DAAHOUD SALIM QUINTET – Getxo 2016

There is no strategy, however, in the concert starting with Hong SunMi playing the drums. It responds, as he assures, to a musical connection, to a perfect understanding that needs no other language, it only needs to flow. A romantic conception, which establishes the dialogic relation that is created (and perceived) on stage. A conversation at different levels where energy flows and transports us (again) with overwhelming naturalness. Hendrik Müller on the bass brings calmness and retreat, a refined sound that is part of the balance of the sensitivity that gives the quintet an intimate dimension, in which the trumpeter Bruno Calvo builds entangling ideas, perhaps without the certainty of knowing where they lead, but in the end being filled with the secret joy of having trusted them. A sound seared by the presence of a trombonist such as Pablo Martínez, whose agile head never stops producing ideas that are reflected in every note.

I’m talking about emotion, but also about knowing where he comes from and where he is heading to. I’m talking about the thrill of the journey. The truth of the journey.

A novelty to celebrate in a band, which is barely eighteen months old, allows Daahoud-the pianist, to elaborate on the stage with the music signed by Daahoud-the creator. Compositions specifically designed to reflect every nuance of their personalities and of their performing abilities. A screenwriter who creates the roles thinking of his interpreters would do it like this. And that would be the right way to do it.

This results in melodies in the line of classic jazz but that are not intended for jazz musicians, or jazz fans. And this does not detract any authenticity to the proposal or to the setting. Conversely, it might reinforce it, maintain it, or boost it. It makes it real.

Technique, emotion, expression. A sound that the Getxo audience fully appreciated and for which Daahoud has an eternal debt of gratitude for allowing him to feel something that, according to his own words, does not always happen: a (jazz) musician feeling that the audience in front of him is eager to hear him.