Bebo Valdés (1918-2013)

Bebo Valdés amb Javier Colina al Palau, 24 de novembre del 2006 (foto: Ricard Cugat).

Prèvia a 'La Vanguardia'

Dijous passat La Vanguardia va publicar una prèvia amb els primers concerts ja confirmats i a la venda (amb el 25% de descompte fins al 31 de març) del 46 Voll-Damm Festival Internacional de Jazz de Barcelona. Firmada per Maricel Chavarría, la prèvia incloïa també un reportatge sobre l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, que debuta aquesta tarda a Luz de Gas (20.00h), amb entrades anticipades pels Amics del Jazz a 1 euro (10 euros a taquilla).

Al programa d'avui, la presentació del seu últim i ben ambiciós projecte, Jazz Composers Forum, amb noves composicions de Darcy James Argue, Steven Bernstein, Guillermo Klein, Ohad Talmor, Florian Ross, Pierre Bertrand, Julian Argüelles i Frank Vaganée. Us hi esperem.

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (8): Frank Vaganée

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/Club The Project.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

I know OJM now for 9 years. In 2005 I had the chance to sit in as a lead altosaxophonist and did a few concerts and a cd-recording with special guest Chris Cheek. So since that time I have on and off contact with their pianist and composer Carlos Azevedo. I loved to work with them. The orchestra contains a lot of talented musicians and they all have a great mentality, each as a person and as an orchestra. It's fun to rehearse and play concerts with them. And the hang afterwards is great too. They are always looking for interesting projects such as this one. Gathering composers from both sides the Atlantic and create new music.

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, Reclusion?

When they asked me to write, I had this instant idea to feature the first altoplayer of the OJM, José Luis Rêgo. He is a very musical player and I love the way he sounds. Ten minutes of a warm ballad into the heat and energy of the tutti. It starts as a ballad, slow and intimate, lots of space for the alto saxophone to interpret the melody and later on to improvise on it. The arrangement evolves to a big tutti, where the saxophone section gets a variety of melodic lines to play and brass adds accents to these lines ending in a counterpoint section back into the ballad tempo.

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (7): Darcy James Argue

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/Club The Project.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

I first heard the OJM when they were on their US tour with Kurt Rosenwinkel, and so I was familiar with the band and delighted when they asked me to participate in their first Jazz Composers Forum. This is an amazingly ambitious project: commissioning, performing, and recording new music from eight different composers from all over Europe and North America! It was an honor to be included. My music is extremely difficult to play, and it's very easy for players to get frustrated or burned out during long, intense rehearsals, but everyone in the OJM was in it to win it. I'd never been to Portugal before and it's one of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever visited — and the peixe grelhado and vinho verde did not disappoint.

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, All In?

As I was in the course of writing the OJM-commissioned piece, I learned that the great trumpet player and educator Laurie Frink had died. Laurie appears on the first album I recorded with my own bigband, Secret Society, and she performed with us on several occasions, including our debut at the Newport Jazz Festival. She was a friend and mentor to many of us, and I was shocked and saddened by her unexpected passing. Those emotions began to work their way into the piece and when I was done writing, I decided to call it All In and dedicate it to Laurie. (The title works on multiple levels and has multiple implications, which I think Laurie would have appreciated.)

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (6): Ohad Talmor

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/Club The Project.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

I am a long time collaborator of OJM as I have had the privilege of working on many of their projects, including writing music for a couple of their records (with Lee Konitz and Kurt Rosenwinkel) as well as other special endeavors (Piano Concerto for Jason Moran, 3 Tenors suite for Joshua Redman, Chris Cheek and Mark Turner, etc). Having worked with this orchestra so much, I came to know the individual voices of each of its members and developed strong relationships with many of them. All of this means that working with OJM means to me a unique place of comfort where the opportunity to create music comfortably is unhindered by the usual process or meeting new musicians in an unknown setting with different set of expectations. In short, working with OJM is probably the best experience I have ever had working with such ensembles.

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, Étude No. 2?

This piece is part of a set of 12 études written specifically for OJM. Even though I am a saxophonist, my musical upbringing is one of a classical pianist and much of my material is linked to a deep reverence for the western classical world, from middle age music to post modern. I am always influenced by specific repertoires, and in the past few years, Gyorgi Ligeti’s Piano études in particular. The idea came then to write my own set of études but for a less conventional setting. Because of my close relationship to OJM, it seemed only natural to do it for them. The material of Étude No. 2 is the (un)Happy merging of 2 different sources;  hip-hop beats, and in particular things I liked in some of rapper’s Q-Tip productions, and the "comfort music” I heard in the score of the TV series The Love Boat. The form is that of a classical rondo inside of which the basic frame of the rhythmic cell used is constantly rotated to create an ongoing contrapuntic rhythm. The idea in the end is to provide a sort of kaleodoscopic image of the music using seemingly simple base elements.

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (5): Florian Ross

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/Club The Project.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

I find the main difference between commercial Big Bands and musicians’ initiatives is that the latter are really there for the music! OJM is a fine mixture of diverse characters and artists who are there for one reason only: the music! They are open-minded, intelligent and creative all at once! It was a pleasure to work with them!

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, Tremor?

For me the balance between traditional Big Band music and more recent approaches is most interesting. The old masters of Big Band music often wrote music that showed the powerful edges of the band: a lot of kicking tuttis, hard swing, memorable melodies. Since the 1970s, though, many composers have started to use the Big Band in many more ways. They treated the band less in fixed sections and experimented a lot with sound –much more like one could treat a chamber orchestra. For me an interesting blend of 'show band‘ and ’Schönberg’ is the way to go. This was also the driving force in my composition Tremor.

  

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (4): Guillermo Klein

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/Club The Project.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

It was truly great and inspiring. The musicianship was very high and the commitment to the work as well. I recall going very happy to each rehearsal and trying sections of this piece with them, we had a good amount of time to work and the venue had a great sound too. I feel respect, admiration and gratitude for the opportunity. Looking back, a musical highlight.

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, Tiempo y lugar?

I had this idea of how to translate a dream with a piece of music. It carries the feeling that time are moments that occupy space, leading to a prayer for ever lasting love. I used this subtle rhythmic phasing device to achieve this dreamlike atmosphere, doublings and pedal points are intended to carry light and the flugelhorn solo (Susana Santos Silva) stands out as a narrator.

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (3): Pierre Bertrand

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/ Club The Project.

Pierre Bertrand.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

Le OJM, grâce à Carlos Azevedo et Pedro Guedes, est un formidable orchestre animé par la volonté de réunir d'excellents solistes et par une grande exigence artistique dans le choix de leur projet, mais cela ne serait rien sans le "feu sacré" qui anime chacun de ses membres, formant une équipe de musiciens passionnés qui mettent tout leur coeur dans la musique. J'ai été très touché par l'accueil chaleureux qui m'a été réservé et par l'attention que tous ces merveilleux musiciens ont consacré à ma musique. Une expérience sous le signe de l'émotion et du partage!

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, El Mauro?

El Mauro est un titre introspectif. Il évoque l'idée que l'homme est un être complexe, qu'il doute de lui. Pourtant cette attitude de remise en question continuelle est la seule manière pour lui de trouver la simplicité de la "chose" qui l'anime, chose qui est présente en permanence derrière l'apparente complexité de sa personnalité. Pourquoi le titre El Mauro? C'est une manière de situer la composition comme un mélange stylistique de sonorités et de mélismes moyen-orientaux avec des rythmiques issues du flamenco, en particulier la seguiriya.

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (2): Steven Bernstein

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/ Club The Project.

Steven Bernstein (c) Michael Weintrob.

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

This was an incredible experience for me. My first opportunity to perform a full concert of my big band arrangements with a group that was not my own. The band is so full of life, and willing to try anything… They are music warriors. Learning two concerts of new music in one week is a challenge. It was also a great pleasure to meet Pierre Bertrand and hear his incredible compositions. He is a true master of harmony and it was enlightening and humbling speaking to him about music and listening in on his rehearsals. Last year was very full for me, lots of writing and travelling, and this week in Matosinhos was very memorable for its great spirit, music, and FOOD!

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, OJM?

All my compositions unfold from a few sets of intervals and rhythms that I use as a building blocks. Once these are set, I let the composition unfold, like an improvisation that is frozen in time. I try not to judge the process, just enjoy it and let the music take care of itself. It is very important to me that there is always some improvisation going on in my pieces. The mystery and sense of immediacy this brings allows me to be surprised by the music, and makes every performances unique. It was a pleasure to hear this recording. I have never heard anything like this!

Meet the Jazz Composers Forum (1): Julian Argüelles

Els vuit compositors convidats per l'Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos parlen sobre la seva experiència amb la big band portuguesa. Concert el 16 de març a Luz de Gas (20.00h). Entrades a 1 euro pels Amics del Jazz/ Club The Project.

Julian Argüelles (c) Gerhard Richter

1. How was for you the experience to work with the OJM?

It was a lot of fun. Firstly these opportunities (being asked to compose and arrange for a large ensemble and the opportunity to be with the band to rehearse and organise the music) are rare and and of course its almost always fun. This was especially enjoyable because of the  great musicians in the band, many of whom I knew from working in Portugal over the years. It was a pleasure.

2. Can you define the piece you wrote for them, Another Escapade?

Although I usually write music that I want to hear, play and write, because I knew and respected so many of the musicians involved with the band I tried to write with their sound in mind, this was especially true of the rhythm section. I feel my music has many different influences many of which are not obvious, and these can vary from piece to piece. But I would say this particularly piece has some connections to the music of Kenny Wheeler and Mário Laginha (two of my favourite writers), I think I was also influenced by the great version of Kurt Rosenwinkel's Zhivago that the band recorded. Having said, usually I write without a preconceived idea about how the piece will turn out, it's a bit like an improvisation –I don't try and force the out come.