We first encountered The Vocal Ensemble Amanda (Sångensemblen Amanda) in the 1990s at the jazz club Nefertiti in Gothenburg. The performance was completely different to anything that my wife and I had experienced before.

The song that sticks most in my mind is Lennon and McCartney’s “Come Together”, interpreted in a spectacular way. The dynamic arrangement and harmonies of some twenty singers were breathtaking, but that was not all. The singers combined their singing with a very expressive choreography. Together they created the illusion of a living and moving organism, from which individuals from time to time stuck out as parts of the organism, reaching towards us. The group created this illusion without the disguise of any shared covering – it was just their bodies moving together.

The show was the start of our relation to Amanda. The group is still very much active and we recently had the opportunity to interview three of its current members – Johan Hogenäs, Sanna Källman and Karin Marmander.

Much more than just a choir

Choir music has a long and strong tradition in Sweden, involving both professionals and a great many amateurs. It is a very large cultural and social movement. Although the musical genres differ between choirs, they all have one thing in common – they sing. However, Amanda does something more.

The Vocal Ensemble Amanda was formed in 1981. Some members of the Chalmers University Choir had longed for Latin American rhythms and other kinds of fun and engaging music. They also wanted to find a new type of expression. So, led by the music student Bengt Ollén, they formed Amanda. After three years, Lasse Smedlund became the new leader and he remained a leading figure in the group for many years. However, he was not a traditional leader; responsibilities were shared and group members encouraged in their individual creativity.

Several of the singers who joined Amanda had a theatrical background. Therefore, it was natural to develop the choir’s activities towards dramatic expressions. Choreography was also involved from early on. Moreover, many members of the group are skilled instrumentalists and so the members provide their own accompaniment. The voices are always in the forefront but, when needed, Amanda has a rich instrumental palette to choose from – brass, woodwind, guitar, harmonica, violin, cello, percussion etc.

Collage productions

Although combining music with choreography and a dramatic expression, Amanda has not gone down the path of creating cohesive theatrical plays with music – such as operatic pieces or musicals. Their main artistic form of expression is instead a sort of ‘collage’ production, where the group performs a combination of songs and thought-provoking monologues/dialogues. The different pieces of the collage are connected to an overarching theme – reflective, philosophical and humanistic in character.

Through these performances, Amanda communicates with the audience on many levels. Like in many other forms of art, emotions, intellect, intuition and aesthetics interact. Although serious life questions are often implied, a stroke of self-reflective humour is also always involved, giving yet another dimension to the theme. These collage productions run for a month or more at suitable venues. Later, songs from these productions are included on studio recorded albums.

An expression of its own

Amanda wants to build an expression of its own. Amanda members write some of their songs, but the group also carefully choses songs by other artists. Amanda makes these songs its own by a variety of means – the song’s function in the performed collage, sometimes with new lyrics in Swedish, musical arrangement, dramatic expression and choreography – in short, the group’s interpretation. Moreover, all spoken parts are written by Amanda members.

The international context is important to Amanda. Its repertoire includes folk music from around the world, rock and pop songs, samba, chanson, classical art music and other genres. Among folk music, Haitian music, introduced to the group by Sten Källman, is particularly important. Haitian songs and modes of expression are often present in the Amanda productions. (The production “Hunger” included only Haitian music.) In quite another area of the folk song part of Amanda’s repertoire, Nordic folk music plays an important role. The Amanda repertoire is wide and different members have brought influences from different parts of the world to the group.

Although differing so much in character, most of the songs and spoken parts in a production follow one another in an almost seamless way. This gives few opportunities for applause such that the created atmosphere becomes increasingly intense. However, in a few instances, and at the end, Amanda leaves room for applause. It is like opening up the flood gates, releasing the audience’s ‘dammed’ emotions.

Amanda uses single songs from these collage productions in commissioned performances. Sometimes you will also find new songs in these performances, which might foreshadow a forthcoming collage production. In the process of creating new productions, Amanda often invites audiences to ‘test performances’ of new material. Therefore, following Amanda is following a continuum of development.

When Amanda introduced its concept, it was a revolution to the Swedish choir community. Forty years later, it remains revolutionary. Although much appreciated, only a few groups have followed Amanda’s trail.

What has kept Amanda together?

What has kept Amanda together and active for forty years? Of course, the members have changed. As Johan, Sanna and Karin point out, Amanda regenerates gradually all the time.

Regeneration is important for keeping a movement alive, but regeneration can also be problematic in terms of continuity. So, the question remains – what has kept the group together?

They all agree that the main explanation is cultural in character. It is a special way of making music together, says Johan. There is not a strong leadership in the group. Instead, ideas and visions emerge between members, where, from time to time, some members might be more active than others.

Building the next collage production, the discussions take on an increasingly clear direction over time. Eventually, decisions concerning theme, songs, responsibilities etc. are made. However, it can be hard to identify the specific points of decisions. As Karin puts it: “There are no decisions, only deliberation and actions.” You intuitively know when you have reached a point from where you move forward. This, I believe, indicates a culture of friendship and trust within Amanda.

The process from the initial idea to first performance can be quite long. Sanna points out that the processes in Amanda give an opportunity to reflect on and deal with different issues of life. When I ask if this means that being part of Amanda provides a sort of therapy, they agree.

The involvement of many can be a big advantage in keeping the group together, but it can also be a source of frustration. Even if not everyone is equally involved in discussions and decisions, many are – and that can slow down processes. However, if you can build a community that both accepts this democratic culture and can find ways to improve efficiency within that culture, you build a solid base for the survival of the group.

Those who are there

Improving efficiency within the Amanda culture is in fact what has happened, they say. Nowadays, they delegate more than they used to, and they accept that the more active members can influence more than the less active. You have to be there to influence. Still, as Johan points out, the involvement of many in the process feeds into the engagement in reached decisions. That is the big advantage of Amanda’s modus operandi.

Actually, Sanna, Johan and Karin question the concept of membership concerning Amanda. Amanda is “those who are there”. This does not mean that there is not a cohesive group of people forming Amanda. The group is quite stable over time, but of course, everyone can miss a meeting or a rehearsal or two, and sometimes people take a ‘sabbatical’ from Amanda due to other life commitments. While a sabbatical could be the first step toward leaving Amanda, many return afterwards.

One can understand that this conceptualisation of Amanda – those who are there – corresponds to a practical need in terms of being able to move forward as a group. Early on in the interview, they question the membership concept in a more spiritual way – as if Amanda were an organism with a personality of its own. In Sanna’s words: “You are not a member of Amanda – you have a relation to Amanda.”

Moreover, there is an artistic council within Amanda. This group of members does much of the planning, including of human resources. It tracks recruitment needs and is where members turn to when they plan to change their involvement in Amanda. However, when the artistic council meets, everyone is welcome to attend. Forming this council is a way to allocate responsibility, not to exclude.

Success and self-confidence

Amanda’s very first collage production “Leakage” (Läckage) was a big success. It premiered at a small theatre in Gothenburg in May 1988.  It was highly innovative and the reviews were very appreciative. This created the image of a high-quality group – with critics, audiences and within Amanda. This first success set the level they have always tried to match since then, an ambition that adds to the attraction of being part of Amanda.

Success could encourage the belief that your next production needs to copy the main features of the first one to be successful again, such that you become stuck in a pattern (and also risk boring your audience). However, Amanda identified this problem early on and, instead of looking back, the Amanda community believed in their ability to develop new successful production concepts and trusts that they will turn out well.

The title of Amanda’s latest production (2016) was “Help” (Hjälp). Usually an Amanda production comprises music by many different songwriters. This was not the case with “Help”. All songs were original Beatles songs, “Help” of course being one of them. It goes without saying that Amanda did not want to make this production a string of Beatles covers. Each song had a meaning in the theme of the production and, as usual, Amanda’s interpretations were very special and engaging – often with new Swedish lyrics, relating to both contemporary and eternal conditions of life.

Amanda performed “Help” at a small venue with the audience sitting in the formation of a horseshoe reaching out from a stage. Many songs were performed from the open space in the horseshoe, like in a circus, with the audience very close to the performers. Some of the songs were performed from the stage, or in a combination of the two. It was a very dynamic and beautiful production.

Photo: Johan Wingborg

Professionals or not?

Over the years, Amanda has created seventeen original productions performed at small and large concert halls, theatres and churches. Amanda has also performed many one-off events.

Everyone in the group has a musical background of some sort. There are quite a few trained musicians and actors in Amanda, and they work professionally as such outside the group. They bring their professional experiences to Amanda. You can also find people from many professions in the group, including medical doctors, teachers, systems analysts and an artist. As all of the revenue from performances goes to the costs of the group, everyone earns their living outside Amanda. Although Amanda’s performances are very professional in terms of artistic quality, no one is in the economic sense a professional within Amanda.

Many are also involved in sub-groups within Amanda and music constellations outside the group. Amanda is an important junction in a large musical network in Gothenburg.

Again, one might wonder if the features of Amanda have been a disadvantage or an advantage to its development. More money could of course have helped on some occasions, but being a more commercially oriented act might have meant that Amanda was not the group it is today – it might not even exist. Movements of ideas and people can sometimes be more sustainable than companies are. As Sanna puts it – passion, not money, keeps Amanda going. Moreover, Sanna, Karin and Johan point to the friendship and affection that keeps Amanda together. People in Amanda genuinely like each other as persons and friends.

Recruitment and regeneration

Amanda comprises men and women of very different ages, including those who have participated for a very long time and those who are young and new to the group. New members are recruited when people leave or when changes to the repertoire demand a new specific set of voice types.

Over the years, the recruitment method has changed from informal, based on knowledge about the music network around Amanda, to become more formal, using auditions. To be accepted as a member you have to be an excellent singer and the ability to play one or several instruments is a great advantage. You do not have to be a trained actor or dancer, but since dramatic expression and moving your body in accordance with a choreography is important, you need some sort of base from which to develop those qualities within Amanda. The group is like a university of its own, where you learn all the time from each other and from common experiences.

Last, you need to be comfortable with the culture of Amanda, and so interviews are part of the process. However, not all stay as they find that they do not feel at home in ‘the organism’ Amanda. To be part of Amanda requires a lot of patience, tolerance, respect, creativity and openness to new ideas – but also the ability to accept realities.

An impossible equation

Sanna says that combining the different features and ambitions of Amanda should be an impossible equation. However, the group has repeatedly solved the equation for forty years! This does not mean that there have not been crises. The three laughingly claim that Amanda is a constant crisis, but group members can evidently cope with the difficult features of Amanda. They can even laugh at the problems and appreciate that these challenges also offer enjoyment and possibilities. As Karin says, in crises Amanda shows unbelievable strength and human warmth.

Amanda reaching out

Most of the Amanda performances take place in its hometown, Gothenburg, but it also performs in other Swedish cities on occasion, and has performed in Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Senegal, Brazil and Cuba, at festivals, touring and one-off events. The group has not yet been to Haiti, but has collaborated with Haitian performers in creating performances with a Haitian theme in Sweden. International collaborations mean a lot to Amanda, and touring welds the group together.

A special moment of collaboration and inspiration occurred when the Spanish musician David Costa saw Amanda perform in 1999 and was inspired to start a group combining different forms of expression, as Amanda does. He formed the group Cor de Teatre, which resides not far from Barcelona. Later Costa created a younger group on the same line – Cor de Teatre Joves. This initiative in turn inspired Amanda to start the group Young Amanda (Unga Amanda) to pass on the legacy of Amanda to a younger generation.

Young Amanda (Unga Amanda)

With the leadership and guidance of Amanda seniors, Young Amanda has created one production (“Passage”) to date. In September 2019, Cor de Teatre Joves and Young Amanda met in Gothenburg, performing one production each. Then the pandemic arrived, hindering further projects and collaboration.

Young Amanda is part of a broader approach to outreach, named Amanda Academy (Amanda Akademi) with activities targeting different age groups: children aged 6-9 (Small A / Lilla A) and children aged 10-12 (Middle A / Mellan A).

Within the Academy, Amanda also offers courses and workshops to adults led by Amanda members or sub-groups, dependent on their specific competence, interest and availability.  You can say that Amanda is the communication platform for a wide variety of outreach activities, all in one way or another inspired by the Amanda approach to performing. The purpose of all activities within the Amanda Academy is to spread and pass on the Amanda legacy.  

A developing legacy

However, the legacy itself is still developing in terms of new songs, arrangements, productions and collaborations. Amanda does not want to repeat itself, and one can be sure that a new and different production will soon be part of the Amanda legacy. The Vocal Ensemble Amanda will be around for many more years!

(Photos from Amanda’s website.)

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Trailers from the production ‘Larm’

Short version

Long version

A selection of albums and songs

Eight years ago today, I launched my music site Musik.pm. Four years later, I highlighted the four years anniversary by publishing the article What is world music – not? Following some critical notes on the concept ‘world music’, I ended the article like this:

World music or not – here is some of the music that Musik.pm has covered the first four years. Enjoy!

If you want to read that article, and find out what kind of music I shared, follow this link: What is world music – not?

During the four years that have followed, I have published two kind of articles. Portraits of musicians, bands, genres etc. form the first category. In the second category, there are different kind of reflections on music and our experiences of music. In both categories, I illustrate the themes of the articles by music videos.

In the end of the first four years, I found Joan Chamorro and his wonderful project the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, and I introduced the band on Musik.pm with a short article. (Sant Andreu Jazz Band) I have followed this project closely during the last four years, so among the portraits from this period, there are actually eight new articles on themes in one way or another related to the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. In addition, I illustrate one article in the reflections category by music videos with members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. (To be sincere)

As you understand, this project has played a major role in my enjoyment of music the last four years. The project has also given me important insights concerning the social and human factors involved in the SAJB project. I have reflected on these factors in the SAJB articles, so in a way these articles belong to the reflections category too.

Click the links below, and you will find the different articles. Enjoy your reading and/or the music!

Bengt-Ove Boström

Portraits

Joan Chamorro / Sant Andreu Jazz Band

Reflections on music and experiences of music

Prelude

Who nowadays can return to the Great American Songbook and the era of music movies from the first half of the 20^th century, and write their own music in that style? Songs such as Lucky, Champagne, What Else Can I Do and Nobody Knows That. Or interpret the original vintage music with their very own expression – and even interpret other’s contemporary music in the vintage style? Like George Gershwin´s Summertime, Cole Porter’s Just One of Those Things, the Cardigan’s Lovefool, John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over, the Cure’s Just Like Heaven or Miles Zuniga’s Hopelessly Blue.

I am of course referring to the unique American singer and songwriter Kat Edmonson.

Background

I got my first impression of Kat Edmonson through a YouTube video in 2014. By then she had been around as a singer and songwriter for more than ten years. At the end of 2002, aged 19, Kat auditioned for the TV show American Idol and she was chosen to be one of the show’s 48 contestants for the following year. In 2008 she recorded her first single. When I discovered Kat, she had also recorded and released two albums; Take to the Sky in 2009 and Way Down Low in 2012.

Kat Edmonson radiated genuineness and sincerity in that first video I saw. These qualities are important dimensions of music that appeals to me. So, I searched for more music by Kat and found more videos with the same qualities.

Later in 2014, I wrote a short article in Swedish about Kat and her music, published on my music site Musik.pm. However, I did not dig deep into Kat as a person in that article. I built the story only on information I could find on the Internet and on my own impressions of songs from the two first albums. In 2017, I published an updated article on Kat in English. The update merely added some notes on my impressions of her third album, The Big Picture.

Before writing those articles, I had learned that Kat’s mother taught her as a young child to like the songs of the Great American Songbook. That kind of music is a base for most of her work – own originals, interpretations of standards or interpretations of more modern popular music. Kat herself labels her music ‘Vintage Pop’. Some of it fits into the jazz field; some is closer to the American folk song tradition. Kat makes them all her own and turns them into ‘Vintage Pop’.

Since I wrote those two articles, Kat has released two more albums. Old Fashioned Gal has the feeling of old Hollywood, but the lyrics comment on the contemporary, busy society. Kat has written all the songs. Her latest album, Dreamers Do, takes place over the course of one, sleepless night. It comprises a mix of Kat’s original songs and re-imagined Disney songs from the mid-twentieth century.

You will find links to a sample of songs from Kat’s five albums at the end of this article.

I have from time to time returned to Kat’s music, and have come to realise that I want to know more about this brilliant and very special singer and songwriter. Therefore, I recently contacted Kat through her website and asked if I could interview her online. Kat quickly answered, and we decided on a time and date. This article builds on that interview, but also on episodes of the online show that Kat has broadcast during the Covid-19 pandemic – The Kat Edmonson Show.

The online Kat Edmonson Show

Kat started to make this show when she had to cancel most of a tour promoting her latest album. With a few exceptions, the show runs on a weekly basis. I highly recommend it. In the different episodes, Kat sings and talks to us about her life. She is open and communicates in a genuine way and with a natural sense of presence. The way she looks at us through the camera and our screens makes me feel like Kat and I are in the same room. I guess I am not the only viewer who has this feeling.

Some of the songs and some of the glimpses she gives of her life are responses to requests, questions and comments received from her viewers in advance. She also communicates online with viewers. It is not an easy task to be alone on ‘stage’ in the show for more than an hour, and to interfold communication with lots of individual fans in the show, and still make it interesting and entertaining. However, Kat does so in an excellent way.

In the show, Kat sings some of the songs a cappella and others with accompanying musicians. Due to the pandemic restrictions, the musicians are never physically present with Kat. Sometimes she sings accompanied by the instrumental tracks of her albums, sometimes she has accompaniment specially made for the show – on piano by Roy Dunlap and Matt Ray, on organ by Roy Dunlap and on guitar by Al Street and Bob Hart.

In those cases, Kat sends the specifications of the accompaniment needed and receives the recorded accompaniment in return. This is of course the only way to have accompaniment to songs that Kat has not recorded on albums herself.

And there are lots of them! With the reservation that she sometimes might need time to study and prepare songs, she has not declared any limitations on which songs she might sing in the show. She has sung “That’s Life” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, made famous by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, in ways that start you thinking that she could one day record an interesting Sinatra album and an equally interesting Presley album. Kat has earlier recorded some brilliant and very special interpretations of well-known songs from different genres – so why not Sinatra and Presley?

Altogether, the online Kat Edmonson Show is very rewarding to watch, although it is produced with very basic means. Kat and her partner Aaron Thurston produce and transmit the episodes by themselves, generally from their home. Aaron Thurston is a drummer and arranger, and he co-produced the albums Old Fashioned Gal and Dreamers Do with Kat. In the beginning, they made the episodes from their apartment in New York, where the scene of the show was a simple curtain arrangement in a room they used for their everyday life at other times. Now they have moved to a house upstate New York, where they can use one of their rooms just as their music and recording studio. This is a big advantage, but they also moved because of the pandemic situation in New York and for financial reasons. The pandemic restrictions are a heavy burden on all musicians’ financial situation.

The interview

In one episode, Kat declared that she wants to continue with the online Kat Edmonson Show, even when the pandemic restrictions are lifted. She enjoys doing the show, and you can tell that she does. I ask Kat if she really will have the time and inspiration to continue with the show when all the usual activities demand her attention again. Kat believes that she will – she usually has no problems with inspiration – and I hope that she is right. I think the format of this show suits Kat’s personality and her ability to be genuine and sincere very well.

Genuine, sincere and self-confident

Interviewing Kat, you apprehend the same personal qualities. She takes you and your questions seriously, and she thinks for a while before she starts to answer. Although most of the questions probably are not new to her, she still seriously considers how she can respond properly. Identifying her thoughts and emotions with care, and putting them into the right words, seem important to Kat. I think to myself that this might be a similar process to when Kat write songs – capturing thought and emotions, and putting them into relevant words and a melody.

When I ask Kat where her qualities of being genuine and sincere come from, she talks of her need of orientation – a need to be genuine because it gives her a reference point in life.  If what she expresses does not feel authentic, she has no compass. To identify this orientation she operates with intuition that comes from her “heart”, an origin that maybe could be called “soul”, a kind of intuitive wisdom.

I suppose that a need for orientation might be part of the human constitution, but I am not sure that this means that everyone has, and follow, an intuition to be authentic. There are a lot of misleading orientation guides in society. Maybe Kat’s “upbringing by compassionate people”, as she characterises her childhood has, in her case, turned a common need for orientation in the direction of authenticity.

Most of her life Kat has had self-confidence. Compassionate care during childhood probably built the foundation of such confidence. She has been able to believe in herself from early age, and one of her first memories is writing a song.

Writing songs

As long as she can remember, Kat has had the ambition to write and sing songs, and – as she asserts as a fact – she had “the talent to back it up”. Not everyone can make such a claim in the natural and trustworthy way that Kat does – and of course, she is right. However, she claims that she could not teach song writing.

I have always been able to do it. If I were to instruct people I would only tell them to get in touch with their inner spirit.

The song ideas announce themselves to her, and she feels an irresistible need to make them into songs. Some of her inspiration comes from serious and sorrowful matters, some from more joyful life ingredients. There is even a song inspired only by the image of a sound. In episode 11 of her show, Kat tells the story of how the song Canoe came about. When I ask Kat if anything can inspire her, the straight answer is – “Yes, anything can inspire me”. Moreover, inspiration can ‘attack’ wherever and whenever. Kat tells us the story of when she purposely drove her car into unfamiliar surroundings in order to get lost. She needed the time to find her way home again to finish a song!

Life might seem nice and easy when you have a talent like Kat’s, but not all songs are easy to make, and the ideas force themselves upon her in a way that does not give her a chance to escape. The songs actually demand to be written. She has learned to recognise this feeling, and when it happens she might say to herself – here we go again! Sometimes, writing a song can be a way to process difficult things. In those cases, song writing is therapy to Kat – but not all therapy comes with pleasure alone.

Kat says that she often hears music in her head (a soundtrack of her life) and that she often thinks in terms of movies. I want to know where this inner imaging capacity comes from. Her answer is that she has a childish understanding of life. When she was as young as 3-4 years of age, she saw many old musical movies and expected that what she saw on the screen would be her future. She was thrilled, and her brain started to work in this way. She hears music, when washing, doing the dishes, driving the car etc. She does not have to analyse her feelings, they show through the music she is hearing in her head. The music proceeds her awareness of her mood.

Interpreting songs

When I found Kat back in 2014, her double talents struck me, being a great singer-songwriter and a great interpreter of songs composed by others. When I ask Kat how singing other people’s songs compares to singing her own, her answer somewhat surprises me. She seldom has problems interpreting other people’s songs, but sometimes can find it difficult to interpret her own. This happens when she is processing something and going through a change as a person. “I am my own greatest mystery”, she exclaims with a laugh.

In this context, one should mention her drama talents, visible to us when she sings at live performances and on videos. With the qualities of an experienced actor, she puts herself and her expression in the mood of the song’s subject. She radiates the anguish of unhappy love, or other painful feelings, when this is the theme of the song – like in Nobody Knows That from her second album Way Down Low. Of course, every singer tries to do this, but few have Kat’s capacity to be that genuine in the expression. However, it does not have to be unhappy feelings. Another example of her drama talents is the fun and somewhat spooky Someone’s in the House, on her latest album Dreamers Do.

Actually, Kat has had, and still has, ambitions to be an actor. When she watched many old musical movies on television as a young child, the combination of music and drama made her think that this was the natural combination. Dreaming about her future, this was the combination she was aiming for. Later she studied acting for two years at the William Esper Studio. She liked to be in front of the camera and felt she could have a career in acting, but eventually she followed the music thread instead.

Looking back

There have been moments of doubt in her career, but not in those early years. Otherwise, one might have thought that the comment from one of the jurors when Kat, aged 19, was turned down in the final of American Idol would have drained her of self-confidence. His verdict was that Kat “did not look like a star”. However, neither being turned down, nor the comment itself, damaged her self-confidence. After all, she made it to the final, but more importantly, she saw through the aim of the show. The narrow sensation-seeking concept of the TV show was more important than to find talent, and she saw many talented young artists that did not fit into that concept. Therefore, she went home with her self-confidence unaffected.

Kat grew up in Houston, Texas, but returning from American Idol and Hollywood, she chose to live in Austin. She took many jobs, but finally got a day job at a real estate agency and could sing in restaurants and bars at night. Sometimes it was exhausting and her boss once asked Kat if she really could manage this combination. He needed her to be more alert at the office. She then decided to put all her efforts into her music career. Her boss supported her choice, but was also worried about her. After all, at that moment she had only one booking coming up! The boss added one, and then she was on her way.

The word about Kat got around and the number of gigs at restaurants and bars increased. Fans came to listen and eventually she performed every day, sometimes twice a day. Kat learned how to create a show with a beginning and an end and how to fill up to four hours of performance. She learned how to entertain and how to speak to people. She also met many other artists. It was a period of a lot of hard work, but it was also a very educational time in her life.

Kat had heard that it is difficult to get into the business if you have not recorded an album before you are 25, so the year she would become 25, she made her first album on a label that she had created with a friend. Three years later, she made her second album on her own label. It caught the eyes of Sony Masterworks, which bought the rights to the album, offering her what a big record company can offer in terms of distribution, promotion etc. Now Kat was well on her way in her music career.

A philosophy of dreams

Kat’s doubts in herself came later, and she has an explanation as to why – her philosophy of dreams. Kat believes that having a dream has a deep existential importance. Having a dream actually means power. People can hinder you from realising that dream, but no one can stop you from having and believing in the dream. It is a protected area.

However, if you subordinate that dream to accomplish other things – money, fame, reputation, or even to make other people’s dreams come true – your dream is no longer a protected area. Your belief in the dream is diminished by the measurement of the other things you believe your dream should help you to accomplish. You start to concentrate your thoughts on how successful you have been in those terms, and the essential quality of your dream fades away.

This is what happened to Kat. Was she successful enough after the years she had spent in the music business? Were people around her satisfied enough with what she had accomplished? Was the record company satisfied enough?

The expectations, her own and others, eroded her self-confidence, and her doubts led to a crisis. Kat asked herself if she really did have “it”, and she felt shame for not having accomplished certain things. The power of the dream was disappearing, and she doubted that she really had a voice in the meaning of having something to say.

But then, a song demanded to be written. Eventually it became the song A Voice, later recorded on her fourth album, Old Fashioned Gal. However, when she wrote it, it was a very private song. In a comment to the YouTube video, Kat tells us that, when she wrote it she did not intend this song to be performed for anyone. The process that preceded the song was painful, and it was painful to write. However, somewhere along the way, she realised what had happened to her – she was subordinating her dream to other goals. She was able to restore the status of her dream, and now A Voice is on the album and on a YouTube video, maybe trying to convince us that everyone has a voice, worthy of being used and heard. Now, she understands that the power of a dream rests on the fact that it is a goal in itself, not a means to something else.

Kat returns to the same theme from another angle in the song Too Late to Dream on her latest album Dreamers Do. Are the messages we receive as children about following our dreams relevant through adult life – or do we become caged by our age? The question is open in the song, and I choose to interpret Kat’s philosophy in a positive way. The question needs to be asked, because the threats to our dreams are greater in adult life, but you can still overcome them. You need to overcome them.

In retrospect, Kat realises, that the way the record industry works today is not optimal in terms of finding and letting talents develop. According to Kat, the music industry is not for the faint-hearted. Like much of modern industry, it is based on short-term calculation of profit. Kat has now left Sony Masterworks, and the latest two albums are self-released.

Of course, Kat understands the need to make money, but it seems obvious to me that Kat does not make music only to make a living, so I close the interview by asking what being a musician and a songwriter mean to her. Does she think that she has a mission in making music? Her answer is honest and rests on a well-justified self-confidence.

I am called to do those things. I found that I write songs that touch people. If there is a purpose in life, this is mine, writing songs and singing them.

Music videos

This is a sample of music videos of songs from Kat’s five albums and her first single.

Be the Change (Single 2003)

Take to the Sky (2009)
Summertime / Just One of Those Things / Lovefool / (Just Like) Starting Over / Just Like Heaven

Way Down Low (2012)
Lucky / Champagne / What Else Can I Do / Nobody Knows That / Hopelessly Blue

The Big Picture (2014)
Oh My Love / All The Way / You Can’t Break My Heart / Till We Start To Kiss / Who’s Counting

Old Fashioned Gal (2018)
Sparkle and Shine / I’d Be a Fool / A Voice / Old Fashioned Gal / How’s About It Baby

Dreamers Do (2020)
When You Wish Upon a Star / Someone’s in the House / Very Good Advice / Too Late to Dream / All I Do is Dream of You / What a Wonderful World 

Postlude

As I usually do, I conducted this interview with the support of my wife. We will both have our friendly conversation with Kat as a bright memory. There were many memorable moments. One is when Kat told us about the background to a favourite song of ours – Who’s Counting. Kat was about to leave Europe after a tour where she was the opening act to the British jazz pianist and vocalist Jamie Cullum. Standing in line at the airport, she felt lost in life and wondered where her place would be. The story Kat told us eventually turned into her reciting the song lyrics, and the beautiful words crossed the ocean between us. That was “no ordinary thing”. Thank you Kat!

Searching for something to which I can relate
Standing in a long line at the third departure gate
You’re first or you’re last it’s still hurry up and wait
Crossing the ocean ain’t no ordinary thing
Five thousand miles on a gigantic missile with wings
One minute to take off and the captain bell dings
I’ve got three three decades as Sue and Jim’s daughter
And it’s been four years four years I’ve been singing in the halls
We’ve shared two two anniversaries together
But who’s counting babe who’s counting the tallies on the wall
Who’s counting baby who’s counting anything at all
We try to be right we try to be good we try to be strong
It’s never enough it’s always too much and there’s still something wrong
And yet in the meantime we just keep moving along…

I found Sant Andreu Jazz Band through a video on YouTube in September 2016. In the very first video that I saw, Andrea Motis was singing In My Solitude backed by the Joan Chamorro Quartet and Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès. I was astonished. She was so young and had the expression of youth, but she was nevertheless so sophisticated. The setting was grand, like in a jazz ballad performed by Diana Krall backed by her usual jazz group and a string orchestra. Moreover, like Diana Krall, this young lady proved not only to be a vocalist – she also played a solo on trumpet. (Click the YouTube image below to enjoy the video.)

More astonishment would come. I soon found out that Andrea Motis was not alone. She was a member of Joan Chamorro’s creation, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, a big band with children and teenagers playing music “with emphasis on a classic jazz repertoire with lots of swing” – later also a lot of wonderful Brazilian bossa nova. Along the way, I discovered hundreds of fabulous music videos on YouTube of the big band or parts of the band – often together with top professional musicians as soloists, and always with their leader, Joan Chamorro. Moreover, the young musicians often played more than one instrument, and many were good singers too. How could there be so many talented kids in this band?

I have published a number of articles examining the answer to this question and I will return here to some of the band’s features that I see as key factors. However, my focus this time is on the relationship between the band and us, the fans of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. The question is – what is it about the band, and what is it about us, that make us love the band so much?

Boundaries

The fans have a deep and wide interest in the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. Joan Chamorro often expresses his gratitude for people’s interest, but he expresses himself as grateful for the interest in “our project”. These two words, “our” and “project”, indicate something important; a “project” indicates a wider concept than a “band” and using the word “our” indicates that he does not see it as his project alone. It belongs to a wider community.

What about the project? Does it have boundaries in terms of people involved? Do people have to be musicians within SAJB to be part of the project, and be part of the band right now – or should we understand “the project” in a much broader sense? To acknowledge the true nature and the importance of the project I believe it is the latter.

Joan Chamorro is the leader of the project and without him it would not exist. He was the originator and with his enthusiasm, ideas and creativity the project continues and develops all the time. As the leader of the project, Joan Chamorro is clearly part of it. (Read more in “Joan Chamorro”, Musik.pm 2019.)

The young musicians of course also belong to the project. Fans often discuss who among the young musicians are still members of SAJB and who are not. However, I would argue that there is no sharp boundary. The musicians leave gradually through different stages, and can continue to play in one or several of Joan Chamorro’s many spin-off projects. They can even return to the big band as a guest. Sometimes they are officially announced as a guest, sometimes not (which tends to confuse those who want strict demarcations). However, what is important is that they remain part of a big musical network, with Joan Chamorro in the centre. That does not stop them from being part of other groups and networks too. (More about this in the article “Èlia Bastida”, Musik.pm 2019.)

Even if one forces a distinction between current and former SAJB members, I would not exclude the band’s alumni from a broader conceptualisation of “the project”. They carry the music, the ideas and the culture of the project within them – even as they develop in many ways. Yes, even those who do not continue as musicians. It is like when you become adult and move out of the family home. The attributes and traits you aquired growing up in your family never leave you totally. If not earlier, you realise this when you become old. In that and many other respects, SAJB is like a family. Even when you grow up and build a life of your own, you are to some extent still a “family member”. In this wider perception of “the project”, the musician never leaves it totally.

Many professionals collaborate with SAJB – some on a more permanent basis, some now and then. They are impressed by the young musicians. Are these professionals part of “the project”? Obviously, they are while collaborating, but maybe the professionals can utilize these experiences in their other activities. Where does the project then end?

However, band members and professional musicians are not the only ones important to “the project”. Several other contributors also belong, for instance those who provide Joan and SAJB with the music arrangements that are so very important to our enjoyment of their music. The producers of beautiful music videos, CDs, movies and photos are also part of the project. If these high-quality documentations had not existed, fans globally could not have found and enjoyed SAJB, as we are fortunate to do. I should also mention the growing importance of the project support connected to performances, information and administration.

So, what about us, the fans? This article started out from our love of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band but I would rather say that we love the broader less delineated “Sant Andreu Jazz Band project”. Because of our love, we, the fans, almost every day enjoy YouTube videos and/or albums by the big band or other line-ups connected to the SAJB network – and we spread the word and the music to friends and contacts on social media. We happily enrol ourselves in an informal “information service” of SAJB. In a way we actually become part of “the project” when we embrace it and tell the world about it.

Indications of love

Who are “we”, and what are the indicators of our love? Naturally, the fans of Sant Andreu Jazz Band are primarily to be found among people who like jazz, particularly the kind of jazz that the band plays. This probably means that the fans tend to be older rather than younger. Moreover, the fans are, as jazz lovers in general, scattered around the world, though many of them naturally can be found in Spain, SAJB’s home country. However, according to the Internet statistics connected to my music service Musik.pm, the band also has many fans in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

The fact that its many fans are scattered around the world means that the band does not receive a very strong attention in any one country, outside Spain. However, to have fans in many countries adds up to the total amount of attention that the band actually receives.

SAJB performs a lot in and near Barcelona, and those performances of course receive attention there. However, many foreign fans travel to Barcelona to experience the band on location. From time to time, the band also performs in other countries. As you can find fans of SAJB among jazz lovers who are in the position to be able to arrange tours, festivals and single concerts (which, testifying to the quality of the band, shows that some of its fans are influential in the jazz world),  the band gets access to clubs and concert halls in different countries. Other evidence of love lies in the multitude of posts, “likes” and enthusiastic comments on social media and YouTube, not least reactions to the band’s and Joan Chamorro’s own posts. Some fans confess that they did not listen to jazz a lot before they found SAJB, but now they “cannot live without them”. Obviously, there are both “jazz veterans” and “jazz beginners” among SAJB fans. I would place myself somewhere between those two groups. I enjoyed jazz before I found SAJB, but Joan Chamorro and SAJB has deepened my knowledge about and love for jazz.

You can also find a number of very positive articles about the band on the Internet. I have myself received a lot of positive response to my articles on Musik.pm. Through these messages, I have gained new contacts and music friends in different countries, united in our love of SAJB. We share video links, concert dates and other things related to the band. There are also two Facebook groups with enthusiastic members, one in French and one in English. (Amis du Sant Andreu Jazz Band and Friends of Sant Andreu Jazz Band.)

I have sometimes confessed that I have one “problem” with SAJB. The rich variety of musicians, songs and genres, and the enormous amount of well-produced recordings sometimes leave little time to enjoy other music. Actually, it is not only a question of time; in fact, I often do not have a strong need for other music. Some fan friends admit they have the same “problem”. As an indication of our appreciation of SAJB, a Finnish friend and I once concluded, “Imagine that we would have the opportunity to experience a thing like SAJB in our lifetime!”

To explain love

So why do the fans love SAJB? As I have not done a survey, I can only propose a theory – a theory built on my observations and analysis of the phenomenon “the Sant Andreu Jazz Band project”. You can find the basis for this theory in my earlier articles, not least in “The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula” and in the portrait of Joan Chamorro.

I feel at home in my theory, but maybe not everyone does. You will have to judge for yourself what parts of my theory best describe the reasons for your own love – or maybe what you think is wrong or missing in the theory. This is how it goes.

Musical quality

The fans of course love the band because its performances and recordings are of an astonishing and surprisingly high quality. This does not mean that everyone in every way performs like an experienced professional all of the time, but as a whole, the quality is amazing. Moreover, the quality of the individual members and of the band as a whole develops all the time.

It is not my impression that, from the start, the young musicians were musical wonder kids, such as the ones we sometimes see on YouTube, for instance, playing Mozart technically brilliantly on a grand piano at the age of four. Why should there be a concentration of such musical wonder kids in one particular district of Barcelona? Of course, they had talent, maybe some more than others, and many have had formal musical education before and alongside their life in SAJB. However, inspirational and hard work within SAJB does something great with all these young musicians.

The joy of observing development

When you follow SAJB on YouTube, you can watch band members grow, both in age and as musicians. If you follow the band as closely as many of the fans do, you sometimes feel as if you were an older, distant relative. Comments on YouTube or social media can go “How he has grown!” or “How young she was when she did that recording!” You almost feel like you are part of a big family watching this development happen. Apart from these heart-warming, family-like emotions, it is very enjoyable and interesting to follow the development of young musicians. This is to me, and probably also to many other fans, an important reason for looking around for SAJB videos from different years.

The human and social dimension

The musical training within SAJB has some specific and very interesting features. This training has been very successful. However, there is something more to the project; another dimension that I believe is very important.  This other dimension is a cluster of human and social features.  I claim that you need to understand both dimensions of “the project” to understand what it actually is that you love. When you understand the project, you realise that there is something more than the music to love, however good that music is. Moreover, if this “more” had not been there, the music would probably not had been as good as it is.

To start with, I return to the original basic statement of the project, as spelled out at the end of Ramón Tort’s documentary Kids and Music, la Sant Andreu Jazz Band (2012).

Driven and directed by Joan Chamorro, the orchestra aims to educate children from 7 to 18 years old both as musicians and as people.”

The key words are “both as musicians and as people”. From the start, Joan set these two, mutually supportive ambitions for the project.  You can appreciate either ambition separately, but their development rely on each other – musical development enhances the human and social development, and vice versa.

The musical qualities are obvious for anyone to hear, but the human and social qualities might escape you if you are not attentive. When I interviewed Joan and the musicians Èlia Bastida and Carla Motis, preparing the article “The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula”, I caught a glimpse of these qualities and phrased it like this:

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.” (The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula, Musik.pm 2018)

Among the features of the method that Joan told me about in that interview, there were two principles that I should mention in this context.

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.”

To make the project sustainable over time, it is important that seniors stay in the band and are willing “to give back” what they have received as juniors, and many do so.

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.” (The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula, Musik.pm 2018)

I believe these features are an important base for the love of the band. They help its members to concentrate on the music and to cooperate within the band. As a result, the music gets better, for us to love, but we also love the human and social qualities in themselves. Part of the band’s charm is that its members radiate these qualities. Many who have met Joan Chamorro and/or members of SAJB have witnessed their kindness and generosity.

Sant Andreu Jazz Band comprises members of very different ages. I believe an age mix generally helps development. I have myself been part of youth organizations, led by a few adults, where members were of very different ages. The older members in some ways share the leadership with the adults, but they also share the member status with the younger. The band also comprises both female and male members.

Not being homogeneous in terms of age and gender, the organization becomes a small community organized to achieve a common purpose. The more the purpose is visible, practical and shared, the more successful the organization. The Sant Andreu Jazz Band has a very visible and practical purpose – to develop musically and from time to time show its musical standard in performances – and the result depends on how the members can build the quality together. Everyone is important to the common result, and they all develop as musicians and as people.

Joan Chamorro

What about Joan Chamorro? Does he benefit from working with the project of Sant Andreu Jazz Band? I am quite sure he does. In my portrait of Joan, I conclude that “Joan creates the project and the project creates Joan in a spiral of mutual development.” (Joan Chamorro, Musik.pm 2019.) This is probably what could happen to all of us in our life projects. We put things into action, and if we deal with the results of the action in a creative and constructive way, we develop.

In a comment on Facebook, someone once said that an important success factor for SAJB is that it has a senior musician who sacrifices himself to fulfil the task of being the bandleader. However, anyone who knows Joan Chamorro knows that he absolutely does not see his task as a sacrifice! On the contrary, leading and developing SAJB is very important to him as a person. It is his mission in life and a part of his identity. The success of SAJB must also be very rewarding. Moreover, within his work with SAJB, he gets to play with some very interesting professional musicians.

Individuals

Mentioning the importance of individuals, we should not overlook the importance of every individual young musician in Sant Andreu Jazz Band, their skills and their readiness to contribute to the positive energy of the group. According to the principle of including both current and former band members in the definition of “the project”, this statement includes everyone from the original eight to all current members. They are all part of a living and sustainable music culture that goes on and on, creating new experiences for us to enjoy.

An ideal society?

The project of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band seems to me to form a sort of “ideal society” – a community where everyone gets the opportunity to develop with the help of the leader, fellow band members and external professionals. There is no requirement that everyone develops at the same pace. With their own efforts and the support received, everyone can develop according to their own capacity.

You can observe the dynamics of the band through how soloist parts are distributed. Normally the senior band members take on most of the soloist parts, but then again, they sometimes sit back to support younger members. In a few years, the young ones will have succeeded the old ones and taken on their roles.

As stated above, the human and social aspects of the project have a value of their own, but they also enhance the quality of the music. In my view, the result is music with a special kind of spirit and a strong community that I have rarely seen elsewhere. We can appreciate the band members’ shared joy of playing together, but also their discipline, ambition and mutual support.

These features tell us something important about the SAJB project. However, since we love the band, they might also tell us something important about us, the fans. Maybe the human and social aspects of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band project form a kind of community we would all like to be part of.

_____

Music videos

In 2009, the album “Sant Andreu Jazz Band Live at Casa Fuster” was released. It would become the first in a long series of SAJB albums called “Jazzing”. Until today, there has been 16 “Jazzing” releases, and more will come. There are also many SAJB albums featuring different individual SAJB musicians. There is a lot of wonderful music to discover on all of these albums!

This is a sample of songs from the Jazzing series.

Jazzing 1 (Live at Casa Fuster, Barcelona)
Some of These Days / Cute / Petite Fleur / Bill Bailey

Jazzing 2
Harlem Air Shaft / Koko / I found A New Baby

Jazzing 3 (Live at Palau de la Música, Barcelona 2011)
Easy Money / Boogie’s Blues / All Too Soon / Si Tu Vois Ma Mère / Pouttin’

Jazzing 4, vol. 1
Exactly Like You / Minor Swing / Jeep’s Blues / Mood Indigo / Pretty Trix

Jazzing 4, vol 2
Vip’s Boogie / A-Tisket A-Tasket / Royal Garden Blues

Jazzing 5
Rosetta / West Coast Blues / I Can’t Get Started / Lush Life / It Don’t Mean a Thing / Feeling Good

Jazzing 6, vol. 1
Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby / What a Little Moonlight Can Do / Easter Parade / From This Moment On / Moanin’

Jazzing 6, vol. 2
Wave / Sister Kate / Lotus Blossom / Jordu / Anthropology

Jazzing 7
Almost Like Being in Love / Recado Bossa Nova / I’d be There / Unchain My Heart / Triste / After You’ve Gone / Since You’ve Been Gone

Jazzing 8, vol. 1
The Elder / What’s New / Mike’s Peak / Baby, You’ve Got What It Takes / Souvenir / Bebop / Count Bubba

Jazzing 8, vol. 2
Mood Indigo / Jazz Goes to Siwash / Nap’s Dream / Blues Generation

Jazzing 8, vol.3
Groove Merchant / Grey Flannel / Whisper Not / Spaceman Twist

Jazzing 9, vol. 1
The Good Life / No Moon at All / Donna Lee / On the Sunny Side of the Street / Le Coiffeur / So What / Blue Gardenia

Jazzing 9, vol. 2
Deeper / Yearnin’ / Stardust Shine / I’ll Be Seing You / Doodlin’

Jazzing 9, vol. 3
Peggy’s Blue Skylight / The Preacher / Billie’s Bounce / Portrait of Jenny

Jazzing 10, vol. 1 (Tribute to Clifford Brown)
Laura / Jim / Can’t Help Lovin Dat Man / Brown Skins / Falling in Love with Love / Daahoud / I Remember Clifford /

____

Related posts

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)

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