Music at the height of evolution

By merging various genres of popular music, we are
offered a fresh interpretation of the tradition that has been updated and
adapted to our day and age. This time they once again resort mostly to items
composed in previous decades, well-known items from jazz, pop or traditional
popular music, and we are taken to the sphere of hip hop or Latin music.

 

The
first item on the 10-inch vinyl –and which justifies its title– is a tribute to
the unforgettable Duke Ellington. The orchestra takes over the song that Stevie
Wonder composed as a tribute to Ellington, Sir Duke, and they turn it
into a typical big band number, brimming with swing and elegance and seasoned
with one of the hallmarks of Gasteiz Big Band, the use of the scratch.

One of the surprises on the disc is the
re-interpretation of Retreta de San Prudencio, a theme loved by the
people of Alava (Basque Country) in particular, and which respects the original
melody but with the addition of a good dose of hip hop, with the help of the
rap group Kodigo Norte.

Gasteiz Big Band put their hand to everything, even
pop songs that are a big marketing success. For example, Clocks by
Coldplay. Music at the height of evolution.

 

 

Eclectic personality and enthusiasm

 

Having
emerged in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country) in 1996, the GBB turns the screw on
its sound by allowing itself to soak up the new urban rhythms and by specifying
a new artistic direction that multiplies the possibilities of a traditional big
band with the incorporation of electronic elements and the support of a DJ. Hip
hop and funk connotations, vocal themes full of soul and swing, the heat of
Latin percussion… All this makes Gasteiz
Big Band a consolidated project with attractive hallmarks and features.
Over the last few years it has participated in events like the Donostia-San
Sebastian Jazz Festival, the Musikaire Festival in Elorrio (Bizkaia, Basque
Country), the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid, II International Film
Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, La Rioja, Festivals of Nájera, etc.

In
addition to its concert activity, the GBB is an unceasing focus of activities:
since 2004 it has been promoting the Big
Band Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz. A competition that is now a classic
and which sets out to get closer to the world of fun, complex-free jazz through
the programming of top bands like La Creativa Big Band, Bob Sands Big Band,
Javi Pez Orquesta, Always Drinking Marching Band, etc. Its most innovative
initiative has been to promote the setting up of the Txiki Txiki Big Band fed by young students attending Alava’s music
schools. That way a pool is being formed using the base.

 

Dantza Baltza: 
  
   Dantza Baltza is a space that welcomes
initiatives relating to black, dance and/or electronic music. With a fun,
enthusiastic attitude where projects are more important than labels, it is
seeking to consolidate new trends on the Basque Country’s music scene and also
to spread Basque music by revamping it with a characteristic “dantza
baltza” sound.