Raspa García Trío

Jorge “Raspa” García has established himself over the years as a reference and an essential figure in Blues piano scene. An artist who studied at the IMT music school, completing his training in classical music and Jazz, and mainly influenced by Afro-American music, delving especially in Blues and Jazz, proudly showcasing a more than noticeable New Orleans music influence along his own band, The Tremendous.

In 2015 he released Boogie Woogie Voodoo as Raspa García & the Crawfish, a very personal album that not only highlighted his compositional skills but also previewed the guidelines to follow on this Standards Session Vol. I.

Recorded entirely live at the Brazil Studios in Madrid, this record solidifies a lineup that includes Raspa García on piano, along with two legendary figures in the Afro-American music scene: Antonio Álvarez “Pax” on drums (Vacazul, Tres hombres, Speak low, Los Reyes del K.O.) and Francisco López “Loque” on double bass (Bob Sands Big band, Grant Stewart, Steve Markus, Arturo O´farril), two of the most sought-after musicians in the scene. A lineup that provides a real, organic sound without artifice, recapturing the most primal essence and offering a great number of pleasant surprises throughout this first album.

Far from being a mere exercise in stylistic revisionism, Standards Session Vol. I constantly oscillates between the realms of Blues and Jazz, merging both and elevating this brilliant recreation of songs up a high standard musical level. The trio delves into the origins of jazz, paying homage to the legendary Jelly Roll Morton´s Mamanita, reclaiming bluesman Big Bill Broonzy figure with a New Orleans flavor on Black, Brown & White. Beyond Raspa García’s brilliant piano execution throughout the entire album, the creative contributions from Loque on double bass and Antonio Pax on drums are indispensable. Examples of this include Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s Stop Time legendary Charles Mingus’s Boogie Stop Shuffle and, of course, Bill Doggett’s Honky Tonk – a real groove, rhythm, and attitude masterclass. While it is true that, according to the chosen songs, the balance might lean towards the Blues, orientation, perspective, sound, and approach of all compositions indicate a marked jazz intention. Classics like Roosvelt Sykes’s 44 Blues the thrilling recreation of New Orleans pianist James Brooker’s “Blue Minuet” and concluding with the traditional Careless Love take on a new dimension under the perspective of this pianist from Madrid and his band.

In essence, a record that exudes versatility, freshness, and originality but, above all, it possesses the quality of showing us, in each of its grooves, what a band with true class sounds like and how a high-quality record should be.