From the beach to the boulevard, the distant echo of street music can be heard approaching. Today, metal and wood reverberate in the streets and squares, mingling with the smell of smoke from the factories of a bygone era. A summer breeze, like a parade, carries the murmur of a festival towards my street and neighborhood, swaying cheerfully towards the rest of the world.
Hailing from Bilbao, trumpeter Juan de Diego has established himself as one of the most creative and original figures on the jazz scene over the last few decades. Based in Catalonia, he has released more than forty albums and collaborated with numerous artists, participating in international festivals over the years. Alongside his ongoing teaching activities, his prolific artistic career has seen him lead various projects and release albums such as Kea (2003) with Freaky Trio, Odola (2010) and Since 1993 (2018) with De Diego Brothers, Uda Labur Hori (2016) with the Juan de Diego Trio, and his critically acclaimed latest album, Azken Uda (2024), with his personal project, Juan de Diego Grebalariak.
His career perfectly reflects the innovative and restless nature of this Basque musician, who has once again pleasantly surprised us with the launch of his new project, La Banda del Poblenou. A long-cherished dream project for De Diego, it has now come to fruition with the addition of Pau Domènech on bass clarinet (Michael Brecker Quindectet, Perico Sambeat, Jaume Llombart and Xarop de Canya), tuba and trombone player David Parras (Lucien Barbarin, Leroy Jones, Wendell Brunious and Jon Batiste), and drummer Santi Colomer (Michael Kanan, Bill McHenry, Ernesto Aurignac and Rita Payés). The group presents its debut album, Feréstec, with this brand-new release.
This album, recorded at the Institut Joan Salvat-Papasseit in Barcelona by Fredrik Carlquist, showcases Juan de Diego’s undeniable connection to the jazz and improvisation scenes. With a clear desire to capture the essence of street music associated with social and festive events or parades, the album embodies the spirit of a popular neighborhood band. Feréstec is based on Juan de Diego’s original compositions and the band’s excellent performance skills, resulting in an original sound. Compositions such as Al barri hi ha de tot and Corre, Corre transcend the realm of mere improvisation, delighting us with an emotional interpretation of Gaza y el Arte in funeral march style combining New Orleans airs with Balkan music on Petrovich en Atxuri. Juan de Diego reveals the vast spectrum of emotions behind songs such as Feréstec— a canvas for mid-tempo spontaneous improvisation — before returning to the sinuous, slow march rhythms featuring Pau Domènech’s bass clarinet and De Diego’s trumpet on Metífico. Sometimes solemn, sometimes festive, the album moves under the rhythmic direction of David Parras and Santi Colomer, blending textures and dynamics from a wide variety of sources in tracks such as Osimbo, featuring sublime melodic moments on Mikro, and reviving the New Orleans second line on La Banda del Poblenou, bringing to a close an album that stands out as one of the most original and fresh of recent times.
Somewhere in the world today there is untamed music, the kind that doesn’t ask permission. It glides softly through the streets of Poblenou. An echo of metal and wood fluttering in the summer heat reaches the place where I live, my street, my neighborhood.
