With the free concerts as the starting point, the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic (MMVV) yesterday experienced the last day of its 34th edition, which was very positively valued by the organization, which issued a statement estimating 120,000 spectators the people who had supported the different performances that were seen in the different concerts.
That Vic and Osona are a great creative factory on our music scene is something we have known since the 1980s, and that on Friday it was again credited with the concert of another local musician, Ernest Crusats, which was the maximum point of attraction of the day with the preview of his first solo album after the experience of La Iaia: La font gelada, scheduled for the month of October.
In a quartet format, Crusats performed pieces such as Herbes d’esperar-te, Mar o muntanya We are talking about a calm folk-pop agenda, delicately crafted and with undoubted virtues on all fronts, to which we would say, if we were to be somewhat fussy , that perhaps a little more contrast would not hurt.
In terms of jazz, we dealt with the amazing free flight of ZB·YU·RA, a formation that is made up of the Taiwanese Yuhan Su on vibraphone, the Polish Zbigniew Chojnacki on accordion and electronics, and Ramon Prats on drums.
Also with the elegance and solvency of the trio led by double bassist Manel Fortià, who presented their recent album Despertar. Splendid repertoire based on the experiences accumulated during his years in New York, and in which he evoked landscapes such as Harlem (extraordinary Spiritual) or Brooklyn, through the equally sensational piece Aires de libertad.
Closing the tour, we saw Betina Quest (vocals, electronics), an artist born in Burundi and raised in Germany who has based the show Room in a room on her life experiences. The proposal moves in a particular Afro-neo-soul-electronic terrain, going through songs as appreciable as those that were performed: Four African Women or Ikangure.
An interesting project, although sometimes more conventional than one might expect, in which her notable vocal competence stood out above all else.
