This time I tried something a little more experimental. My brother had given me a book on the origins of blues in West Africa and it really inspired me to try to fuse my music with instruments from this area of the world. I talked to a colleague of Mine Marc Thió and we started the ball rolling. He suggested Mark Lupescu, a Kora player, living an working here. Mark is fantastic at adapting to any music, as a matter of fact he had adapted his kora for playing in any key. Usually the kora is in one key, predominantly in the key of F, so Marks adaptation made it easier to play our tunes together. We started rehearsals and played a gig together at a local restaurant here in my neighbourhood of Poblesec called Bagaria. The feelings were good and we programmed the live stream over Zoom.

We had a last minute change, as Marc had to undergo an operation, so Samuel stepped in on the djembe and for such short notice he did a great job. He also brought along his Barafon, an African xylophone. Just as well, as I broke a string mid concert and the guys were able to step in and played a wonderful instrumental on kora and barafon.

We changed venue for the concert this time to studio space in the same building as how rehearsal rooms, run by Marc Thió. The results were mixed, I think the idea was good but we suffered a little with the sound at the beginning and we had some problems emitting in HD. I think this was due to either lower bandwidth or a new feature on Zoom that we had overlooked which reduces the video quality for multiple attendee meetings. This project has been a very steep learning curve for us and hopefully these kind of problems will be solved in future emissions.

Marc was kind enough to do some mixes of the recordings which you can listen to here:

00:00

I’ve known Pedro for a while now. We met through the scene here in Barcelona. I think I met him first at a jam session at the Harlem Jazz Club, which we host every so often. I asked him if he would like to play on a few tracks on our album Green in Blue and he obliged and did an amazing job. My favourite of the tracks he played on is Being Green. Check that out below.

We have always kept in touch and sometimes we managed to play together over the years with the full five piece featuring Pedro on the saxophone. It’s a joy to play with him, I learn so much from it. Not only is he a great player but he’s just an all round nice guy.

Over the years I have wanted to play more jazz standards and the first person I go to when I have an opportunity is Pedro. When I started my Youtube video project, Mr. Shingles Featuring…, Pedro was the first one I called. We managed to record a nice version of Alone Together with Irish bassist David Duffy, which you can check out here.

The last year’s diffulties have not made it easy for us to play together so I thought it would be a nice idea to a Zoom Concert with him. I for one, was itching to do some new stuff with him. I asked him to choose some jazz standards we could do together and in the end we came up with Invitation and Bye Bye Blackbird, two easy enough numbers for me to handle at my level of playing ;). I came across a nice version of Ivitation by Dexter Gordon, it’s a bossa and I’m always into doing latin stuff. I also learned the words for Bye Bye Blackbird, so we played around with that too.

After that it was easy to make up the trio with Marco Boi, as he has a long history in the jazz scene here. Here are a few tracks from the session. Hope you enjoy:

Zoom sessions 11th April 2021

00:00

Balta is originally from Palma, Mallorca and works out of there and Barcelona. A self-taught guitarist like myself, we both share an interest in Afroamerican Roots music. Balta is a veritable encyclopaedia of the blues and I really enjoy sitting down and listening to a few tunes with him and having the chats. I first met Balta through a long-term pal I have here in Barcelona, David Sanchez, and in the last few years I have got to know him as a friend. We both play on the scene here but had never played together, except at a few jams that we meet at, or I’d go to a few of his gigs and he shows up at mine from time to time.

We were scheduled to play a gig for “La Jornada de Blues” here on 31st October, but due to the new COVID restrictions, it was cancelled. After that disappointment and then my own plans being scuppered to organise a bigger Zoom gig with the full band, I decided to ask Balta could he come and save the day. We had already prepared some stuff for that cancelled gig so our work was not in vain, I guess. It was a pleasure to finally play together. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do the concert with the full band in the future, fingers crossed.

Listen to Balta’s Music

Since his professional debut in 1993 Balta has worked with many different artists including James Harman (USA), Sax Gordon (USA), Keith Dunn (USA), Julian Vaughn (USA), Víctor Puertas (ESP), Salvador Sobral (POR), Mingo Balaguer (ESP), Kyle Esplin (SCOT) and Little Roger Wade (UK). 

We hope you all enjoyed the gig and we would love to hear your feedback!

I have run into Raquel from time to time through the folk scene here in Barcelona. I was always a fan. Raquel is a really great singer and writes wonderful songs. So when I found out that Marco and herself played together I jumped on the opportunity of inviting her to play a live stream concert. You can listen to Raquel’s music here:

To make up the line-up I decided to contact Lenin. Lenin is from Venezuela, but he has been living here in Barcelona for a long time. We used to work at the same Irish Bar, The Wild Rover, for years and we became friends. Lenin has his own projects including a Salsa band who have just released an album:

I always wanted to work with Lenin and through the years we have managed to do some things together. What I love about Lenin is that he will try anything once, through working at the Wild Rover he has added many an old Irish favourite to his set. I always find it amazing that someone who grew up so far away from the auld sod would be interested in learning the music. Lenin also played percussion on our single Baby, So Cruel and really made the song.

So, we met up with Marco and started working on a set, closing some originals and other more singer songwriter songs from John Martyn and Van Morrison. I had this original that I had written years ago, when I had first arrived in Barcelona and I had never recorded it. I thought Lenin would fit perfect with the song. You can listen the results here.

As per usual we have some photos from behind the scenes. Check them out in the gallery to the right.

Myself and James hit it off from the first time we met at a blues jam session held at Craft Bar, Barcelona. James is originally from Canada but I met him when he had just moved here with his family from Nicaragua. He’s a great singer, guitar player and harmonica player so our duos together can be quite versatile. I love singing harmonies with James. Check out our song Beer for Breakfast below.

We kept in touch and decided to do an acoustic album together last year. I went on tour to Japan and we both started writing songs. We ended up getting it together really quick and recording a live session in one day. Here is the result:

Marcos and Xavi took a few pictures of the session this time. I thought it would be nice to leave them here so you can see what goes on behind the scenes. We also have some nice pictures sent to me by some audience members. As you can see our shows can be watched on any device.