“My show will have some new songs, others from always and I will also alternate other songs in other languages ??and remember the old masters like Yupanqui or songs like I remember you Amanda, by Víctor Jara, that is, a song by the purest tradition. I think it’s very good to give them a leading role, to sing them again”.
The speaker is Jaume Escala, a hard-working singer-songwriter and also a radio host and communicator, who will offer a recital-concert today as part of the commemorative events for 11 de Setembre at the Center Cívic Can Deu in Plaça de la Concòrdia (7:00 p.m.).
Escala (Barcelona, ??1958) continues in the gap of the author’s song in an unabashed way, although he is aware that these are not the best times for that type of music and bet. Even so, his recitals are an attractive and also instructive journey through popular music and also through more rock and folk rhythms, where he, his acoustic guitar and his voice (accompanied on this occasion by another guitarist) will bring the public closer to other classics such as A desalambrar, by Daniel Viglietti, to “end with a memory of Peret with the theme The living dead and end with the song of the Italian resistance Bella Ciao, without ruling out some theme of the Cuban Nueva Trova.
What is the author song?
They are those that have always served to unite, they are songs that come to stay on the sidelines of fashions and trends. They are songs that never die or pass.
Have you ever been told that you defend a type of author song that has remained anchored in the past?
Yes, they told me, yes. For me, author song is a genre, it’s like talking about bolero or rumba. And it has one very important thing: the author’s song is like a person in his seat, his instrument and his conception of the songs. A conception that says something, that comes to stay as I said before, that stirs the people who listen to it, that forms part of a cultural heritage. We have examples in classics like Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Serrat, French like Brel or Italians, which are born from the tradition that is the troubadour. It is for me this version of the author’s song that I do. That is, a style, a genre, a commitment and a way of seeing music and songs. A clear example is Bob Dylan, and wouldn’t we say that he is old-fashioned? But here we have the tendency that we think we are very modern, and as modern as we are, we are very provincial.
Continuing with your repertoire, can you suppose that you don’t find anything interesting from more recent times?
To begin with, many of those songs I’m talking about weren’t that long ago, because we’re talking about forty years ago. And in this sense there are many people who listen to Duke Ellington or Elvis Presley, who are older. Would you say they are stuck in the past? And it is that in the genre of the author’s song, a justification is always sought so that it is no longer there, because it is a genre that bothers, and that is what I like. Above all, it annoys the people who want us more stupid every day. And at least in my case, I want people to participate in the author’s song. And besides, the more you know about the past, the more you will offer to the future, and in this sense I am convinced that the author’s song still has to go further, and it will.
I mean, they bother
It has always been tried that singer-songwriters have that complex that we bother, and it’s not true! Here there is a lot of complex with the author’s song because since it served a few years and now it has been thrown away, now it doesn’t matter.
Speaking of your songbook, what we could call classics are the oldest?
Yes, of course. Among the classics in my repertoire is the song that led me to record my first album, Jo visc a Barcelona, ??some song from Terres de Catalunya such as Eternament or Els meus amics i jo, or…
And more recent topics?
In that I am, in which they are better known. There are very new songs that are very influenced by folk-rock, because that’s what I’ve been listening to the most lately, although I’ve never left out masters like Paco Ibáñez, Serrat or Yupanqui.
In any case, before there was more recognition and appreciation of the work of the singer-songwriter?
Yes, at that time people respected each other more and valued themselves more, and that is not longing but rather certainty. Now perhaps the mediocre takes up more room than people.
I suppose he would like to do more concerts.
Sure, of course. as what appears most on television is what they say is more mod, if you don’t have a media presence you don’t exist. But that is not true because in our teelvions there are practically no music programs.
What is your favorite song?
Midnight in Barcelona I like it a lot.
Tell me about the poster of this concert
It has been done by Carme Solé Vendrell, author of the Why? campaign, with whom she collaborates regularly and who recently had an exhibition at the Palau Robert. In this poster the arm and the guitar that appear in the drawing are mine, and it shows that it is made by an artist. We artists should work together again like before.
