tell the difference between a personal relation and the relation between an artist and his/hers audience. We understand that the feelings aroused within us stem from the qualities of the song and the artist’s ability to sing or play it in an engaging way.

The asymmetrical aspect of this relation is also emphasized by the sheer fact of numbers. The artist is one person and the audience is a multitude of individuals. The artist’s exclusiveness feeds the image of celebrity, and there is a sort of magnetism in such an image. I suppose many of you have had the experience of spotting a celebrity in a public place, and it is in that situation hard for anyone to carry on with one’s doings unaffected of the presence of the famous person.

Being known and being at least a bit famous is of course important to any artist. It is important for the artist to make a living, and it signifies the fact that his or her music has a value to people. This must be two important aims for most artists.

But the asymmetrical relation between artist and audience can also stand in the way for the artist’s possibilities to live an ordinary life. Even if it is fun and even necessary at times to be in the focused attention of many people, there are times when an artist would like to be anonymous or on equal terms with people. This cannot be easy when the rest of us have a hard time looking away when we spot a well-known person in a public place. And telling the difference between true friendship (or love) and an artist-fan relation can be equally difficult for the artist as for the fan/friend. But as an artist you cannot just turn on and off “famousness” at your convenience. It is there, or not there, whether you want it or not, and being famous can disturb personal relations.

But, although the relation between artists and their audience is a truly asymmetrical relation there are also other aspects worth mentioning. These are so obvious and natural that you might miss to see them. First, the audience have the songs in common with performing artists. Even if one side sends the expressions and the other side receives them, we still have the songs in common. And even if we have different relations to the songs, we have the song together that causes these different relations. And chances are that artists and audience, after all, have pretty much the same kind of relation to a song.

Second, we are all human beings with common basic needs. Even if it at times can seem as if an artist is a “supreme” kind of human being, it is in fact not so. We all have the same kind of basic needs of self-esteem, love, belongingness and understanding of the world. The different roles we play in society offer us different ways to pursue these aims, but it is the same kind of aims. This fact gives us important clues to the understanding of ourselves and others – including the artists we love and their songs.

Mariza. Source: New Internationalist

The day of the concert I had lunch with a colleague at a restaurant close to the concert hall. On my way out after having lunch I saw a person who I recognised, and after a few seconds I realised that it was Mariza sitting there together with another woman. I walked away together with my colleague, but realised when we had parted that I just could not leave it there. I could not leave without expressing my love of Mariza’s music. I had so many times enjoyed her music videos on YouTube, especially those from the outdoor concert in Lisbon 2006, and had felt the deep emotions that I discuss above.

So I went back to the restaurant and walked up to the two ladies, still sitting at their table. I greeted them welcome to Gothenburg and expressed my love of Mariza’s music. I also told them about my introduction to Mariza and her music at Musik.pm (unfortunately only in Swedish), and how much I had enjoyed her concert in Laeiszhalle in Hamburg the year before. They both looked a little bit surprised, maybe because Mariza is not a well-known artist to the general public in Sweden. I might very well have been the only person in that crowded restaurant who recognised Mariza. If she would have got attention from several others I would not have approached her. But Mariza and her company smiled kindly, took my hand and thanked me – and that was it. I said I was looking forward to the concert and left them at the table. Entering in their privacy is something that I did not do without hesitation, and a minute or two of intrusion was what I could force myself to. Afterwards I thought I might have asked for the possibility of a photo, and of course it would have been nice to have a photo of us three together. But if I had done that our short rendezvous would have been turned into something else. To handle an asymmetrical relation in an ordinary life situation is a delicate act of balance.

Keren Ann at Les Etoiles

The concert was quickly sold out, and although it was advertised as the “One night with Keren Ann”, one more concert was announced to take place the day after the first one. My wife suggested that we should buy tickets to that concert as well, and I happily agreed.

The week before we went to Paris I sent a note to Keren Ann addressed to Les Etoiles, telling her about my introduction to her music at Musik.pm, provided a link, and wrote that we would be in the audience on both concerts.

It was two beautiful concerts, and in the end of the first one I suddenly realised that Keren Ann between two songs was talking about the note I had sent her. She said that she had read it only the day of the concert and that she was deeply moved, and she greeted us welcome to both concerts. And then this very special moment was over. We have never met, and we will probably never do. But to me it is a great experience to know that I have reached through to Keren Ann with the expressions of my thoughts, as she has done to me with her songs. In a small way this has a little bit reduced the asymmetry of our relation.

When I got home I posted a story about the two concerts at Musik.pm. There I wrote that the title of the concerts refers to the fact that Keren Ann is alone on the stage. But I also guessed that the choice of title was supposed to convey the meaning that each and every individual in the audience would be alone with Keren Ann. A play with words and meanings. And in the soft parts of the concert this is actually what happened. I have never before experienced an artist who so genuinely can relate to each and every one in an audience. This is also a way to convert an asymmetrical relation to something else.

And here is first Mariza and then Keren Ann.

Cover image of Dreams and Daggers

A second Grammy for Cécile McLorin Salvant

Cécile McLorin Salvant was born in 1989 in Miami by a French mother and a Haitian father. She took piano lessons early in life, and eventually also singing lessons. After high school, she moved to Aix-en-Provence in France to study law, but also classical song. There she met with the teacher and reedist Jean-François Bonnel, who introduced her to improvisation and vocal jazz. She started to sing with bands, and in 2009 Cécile and Bonnel´s Quintet recorded the album Cécile and the Jean-François Bonnel Paris Quintet.

Sorce: music on MACK AVENUE

Back in the US, Cécile 2010 won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in Washington D.C. Later the same year she released her first own album, titled Cécile. In the fall of 2012 she recorded the album WomanChild together with pianist Aaron Diehl, Rodney Whitaker, Herlin Riley and James Chirillo. The album, released the following year, contains an unusual song material. In addition to original songs, it consists of a number of rarely played songs from the older jazz and blues repertoire. The album was very well received, and Cécile was compared to several of the really big female jazz vocalists. (See, for example, the cited review in the image above.) So I should have known about Cécile.

Her next album, For One to Love, was released in 2016, and for that she received her first Grammy award. And now we are at present date. Yesterday her latest album, Dreams and Daggers, was awarded with her second Grammy.

It should be noted that Cécile has continued her very successful collaboration with pianist Aaron Diehl. Diehl’s trio with Paul Sikivie on double bass and Lawrence Leathers on drums is a perfect match with Cécile. She also sings with other bands, but this is the combination I love the most.

So, a lot of people love the way Cécile McLorin Salvant sings jazz. I am sure many of you also do. Well, what is it about Cécile’s singing that makes me so much appreciate it? I believe it primarily is the natural, personal and self-confident way she interprets the songs. This applies both to the musical and to the dramatic side of her interpretations. She is a remarkable singer, but she also knows how to make theatre out of the songs – without losing sight of the fact that it still is music she is executing. Sometimes it’s comedy, sometimes it’s tragedy, but always very personal. Cécile’s interpretation skills indicate a remarkable measure of artistic maturity.

Despite these qualities, Cécile is only 28 years old. (She becomes 29 in August.) She has made an impressive musical journey before she turns thirty. WomanChild was recorded in the year she became 23, For One to Love came 2016 (the year she became 27) and Dreams and Daggers was released last year. And along with several other rewards and honors she has earned two Grammy awards.

I was fortunate to enjoy Cécile perform in a small club in Oslo May 2015, and as soon as she returns to Scandinavia I will see her again. Probably then in a big concert hall. When your favourites become famous you need to share them with many more music lovers.

In January 2015 I published a post (in Swedish) about Cécile on Musik.pm, including links to some very nice video recordings. Waiting to see her live in the part of the world where you live, you can enjoy those music videos and some more here.

More:

I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

Nobody

Poor Butterfly

John Henry

Le front caché sur tes genoux

WomanChild

Look at Me

You’re My Thrill

Red Instead

You’ve Got to Give Me Some

You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me