musical language as she reinterprets the Basque folk songbook from a jazz perspective.
In 2025, Haizea Martiartu began a new chapter as the leader of the quartet, accompanied by Vicente Marín (piano), Héctor Tejedo (double bass) and Pau Gurpegui (drums). The project brings together three musicians with solid track records alongside Martiartu herself, who plays the alto and soprano saxophones and is responsible for the compositions: Vicente Marín, a pianist and composer who trained at ESMUC and has been recognised in various national and international competitions. Martiartu and Marín released Huellas en el tiempo (2024); Héctor Tejedo, a double bassist who trained at the Taller de Músics and the ESMUC. He is a member of the Taller de Músics Original Jazz Orchestra, has collaborated on prominent projects in the jazz scene and is a professor at the ESEM Taller de Músics; Pau Gurpegui, a drummer and composer who trained at Jazzcampus Basel. He is involved in various jazz and contemporary music projects. The quartet serves as a space for dialogue and interaction, with improvisation, sonic exploration and collective creation forming the core of this work, titled Zutabe, under the direction of Haizea Martiartu.
This second album by the Markiña-based artist is the result of her artistic maturation process. Delving into the creative realms of jazz, she offers an open, contemporary and exploratory perspective while keeping the memory of her origins alive. A prime example of this is the track TRIOMF, which features the txalaparta group Hutsun and combines traditional rhythms and sounds with a contemporary musical language. Ixil ixilik, with its seafaring heritage, evolves smoothly towards bossa nova and fusion, while the fast-paced Aita Periko seme Juaniko once again draws inspiration from Basque tradition in search of new musical territories. The quartet’s performance is both eclectic and subtle. They pay homage to American roots music in Uda-Azkena, before delighting us with the smoky and delightful Agur Jaunak. This melody is deeply rooted in the Basque musical imagination, but in Martiartu’s hands it takes on a new dimension. Zutabe is an organic record full of diverse textures and accents. Compositions that venture into the realm of the blues, such as Paradoxy, coexist with Herrimin melancholic passages, ultimately revealing a whole new world of possibilities with Amets.
Zutabe is the living memory of an artist like Haizea Martiartu. It is the place where dreams and certainties come together. An upward line—the pillar upon which everything yet to come rests.
