I’m a great lover of music,
especially when I return from living abroad. Listening to live music
is one of my favorite things to do and I’m lucky to have come from
a place (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) with a decent music scene. I was
excited to be in Barcelona, though the only place that seemed to be
offering live music on a Tuesday night was Jazz Si. For €4 (about $5.25) they
were having a, “rock and blues jam session”. The music was said
to be from 7:45-10PM, which I thought was pretty early in Spain.
Apparently Barcelona has recently passed noise ordinance
laws that make live music difficult to have late in the evening.
Finding the venue was a bit difficult
but I was a little late so I could hear the music while
approaching. When I paid for my entry I was pleased to see it came
with a drink, so I ordered a beer. The place was pretty full with a
few tables in the back and chair style seating in front of the stage.
I took a seat in the back and took in the scene.
The house band was a drummer, bassist,
keyboard player and guitarist. They were tight, well practiced, and
fed off the crowd well. The venue had a second floor balcony, which
quickly filled up and people even sat on the ground on the balcony
with their legs dangling off the side.
Most of the musicians who came appeared
to be frequent attendees. They usually had practiced arrangements
with the house band guys. However, there was a lot of variety and
spontaneity in the night from a Spanish guitar folk singer to a heavy
metal ensemble.
The only awkward moment of the night
came when some guy came up to do “beat boxing”. I’ve seen somepretty sweet beatboxing so I wasn’t about to write this guy off,
even though the title of the act seemed out of place and ill timed
amid the set of rock standards. The guy got up and did a beat with no
variation while the bass, guitar and keyboard player played a funky,
yet repetitive line. Eventually the band came to several vamp
endings, though the beatboxer was oblivious. Finally the guitar
player gave the “hook” signal and the guy stopped. I found it all
amusing and even though the beatboxing was less than stellar, the guy
was really into it and he looked stereotypically European with a
designer haircut and fashionable clothes.
There was a blues guitar player, who
was obviously a professional. He played off the crowd and the crowd
loved it. In between his songs he said that he toured a lot in
America and Canada and people were always asking him about Spain and
the economy and he would say it’s not so bad. He then said that
people should thank the Jazz Si owner because he is one of the only
merchants in Barcelona supporting live music.
The night then culminated with a group
of metalheads taking the stage to give a Broadway worthy version of
Steppenwolf’s classic, “Born to Wild”. The metal guys were
nearly as out of place as the beatboxer but that did not stop them
from rocking out with all the classic metal theatrics including head banging, hip gyration, tongue wagging, and all the tricks. It was
certainly a great group to end with and the club won me over for it’s
nightly music, upbeat crowd, and schedule. I enjoyed the music ending
at 10PM, though it was a bit early, it’s then the perfect time to
have dinner in Spain!
I was so impressed with Jazz Si that I
returned the next night for jazz night. The music was even better and
I was pleased to see they had gotten an upright piano for the gig.
The crowd was much smaller, though it was a Wednesday night. There
were several musicians that showed up throughout the night, including
two excellent alto Sax players, an amazing vocalist, a trombone
player and a tenor sax player. Whenever I am in Barcelona, I will
certainly always be going to Jazz Si!
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