The Barcelona music scene, and particularly that of jazz, is experiencing the imminent closure of one of the most emblematic clubs in the Catalan capital with uncertainty and astonishment. The Milano Jazz Club, located on the Ronda Universitat right next to Plaza Catalunya, had become a true benchmark in recent years, with a stable and quality program of both local artists and international musicians. Now, after more than fifteen years of music —and cocktails—, a more than probable closure weighs on the place, which will turn it into a franchise of an Italian restaurant chain in a few months.
The main reasons for this closure should not surprise anyone who knows the real estate reality in the center of Barcelona. As explained by the owner of the club, Ramon Larregola, there are two keys: the difficulty of assuming a high rent increase by the owner of the property together with the offer of a competitor that exceeds said rent by 30%.
According to Larregola, it all started about eight months ago, when conversations began with the musician Liba Villavecchia to transfer the premises that would also include the agreed rent increase. However, the situation changed when the owner of the property preferred the succulent offer of said chain of trattorias. “You also have to understand them: it is a more lucrative and less complex option,” says Larregola, who sees the situation as irreversible and even sets a closing date: this fall.
Given the situation, the most afflicted are, without a doubt, the managers of the premises in recent years: Guim Cifré and Clara Conill. Cifré, Milano’s artistic director for 5 years, has been fighting in recent months to keep the club alive and has not given up hope yet. In fact, Cifré disagrees on some points in Larregola’s version. They agree that there were negotiations for the transfer —they were also involved, along with Villavecchia. However, he stresses that they were willing to bear all the costs and that everything was about to close when the irruption of the owner of the property cut short this transfer, adding that the restaurant chain’s offer is almost double. Cifré also believes that there are still possibilities to maintain the activity, although he believes that it will be necessary for the City Council and Generalitat to get involved, which, he adds, are already aware of the situation.
“It’s a pity: the club works and we were precisely in a very sweet moment, in which we were consolidating our position as a prestigious venue,” says Cifré sadly, who gives the situation this summer as an example: “This August the club is full and not only with people from outside. Milano is famous for having a large tourist audience, due to its location, but that is not true, because 70% of the attendees are from here”. On the other hand, Larregola adds water to the wine and discusses the idea that the club is in good financial health: “We were just tight, think that costs had increased a lot, and let’s not fool ourselves: unfortunately, if supporting a music venue was a good business, there would be many more”.
They both agree that, whatever happens, they want to keep the jazz club going, even if it’s in another location. “Not now, because I want time to rest, but in the future we would like to keep the Milano brand as a jazz club in a more appropriate place,” says Larregola. For his part, Cifré confirms this will although he leaves the way to carry it out up in the air.
Despite everything, Milano fans have launched a campaign, which has the support of those responsible, in which they ask the property to reconsider and send a request to the City Council to save the venue or, in any case, its activity . In his opinion, the disappearance of the Milano “contributes to the loss of Barcelona’s identity and further undoes its fragile cultural fabric, suffocated by economic interests, whose only engine is speculation and profit.” To date, the petition has achieved more than 3,100 supporters.
And it is that, for many, it rains it pours. For years —even decades— Barcelona musicians have complained about the lack of sensitivity of the administrations when it comes to keeping the flame of live music alive, considering these types of venues as simple leisure clubs, equating them to the discotheques, and not what, in his opinion, they are: authentic points of culture.
“It is a tragedy: it is a place that works, and that shelters the musical ecosystem of a city that, on the one hand, has many schools where musicians of the highest quality come from and, on the other, there are hardly any clubs for them to join. express”. The person who speaks like this is Jorge Rossy, drummer, pianist and one of the great figures of the Barcelona scene for decades.
Rossy, who does not hesitate to define Milano as “one of the pillars” of jazz in the city, sees in the closing a sample of “how speculation is devouring the center of large European cities, destroying them socially and culturally”. To do this, he asks not only to involve the public powers so that they “shield cultural spaces”, but also the private ones: “They already have a lot of money, now that they show that they want to contribute to society and culture, and not only think about win more and more.”
