The future – and not so future – stars of local jazz will meet again this week in the Plaza Reial in Barcelona to participate in Jazz I Am, the international meeting reserved for professionals where they will be able to present their projects in sessions that will be accompanied by concerts, record label presentations and round tables on key topics in current music such as artificial intelligence, the environmental footprint or the effects of the digital environment on musicians’ income. Musicians such as Alba Careta, Roser Monforte, Ton Felices or the sax duo Alto for Two will provide the music in a sixth edition that will take place at the Casa Montjuïx, the Ocaña and the Jamboree.
The 300 approved accreditations speak of the success of the call, of which 70 are from professionals from other countries, to attend the event that will be opened this Wednesday by Juan Gómez, Chicuelo, The Lamento and the Taller de Músics Faculty Septet in the cultural space Casa Montjuïc del Poble Sec, a new stage that joins Jazz I Am in an edition that will kick off the commemorative events of the 45th anniversary of the Taller de Músics, organizer of the event and responsible for the opening and closing events. “We hope that the alliances created these years will be consolidated, which have given rise to collaborations and co-productions,” commented Rosa Galbany, director of the contest, “and that new clients and new purchases will emerge for the participating musicians.”
The performances will take place in a showcase format in rooms 1 and 3 of the Jamboree, which will feature the participation of two Italian artists from Puglia, the protagonist region of this year’s Focus with the aim of giving visibility to jazz from the region as as happened in the previous edition with Amsterdam. These are the saxophonist Pasquale Calò, who will present his project Where I com From, made from different popular musical traditions from Europe, Asia, Africa and America, and Mariasole de Pascali, a flutist who combines sound objects and electrical impulses within the project Fera, with which he won the Top Jazz 2022 award from Music Jazz Magazine. Both musicians visit Barcelona accompanied by a delegation from the Italian region with the aim of establishing links and collaborations between both territories.
The female presence will be notable in this edition, which coincides with the celebration on March 8 of Working Women’s Day. Six of the proposals that can be heard are led by women, such as Alto for two, a sax duo formed by Irene Reig and Kika Sprangers, who will be accompanied on piano by Xavi Torres from Tarragona, as well as Thomas Pol on double bass and Sun- Mi Hong on drums. Or the trumpeter Alba Careta, will present six of her own compositions and two versions of Nova Cançó songs after consolidating her career with the release of her third album, Teia.
Another trumpet, that of Joan Mar Sauqué, will meet again with Josep Traver and Giuseppe Campisi in an improvisation exercise in swing key. For his part, double bassist Ton Felices presents his first repertoire of his own songs accompanied by the sextet with which he has worked in Amsterdam, the city where he trained. The Escarteen sisters, Laia and Flavia, a duo of female voices that play both violin and cello, will also have their space, as well as K12, Moisés P. Sánchez, Edu Cabello Quartet, Osam, Pablo Selnik and Roser Monforte Trio.
Beyond the sound stage, in this edition of Jazz I Am workshops will be held such as “We are equals”, organized by the British Council in collaboration with Taller de Músics, which will deal with musical experimentation with artificial intelligence, or “The green alternative”, which will focus on the ecological transition of the music industry through audience management and the creation of sustainable tours to reduce the carbon footprint. These events will take place at the Ocaña, as will the presentation on Thursday of the “Freedom first” project, led by pianist Albert Marqués with the aim of freeing the activist and poet Keith LaMar, imprisoned for 30 years, from prison. in a US prison awaiting execution for a crime he did not commit.
On Friday, a round table will be held on the remuneration of record productions in the musical environment by Eva Faustino, from the FG Legal firm, and Guillem Arnedo, president of the Associació de Músics de Jazz i Música Moderna de Catalunya. That same day, a conference will be held on the evolution of jazz and hip hop over the last 30 years, as well as the Showlabels, a novelty of this edition featuring different record labels that will present the music from their catalogs accompanied by explanations and projections.
The Barcelona singer and composer Paula Peso, another musical daughter of the Taller de Músics, will be in charge of closing the Jazz I Am with a concert on Friday night where she will present her new project to finish the evening with the DJ session of La Frizz
