Stormy days in Barcelona feel special. They don’t come along all too often, but when they do they don’t just feel like a rainy day that ruins your plans to go to the beach or saunter through the city. Instead, they are more of a show. People stand in doorways of buildings, partly to take shelter from the rain, partly to watch in fascination.
Days like these always turn me to a bit of jazz. Turning on my Spotify today, though, I remembered one jazz artist I had the pleasure of meeting about a year ago. Although, I didn’t actually realize he was a jazz musician until after we had parted. He was a student of mine for about a month at an English academy. Another teacher later told that he was a fantastic jazz musician and his group had provided some of the music for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (a fantastic soundtrack – kudos for using some great local talent).
Here is Biel Ballester playing over his gramaphone:
In Uphill to Tibidabo the music feels much more like gypsy jazz in the city, with energy, passion and heat. It’s like a dizzying romance, a boy chasing his love up to the old amusement park at the top of Tibidabo. Fully recommended!
Love it! What talented musicians!