Featuring
Andrea Motis, Alba Armengou and Èlia Bastida

In this piece, I contemplate the language of music, inspired by three young musicians (you will find links to them performing at the end of this piece). Their musical expressions create something in me that is a mix of melancholy and happiness – “Triste et beau”, to put it in French. 

As I have said, they are young. However, the music does not enchant me because of some charming traits of youth. In fact, I cannot identify any traits of youth in their musical expressions. I rather perceive their performances as mature, expressing mature feelings. 

How can these young musicians be mature enough to express feelings that speak to an elderly man like me? Is it because the language of music is so very different to communication by words?

When you want to reach a common understanding, the logic of communication by words is that you try to fuse into your messages what you want the receiver of your messages to comprehend. There are ways to find out if you are successful or not. When you tell friends something, you sometimes notice by their behaviour that they have misunderstood what you were trying to communicate. The reason often is that you and your friend did not have the same picture of the situation, and your message failed to bridge that difference. When you notice the misunderstanding, you might try to correct it by explaining further. 

The language of music is different. In a broad sense, it is the communication of emotions. There is no easy way to establish if the musician’s emotions and the emotions of the individuals in an audience are the same. Actually, there are not even any strong incentives to do so; applause seems enough to satisfy both musicians and the audience. 

When training to be a musician, the musician can learn how to express feelings effectively – maybe in a more mature way. However, the training does not transform the musician’s emotional life in depth. I do not deny that education and training could influence the musician’s emotional life to some extent, but if they are young with a young mind, they continue to be so until they are no longer young. However, the musical examples below show that young musicians can still communicate emotions with fellow musicians and audiences of very different ages.

So I conclude that the musician’s feelings and the feelings of the different individuals in an audience do not have to be identical, or even similar, to create valuable communication. Communication by music is not like communication by words.

Seemingly, music is a language that transcends age, gender and experiences.  Different people, with different emotions that vary in depth and background, can enjoy the same music through their emotions. I do not see this as a problem – rather as a valuable asset that makes us all come together, all sensing the feelings that are important to us individually.

However, what I do think is important is sincerity.  I believe musicians have to be sincere about their music to make it speak to us. So maybe sincerity, rather than maturity, is what counts. Andrea Motis, Alba Armengou and Èlia Bastida, all three with a background in the Sant Andreu Jazz Band in Barcelona, are sincere about their music. Here they each play a song together with fellow musicians – also sincere about their music.

–

ALL TOO SOON
Andrea Motis, Jesse Davis and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band directed by Joan Chamorro (2011)

YESTERDAYS
From the album “Joan Chamorro presenta Alba Armengou” (2018)

THE PEACOCKS
From the album “Joan Chamorro presenta Èlia Bastida” (2017)

Guest: Scott Hamilton

The performance is the main reason we have come to Barcelona, but we will stay for five days. Barcelona has become a city where we feel at home, and one important reason is Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band (SAJB).

Joan Chamorro (Photo: Lili Bonmatí)

In order to understand and present the success of Sant Andreu Jazz Band, I have written several articles on this and other features of the band, which may be of interest to anyone who would like to learn more about the band. (Links below.)

On Wednesday, there was the performance by the quartet and Scott Hamilton at Luz de Gas, and Joan invited us to arrive as early as the sound check. On Thursday, there was a performance by the quartet at a business award ceremony in the suburb El Prat. On Saturday, there was a five-hour rehearsal with senior members of SAJB at Joan Chamorro’s home, which he quite rightly calls “The Jazz House”. On Sunday, there was a full SAJB concert at Teatre Poliorama in the Barcelona centre, including new band members who we had not seen perform live before. On Monday, we left Barcelona after five exciting days.

The rehearsal we attended was a first reading of twenty new arrangements, preparing for concerts at the Jamboree Jazz Club and four new albums. These albums will in turn feature the band members Joana Casanova, Joan Marti, Marçal Perramon and the constellation “La Magia de la Veu 3”; a constellation where voices are in the centre. (Photo: Bengt-Ove Boström)

The experience of this wide range of SAJB activities over five days gave us a better understanding of how rich, almost hectic, life of SAJB can be. Still, we probably did not see all SAJB-related activities going on during those days. I imagine the regular full band and section rehearsals also took place. Not every band member participated in all activities we experienced, but Joan Chamorro and several seniors did. Moreover, this was an “ordinary” week, not a week like the hectic “Jazzing Festival – Festival de Jazz de Sant Andreu” which takes place in September, a festival where Joan and SAJB are very active. Joan Chamorro founded the festival in 2014, and he is since then the festival director.

Photo: Bengt-Ove Boström

We sat near the bar and listened to what was a mixture of sound check and rehearsal. The rehearsal part started when Scott arrived about an hour later. They went through some critical parts of their interaction, but did not actually play any song in its entirety. As an amateur, I cannot really understand how this preparation together with Scott was sufficient for them to be able to perform at the high standard that we heard two hours later. Of course, there had been many rehearsals involving hard work for the quartet, but this was the first time with Scott.

Sitting at the bar, we realised that Joan would have the concert recorded. The filmmaker Ramon Tort was there with his camera, and of course a sound engineer was present to manage the sound.

When the sound check and rehearsal finished around 8pm, Joan and the girls came down to say hello to all of us who were attending the sound check. Besides the quartet, we also got the opportunity to say hello to a new and important person in the SAJB network, Blanca Gallo Yáñez, who is the Project Manager of Gaudi-U-Música. Joan Chamorro has recruited Blanca to take care of the practical side of the expanding range of SAJB related events.

Asked about the idea behind the formation of this particular group, Joan mentions several reasons. One is to promote the three albums that Joan had recently produced, thereby giving the three young artists an opportunity to continue to grow musically. He also likes the sound of the group and thinks the repertoire is attractive, giving space to both instrumental and vocal themes.

I realize that one important reason to form this group is to promote the three recent albums – Joan always finds interesting opportunities – but if the constellation had not worked out well, he would probably have given it another profile. There was of course every reason to expect the four to work well together on a personal level – they have done so in numerous other constellations – but what about the energy and sound of a band without drums or piano?

We heard songs from all three albums, but of course not all. Altogether, there are fifty songs on the three albums, often played by larger constellations than a quartet. On all three albums, the featured musician and Joan play together with different members of SAJB and different professional musicians. The Joan Chamorro New Quartet is a new way to bring a selection of these and other songs to the audience. Without any reservations, we can say that it was a great success! My wife and I, and seemingly the rest of the audience, very much enjoyed what we experienced at the concert.

Carla told us that they had tried songs with a harder tone, but that those songs did not fit the quartet. Without knowing which songs we thereby did not hear, I think the selection of songs we heard was excellent.

When you attend a SAJB related concert you often meet fans from other parts of the world, and you even know some of them because you have established contact through e-mail or social media. At this concert, we met friends from England and the USA. They agreed with us that this was a wonderful concert.

Scott’s contribution at the concert was, of course, beautiful, and the only preparation they made together for this particular concert was their hour after sound check. This shows the professionalism of not only Scott but also of the members of the quartet.

The young musicians all highlight the inspiration they get from playing with Scott. They also point to how it motivates them to make an extra effort. Alba: “Playing with Scott Hamilton is an honour and a way of learning. Whenever I go on stage I give as much as I can, but with Scott Hamilton I try to give more.” “You prepare more, and in the moment you play; it is like a dream”, says Carla. For Èlia it is a very special experience to play with Scott. He is a role model for her, playing perfectly, using few notes. Scott plays in several songs on The Magic Sound of the Violin, and Scott and Èlia will collaborate on another album.

We experienced the group once more, but in quite another setting, and without Scott Hamilton. The group served as entertainment at a business award ceremony in the suburb El Prat. The hall was rather large and the lights were on. It is not easy to create the same atmosphere under such circumstances as in a smaller concert hall with an audience of fans, being there only for the concert. However, Joan, Alba, Èlia and Carla showed their professionalism, and did very well. Handling different kinds of contexts is also a mark of professionalism.

Carla Motis

Detail from a photo by Lili Bonmatí

Of the three, Carla Motis has the longest record as a member of SAJB. She joined the band in 2008, when she was eleven. She is now formally leaving SAJB, but I cannot imagine that she will not continue to play with different constellations of current and former members of SAJB. This is the normal process of regenerating the band.

Carla comes from a musical family. Her parents sing and trumpet, guitar and congas were played in the family. As SAJB fans will know, Carla’s older sister Andrea Motis has been singing and playing trumpet and saxophone with SAJB for many years. Carla started in the band less than two years after Andrea.

Carla began to play classical guitar at seven. Since Andrea was a band member, her parents took Carla to concerts with the band. At one point Joan told her that she could join the band if she bought a banjo – the band being a group of eight children and teenagers playing Dixieland. Her parents did, and the rest is history. Carla has now been the SAJB guitarist for many years. She sometimes also does backing vocals. Like Èlia and Alba, she has studied music alongside the practical education in SAJB. Carla studied at Fundació Conservatori Liceu.

Joining SAJB, Carla felt like a musician for the first time. If she had instead continued with classical guitar, Carla does not believe she would have become a musician. Now she has no doubt that music is what she wants to do. When we met for a short interview after the concert at Teatre Poliorama, she was in a hurry to be on time for next engagement. Nevertheless, she gave us the time to answer our questions.

Carla’s last concert with SAJB was to be the same as the one we saw at Poliorama, but the week after. Rushing out of Poliorama to her next engagement, we see a young musician who already has begun her life as a professional musician.

Èlia Bastida

Detail from a photo by Lili Bonmatí

Èlia Bastida was already 17 when she joined the band. She had played classical violin since she was four, so the violinist that Joan recruited was already a skilled musician. When she started to play with SAJB, she fell in love with jazz and realised that she wanted to dedicate her life to this kind of music.

Since Èlia’s mother is a music teacher, playing piano herself, there was always music in the family. Èlia’s father obviously also has an interest in music, which shows in his expressive paintings of jazz musicians. The choice of violin was Èlia’s own. Her parents wanted her to sing in the choir of her music school, but Èlia instead chose to play the violin. At the age of twelve Èlia started in Oriol Martorell music school. Later she studied for a bachelor degree at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).

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 so and started with alto saxophone. After a few months, there was a position free in the band as a tenor saxophonist. Therefore, she started to play tenor saxophone, which she now likes more. She devotes more time to the violin, but she also loves the saxophone. In addition, she likes to sing – Bossa nova and other Brazilian music. Over the years with SAJB, Èlia has done both lead and backing vocals. Violin, saxophone and vocals are her three musical modes of expression. As Carla, Èlia has now left the big band SAJB. (Read more about Èlia in my article Èlia Bastida.)

Alba Armengou

Alba Armengou is the youngest of the three, and still a member of SAJB. However, she is in every way a senior band member, carrying many soloist parts. Alba plays trumpet and saxophone, and she sings a lot with the big band and different SAJB-related smaller constellations. She does both lead and backing vocals. She sees the trumpet as her main instrument, but she also likes to sing.

Alba started in the band ten years ago when she was eight. However, she met Joan when she was just six. He gave her classes in jazz and two years later, he offered her a position in the band. Over the years, SAJB and Joan have taught her a lot and not only about music. Being together with people of different ages has been very beneficial to her musical and personal development. Alba’s younger sister Elsa is also a member of the band, starting two years later and playing trumpet like Alba.

Alba’s parents are not musicians, but they love music. Alba’s musical training started at the age of three, when her parents let her attend a music school. From eight to 17 she studied trumpet and classical harmony at the IEA Oriol Martorell, and she is currently studying jazz trumpet at ESMuC.

Alba’s goal is to continue to devote herself to music and she sees herself as very lucky to be 18 years old, playing professionally around the world.

____________

We have worked hard to get the sound we have and I think we all have improved with the work. It is one more possibility to continue working with young people. I believe a lot in all three. They are working hard to get a very good level, and the performances give space to that growth. Starting from the fact that they are already artists who have many things to express, musically, both with their voice and with their instruments.

The quartet have some performances lined up, and Joan is looking into the possibility of editing a live CD from the performance at the Luz de Gas.

So, look out for a CD called Joan Chamorro New Quartet & Scott Hamilton Live at Luz de Gas! And probably some very enjoyable videos from Luz de Gas on YouTube.

Thank you Lili Bonmatí for allowing me to use the beautiful photos from Luz de Gas, including the cover photo of this article, and of course the portrait of Joan Chamorro.

Videos

Here is a sample of songs from the fortcoming album by the Joan Chamorro New Quartet and from the three albums featuring Carla Motis, Alba Armengou and Èlia Bastida.

Joan Chamorro New Quartet
Sonho Meu / Ella y Yo / A Kiss To Build A Dream On / Love Your Spell Is Everythere / Sem Fantasia

Joan Chamorro presenta Carla Motis
Peggy’s Blue Skylight / What’s New? / Doodlin’ / Chelsea Bridge / When It’s Sleepy Time Down South / Minor League

Joan Chamorro presenta Alba Armengou
Diz Que Fui por Aí / Yesterdays / Nobody Else but Me / In the Wee Small Hours / Meditaçao / When I Fall in Love

The Magic Sound of the Violin
Ella y Yo / How High the Moon / A Kiss to Build a Dream On / Beriwaltz / Alfonsina y el Mar / Day Dream

Related posts

Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?    (June 26, 2020)
To be sincere    (May 30, 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)

…and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band

This happens sometimes in everyday life and all the time in research. It happened to me as I prepared this article seeking to discover who Joan Chamorro really is – Joan Chamorro, the musician, music educator and band leader, creator and leader of the successful youth band Sant Andreu Jazz Band. The coordinator of a network of musicians and lots of other people who in different ways work together with SAJB. The jazz musician who plays bass, baritone, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, cornet and double bass.

Having presented the band and Joan’s formula for success in several articles, I now wanted to leave the band aside for a while and draw the picture of Joan Chamorro himself. Who is the man behind the band? What in his background made him so successful later on? And who is Joan Chamorro outside the band?

My preparation was to arrange a meeting with Joan and to develop some more detailed questions supposed to help me answer the ones above. We met in June during the Riverboat Jazz Festival in Silkeborg, Denmark. SAJB performed five times (once in a smaller line-up), and of course we attended every performance. After the first concert, which school children from Silkeborg were specially invited to join, my wife and I sat down backstage with Joan. An hour later we parted, and I realized that my story about Joan would be somewhat different to the one I had imagined beforehand.

Backstage (Photo by Èlia Bastida)

Like his father Joan liked music, but also sport. However, he did not in those days really pursue either interest. Joan finished school when he was 18 and did not know what to do with his life. By then he had started to play the guitar and some flute, by ear, and to sing a bit. Joan didn’t hear about jazz until he was 18, and then only by coincidence when he happened to buy his first saxophone and casually applied to the Taller de Musics, a jazz school. He was admitted and must have shown talent in his studies, because after a few years as a student he was appointed a teaching professor at the school. Taller de Musics is where Joan began to fall in love with jazz, albeit gradually and not without doubts. For several years he wondered if he was able to dedicate himself to music and if he really had the necessary talent and ability to do so. He worked hard, studying long hours and, little by little, got into the world of jazz. He got his first jobs as a musician, alternating between jazz and more commercial types of music.

Eventually, Joan applied for and was admitted to a degree programme at the Municipal Conservatory of Music of Barcelona. There he studied classical guitar and saxophone for three years before continuing with saxophone for a higher degree. During those years his love for jazz deepened and he came to love the music of Charlie Parker, Ben Webster and especially Dexter Gordon, among many others.

The young Joan Chamorro

Obviously, Joan’s thinking about efficient teaching and learning habits came natural to him. It was his reaction to his experiences as a teacher. Why some persons are like that I do not know, but I imagine Joan’s own learning experiences, sometimes not as rewarding as he would have wished, together with his responsibilities as a teacher, triggered his spirit of pedagogical innovation. He could understand what the kids needed to become devoted and skilled musicians, and this understanding I believe comes from a general understanding of people. Of course, Joan’s interest in jazz also helped to open up new ways of thinking about learning to play music.

And my supposition about how personal factors can explain was also misleading. I had seen Joan Chamorro and SAJB as separate entities, where one created the other. However, my interpretation of what I heard during the interview is that Joan is not an innovator separate from the problems he tries to solve. He is rather someone who always interacts in a very creative way with the situation and people around him. He sees the connections between ideas, facts and people; he sees the opportunities and makes something positive out of them. So the process is really an interaction between Joan and his project. Joan creates the project and the project creates Joan in a spiral of mutual development. Built on his experiences as a teacher he developed his general ideas about music pedagogy early on and then practiced and developed them all along the way.

In addition to his particular mode of innovation, there is a very close connection between Joan’s work life and his private life. You could say that Joan’s work is his life, both in terms of engagement and hours. Sometimes it is said that you should not let your work invade your private life, but I do not think that applies to people like Joan. You could just as well say that his private life invades his work life. But it’s more accurate to say that his work and private lives are two sides of the same coin. (I can understand this situation very well, simply because I recognize myself in it.)

This close connection between Joan and the band also has a social dimension. Joan states in the interview that SAJB is his family. And when I recently interviewed the band’s violinist Èlia Bastida she also said that she sees SAJB as a family, with Joan as one of the family members (link below). In his own home, which he calls the Jazz House, Joan recently built a special room for rehearsals and recordings. Obviously the “family members” of SAJB spend a lot of time there.

Sant Andreu Jazz Band at the Jazz House (Photo by Joan Chamorro)

Rehearsal at the Jazz House (Photo by Lili Bonmati)

Some think that it is hard to teach children and young people, that children do not try hard enough and don’t do their homework. Joan does not see it like that. The teacher can be the problem, rather than the children. A teacher’s basic task is to motivate, and with motivation young people can do wonders. You start with what is fun and simple. Singing, dancing and enjoying the music is therefore important in the beginning, reading music is not. That can come later. Adding to that I guess that Joan’s early doubts about his talent later made him realize the importance of promoting young musicians’ self-confidence; a teacher should show his belief in his students.

Photo by Lili Bonmati

Being in music education and the music business, Joan is definitely an entrepreneur in both these areas, finding and creating more and more possibilities all the time. SAJB was formed in 2006 and has developed a lot since then, and even since I first discovered SAJB in 2016. The next exciting project coming up is the Jazz Education Stage at the Jazzing Festival – Sant Andreu Jazz Festival in September 2019. Joan is the founder and director of the Jazzing Festival, and also founder and director of the Jazz Education Stage.

From the Sant Andreu Jazz Festival 2017 (Photo by Lili Bonmati)

Of course, Joan roughly knows the direction he wants to go with the band, but this does not necessitate elaborate strategies. I find this attitude towards planning, strategies and visions very attractive. You do need to know in what broad direction you want to go, otherwise you do not see the opportunities to go in that direction. But if your goals and strategies are too detailed you will probably not recognize interesting opportunities because they do not exactly match your detailed goals, and you will probably not reach these goals at all. Having a sense of direction and an eagerness to develop is what makes Joan find or create opportunities, and then to utilize them in a fruitful way. I believe this is also one explanation why Joan and the band cover many sub-genres in jazz and related music.

Photo by Lili Bonmati

&

”A sad but beautiful story

One day, 20 years ago, I met a person who was an angel. That angel was, is my son, Nicolas, who left when he was three years old, to heaven (he got cancer when he was a year and a half old), and he taught me something as important as the only thing we have is the present, that the future may cease to exist at any time. And he was happy during his short but intense life and he made me appreciate how nice it is to get up in the morning and say thank you to the sun, or the rain. Or the fact of breathing. Or the fact of making others happy simply by being kind and generous.

I believe that this teaching, which is so important to me, has been very important in this process of all these years.

Be generous, dreamer, try to be kind and respectful and above all know that what matters most is the present. That’s what I try to teach, through music.

Few people know this story, the story of my son Nicolas, how important it was and is for me and, I imagine, that it has been, to a greater or lesser extent, for all those people who have crossed my path, especially the members of the sajb.

Joan told me the story because he wanted me to understand this dimension of him and his work. At that time he did not want me to write about it, which I of course respected. But in this context he now agrees that I can relate the story.

Everyone who reads Joan’s words will inevitably, like me, feel deeply touched and will see his work with SAJB in a new light. Together with the effort and joy of Joan and all band members, the bright image of Joan’s son shines through the music of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band.

________

A sample of songs from 2009-2019

Cute / Petite Fleur / Dream A Little Dream Of Me / Bli-Blip / Bei Mir Bist Du Schön / Easy Money / Undecided / Georgia On My Mind / Mood Indigo / Moody’s Mood For Love / Save Your Love For Me / Águas de Março / From This Moment On / Triste / Qasimodo / The Elder / Groove Merchant / Doralice / The Good Life / Chelsea Bridge / Mood Indigo / Li’l Darlin’

More songs in the posts below – and many, many more on YouTube

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)
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)

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.