Juan de Diego Trio

• Data: 2017-09-06
• Ordua: 21:30
• Lekua: Santander, Rubicón jazz club

I’ll tell you the truth: you don’t get many records as stimulating as this one. An inviting, honest, creative and clean album. The starting point of Aquel Corto Verano is a book, El Corto Verano de la Anarquía, that introduced Juan de Diego to the fascinating personality of Buenaventura Durruti, an anarchist leader killed in the outburst of the Spanish Civil War. Reading about the everyday life of workers in Barcelona during those days lead Juan de Diego to build a musical narrative in which every composition is related to a human experience. That’s one of the main magic features of this record. And not an easy one, by the way.

Another one is the ability to create a real band sound. Juan, Dani and Joe breathe together -no leading rule to be seen. It’s a matter of very special empathy. In fact, there’s no greater joy than creating good music together. All Is one and one is all, as Led Zep used to say.

The evocative qualities of this record can be noted from its very beginning. We’ve talked about Literature before, but Cinema is also present here. Tunes like Espiritus Obreros, El Sao o El Hombre Que Perdió la Forma bring to mind movie scenes and images of war, gloomy atmospheres or thilling short stories. Sometimes we seem to face the limits of musical parody (Un Pop Neu) or an imaginary connection between the streets of El Poble Nou, in Barcelona, and those of the New Orleans’ French Quarter (La banda del Poble Nou). Aquel Corto Verano is a record full of contrasts; From pleasant serenity to tension, from free-flight improvisation to the bounds of Drum’n’Bass and beyond.

If you haven’t heard about Juan De Diego before, he’s an experienced jazz professional. He co-leaded The De Diego Brothers, a popular band in Spain some years ago. Juan moved to Barcelona more than twenty years ago and his music has been growing since then, always on creative and personal basis. Don’t try to find any trace of easy conventionalism in his playing: it’s just a waste of time. Same to say about his companions in this record: Buenos Aires-born Dani Perez is a wise and varied guitar player who contributes to the overall sound of the group with a wide range of tone and colourful ideas. Joe Smith, now living in Barcelona but a true Chicagoan, is another example of a fine creative musician also involved in Literary projects: He recently wrote Many Sories. In conclusion: three excellent musicians connected to the most advanced and creative tendencies of recent jazz. And as Durruti used to say, “We carry a brave new world into our hearts; a world that’s just growing in this moment”.