I thought any fellow Jazzers might like to know that our music is alive and well in southern Spain. To celebrate my birthday last night, after a dinner overlooking the sea, I went to the local jazz club - which on other nights features blues, modern 'alternative' stuff, and Latin-American bands. They have a house trio of guitar piano, and drums - and guests are welcome. It has comfortable seating, cheap drinks, and free entry - and it starts at 11.30 pm, which around here is relatively early, because it is still hot at that time. The guitarist is the leader and main attraction - a supercharged virtuoso who plays a little like John McLaughlin in his heyday. He mixes old standards with modern Latin-American songs and lashings of Coltrane-based material. Two very glamous women got up on stage last night - one to sing an Antonio Carlos Joabim song whose title I can't recall, and the other to play what looked like a sparkling new Selmer Mark 7 alto sax - which she did to some effect. Having reached 'a certain age', I thought I ought to be pushing off home around three. But as I walked down the Paseo Maritimo - a twenty foot wide boulevard which follows the beach all along the coastline - the walkway was PACKED with young locals just getting their night underway. Lots of booze, but not a trace of trouble or even rowdiness. Most refreshing.
17 August 2007
Jazz postcard from Andalucia
I thought any fellow Jazzers might like to know that our music is alive and well in southern Spain. To celebrate my birthday last night, after a dinner overlooking the sea, I went to the local jazz club - which on other nights features blues, modern 'alternative' stuff, and Latin-American bands. They have a house trio of guitar piano, and drums - and guests are welcome. It has comfortable seating, cheap drinks, and free entry - and it starts at 11.30 pm, which around here is relatively early, because it is still hot at that time. The guitarist is the leader and main attraction - a supercharged virtuoso who plays a little like John McLaughlin in his heyday. He mixes old standards with modern Latin-American songs and lashings of Coltrane-based material. Two very glamous women got up on stage last night - one to sing an Antonio Carlos Joabim song whose title I can't recall, and the other to play what looked like a sparkling new Selmer Mark 7 alto sax - which she did to some effect. Having reached 'a certain age', I thought I ought to be pushing off home around three. But as I walked down the Paseo Maritimo - a twenty foot wide boulevard which follows the beach all along the coastline - the walkway was PACKED with young locals just getting their night underway. Lots of booze, but not a trace of trouble or even rowdiness. Most refreshing.
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6 comments:
Roy
The ease with which Europe manages its booze consumption never ceases to amaze me, blighted as we are in Manchester with binge drinking young fuckwits whenever we brave our way into the town centre of a weekend.
The only people I have seen remotely drunk here have been the very same people - young vulgar naff Brits on holiday in their Union Jack T-shirts, tatoos a-go-go, and their shaved heads.
The locals simply don't overdo it at all. They might have habits which can seem a bit odd to us - such as having a huge brandy with their morning coffee - but in general they seem to drink smaller glasses of everything. And they just don't seem to be interested in getting rat-arsed as our lumpens do.
It's altogether more civilized everywhere.
I agree. I have recently returned from Germany. One night in Ulm there was a street party (well, several); beer tents, music, food. Lots of people. No trouble at all. In Manchester, by contrast, the town centre at the week-end is routinely full of people urinating in doorways, exposing their buttocks, shouting abuse, and fighting.
Here's another thing: in France and Germany children seem well behaved in restaurants. They sit at the table, eat their food, chat with their parents. In England if I am in a pub, sitting in the corner, drinking a beer, eating a sandwich, and quietly reading my Guardian, and "the family" come in, it isn't long before little Tommy is running around screaming at the top of his voice, fashioning snowballs from his own faeces and throwing them across the bar, smearing snot on my sandwich, while his parents studiously ignore all this, as if it had absolutely nothing to do with them.
Your right: it's altogether more civilised everywhere.
I agree with you on the kids issue, Politaholic. Continentals make much more of a fuss of their children, and the children themselves are better behaved. Brits do the opposite: they let their brats run wild everywhere, ignore them until they are completely out of control - then knock shit out of them.
Jazz musicians in Andalucia
Hi,
I am french and I live in Spain (Algeciras) for two years.
I am a (good) jazz drummer (traditional jazz, be bop, contemporary, latin jazz, brasil jazz, flamenco jazz, manouche jazz, rock jazz, and so...).
I do not know any jazz musicians in Andalucia and I would like to meet some to play for pleasure. How can I meet them?
I have a musical studio in my house, with my drums (Sonor Designer, Zildjian cymbals), a professional piano (Kawai MP8), a sound machine (Yamaha stagepass 500), some percussions (LP congas and other small percussions).
Best regards.
Reynald BOSCHIERO
Calle Pomponio Mela, 50
11207 ALGECIRAS
956 57 44 24
email : reynald@ya.com
Hello Reynald
I don’t know much about the jazz scene elsewhere in Andalucia – but the club I visit occasionally is in Fuengirola
It’s called “Sal’s Paradise” and it is at the western end of the Paseo Maritimo, on the sea front.
It’s a good club, and there are certainly plenty of percussionists there
It’s open almost every night, and features jazz on Mondays and Thursdays – and rock, blues, and funk other nights
I would have though there will be similar places in Marbella and Malaga
Good luck!
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