The theme of this year’s 11th annual Jazzing Fest in Barcelona, hosted as always by the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, was dubbed “The New York-Berlin-Barcelona Connection.” Among the guest musicians and bands who participated this year were The EarRegulars, out of New York, The Jungle Jazz Band from Berlin (specializing in Dixieland), and of course the SAJB itself, along with a few special Barcelona guest musicians long associated with the project.
To those of you unfamiliar with the SAJB, it was founded in 2006 by musician/music educator Joan Chamorro and has for nearly two decades produced a long line of some of the most popular and sought-after young jazz musicians in Europe, including Andrea Motis, Joan Mar Sauque, Rita Payés, and Alba Armengou, all of whom made names for themselves while still teenagers in the band. Even more astonishing, especially to those hearing the SAJB for the first time, is that the musicians range in age from roughly eight to 21 years old. Under Chamorro’s direction, they play straight jazz, swing, be-bop, Dixieland, bossa nova, and other styles with the skills and sounds reminiscent of the great American bands from decades past, including the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, you name ‘em.
Within a few years of the SAJB’s creation, audiences began to see more local Barcelona and American jazz veterans taking the stage as guests, even if m
