We are many who want to join Joan Chomarro and the band in the anniversary celebrations, but at the same time we have our personal SAJB celebrations to make. As I found SAJB and Joan Chamorro (on YouTube) in 2016, I this year celebrate my tenth anniversary of a warm relation to Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. Before 2016, we were totally unaware of each other. Since then Joan and the band are on my mind almost every day. I have read many comments of that kind on social media. Finding Sant Andreu Jazz Band and Joan Chamorro gave something new and valuable to one’s life, and the relation only grows and develops with the development of Joan and the band.
Below you will find links to a selection of my articles on Sant Andreu Jazz Band and its leader Joan Chamorro. The links are hidden under the images below, so if you want to see a full article, just click the correspondent image. But before you click, you can read the short characterization of the article or other comment below the image.
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Sant Andreu Jazz Band
September 22, 2016
My first contact with Joan Chamorro
This was my first attempt to write about the wonderful Sant Andreu Jazz Band, led by Joan Chamorro. I had discovered them on YouTube, and was inspired to write a short piece about my impressions and what I had found of facts on the Internet. I published the short text on my site Musik.pm, and immediately sent a link to the contact address given at the site that SAJB used in those days, asking if everything in the article was correct. If not, I promised to make the corrections and then post a link to the article on Musik.pm’s Facebook page. Joan’s reply came after twenty minutes (!) where he thanked me for writing about the band and asked me to make two corrections. When that was done, I could notify him, and he would then post a link to the article on his pages. So, I made the corrections, notified Joan, and the next morning I could find Joan’s posts linking to my article. This first friendly and efficient contact with Joan was very encouraging. The text was not very sophisticated, but I had established a contact with Joan, and he had shared the article with his followers. (Click the image above to find the article.)
Sant Andreu Jazz Band live
April 30, 2017
Live at Premià de Mar
A concert at Premià de Mar was my first live experience of the SAJB, and my first meeting with Joan – eleven years after the band was formed and less than a year after I found them on YouTube. I was there with my wife and six Swedish friends who had become interested in the band. The photo was shot by one of our friends. To the right of Joan you can see a very young Koldo Munné and further back a young Elsa Armengou, now both seniors of the band, on the brink of leaving it. If you are familiar with the band, I am sure you can recognize some more familiar faces. (Click the image above to find the article.)
The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula
October 26, 2018
How come?
How come that the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, created and led by Joan Chamorro, has been so successful? Well, you can ask Joan about “the formula”, and that is what I did in Stockholm in October, 2018. Élia Bastida and Carla Motis contributed to our conversation. (Click the image above to find the article.)
Added reflections on the Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula
January 3, 2019
Could you follow his example?
After the interview in Stockholm I continued to contemplate the qualities of Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andrew Jazz Band. What would you need to follow Joan’s and the band’s example? Is it even possible? It became an analysis that provides more questions than answers, but hopefully they became fruitful questions. (Click the image above to find the article.)
Joan Chamorro
Augusti 9, 2019
Who is Joan Chamorro?
Well, who is Joan? How was he as a young man, and how did he develop? How come that he found his mission in life with teaching kids to play jazz? What is his mode of developing his projects? The interview with Joan and the writing of this piece gave me new insights about Joan, the SAJB and life in general. (Click the image above to find the article.)
Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?
June 26,2020
Why do we love?
Love is spontaneous, and spontaneity does not need explanations to be real. But still – if you try to understand what it is that you love you might learn something about both yourself and the object of your love. (Click the image above to find the article.)
The Sant Andreu Jazz Band in pandemic times
April 17, 2021
The world on pause
When you occasionally come to think about the pandemic times in 2020-21 you realize two things; how different those times were and how you now, most of the time, do not think about those pandemic times at all. It is almost as you have forgotten them. But they were real enough, and in those days you did not know how the situation would develop. This is a report from Joan and Sant Andreu Jazz Band in those times, built on an e-mail interview with Joan. Read about how Joan and the band struggled with the problems to maintain the band and its activities – in those days, and for the future. The photo is from a rehearsal with a spin-off project of SAJB, La Màgia de la Veu. (Click the image above to find the article.)
Dear Joan
December 26, 2021
Celebrations!
My post “Dear Joan” is an open letter to Joan Chamorro. It is written in honour of the 15th anniversary of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. The photo is from the anniversary concert at Palau de la Música Catalana on December 10, 2021, where Joan had managed to gather all current and almost all earlier members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. As the pandemic had begun to subside, my wife and I were able to travel to Barcelona and attend this very special concert.
There were several reasons for Joan and the band to celebrate – the 15th anniversary, the gathering of SAJB members of different generations, and having managed to get through the pandemic and start normal band activities again. And the joy was seemingly felt by both audience and musicians. The wonderful photo show former and current band members celebrating Joan in the end of the concert.
When I published the article there were no videos from the concert on YouTube. Now there are many, and I have added links to six of them in the end of the article. (Click the image above to find the article.)
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Now, five years later, I am looking forward to the event when the 20th anniversary celebrations will culminate with the concert on December 23 at Palau de la Música Catalana!