The Musicians' Workshop
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MUSIC THE MUSICIANS' WORKSHOP CONCERTBY MAYTE MART~NAND TETE MONTOLIUAT THE JAZZ S¡ FROMTHE VERY BEGINNING THE CRITERION LAY IN CALLING THE INSTITUTION THE MUSICIANS'WORKSHOP, THE MOST ALL-EMBRACING NAME POSSIBLE. WHILEJAZZ WAS THE MAIN TRUNK OF THE SCHOOL THROUGHOUT THESE YEARS, IT HAS PUT OUT STOUT BRANCHES DEVOTED TO ROCK, AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC AND, VERY ESPECIALLY, FLAMENCO. CONCERT AT THE JAZZ S¡, THE TALLER DE MUSICS CLUB MlNGO B. FORMENTOR JOURNALIST ere are very few significant exarn- daring of the life and soul of this institu- turned a large part of an artistically trunca- lles of the vigour and capacity of tion, Lluís Cabrera, and of the tearn who ted generation into a generation of arcelona's civil society in post- have surrounded hirn for 16 years of fruit- teachers. At that rnornent, there was also Franco Catalonia like the creation, consol- ful social and cultural history. a good selection of foreign rnusicians of idation and national and international pro- When the first stones of the Workshop varied origin in Barcelona, predorninantly jection of the "Taller de Músics". Looking were laid, sorne time in the auturnn of South-Arnerican. These forrned the origi- back on it with the hindsight of the histo- 1979, the Catalan rnusic industry was nal teaching nucleus of the Taller de Mú- rian, it shows a rernarkable concordance going through a considerable upheaval sics. And it was this geographical eclec- with the Iong and well documented iazz which rnaterialized in the large-scale ticism -the reason why jazz was for al1 of tradition in Barcelona as a city and Cata- rnove of its decision-making and produc- thern a port of arrival after travelling lonia as a country and speaks to us of a tion centres to the capital of Spain. As a through different national cultures and per- logical continuation. But if we look at it on logical concornitance, musical creativity sonal careers- that gave the Workshop a shorter time-scale, that of the vitality and suffered, the country's pop and iazz rnu- two of its rnost distinctive characteristics: the structures surrounding popular rnusic in sicians, for whorn the seventies had pro- its openness and a natural tendency to the last twenty years, the considerable con- vided a broad and fertile nursery, erni- libertarianisrn in the best sense of the tribution and consistency of the work of the grated, hibernated or succurnbed to a word. Taller de Músics has to be valued for the forced professional reconversion that With barely a year of teaching activities MUSIC COMBO CMSS AT THE TALLER DE M~SICS under its belt, the creation of the First Mu- inars, integration in prestigious inter- Market or the offices of the COPEC (Ca- sicians' Workshop Jazz Serninar, held in national circuits devoted to teaching jazz talan Consortium for the Exterior Prorno- Banyoles from 26 May to 8 June 1980, and other forrns of open rnusic, without tion of Culture), artists such as Mayte rnade the institution's wish for a perrna- this rnultiple front ever involving the loss Martin, Chano Dorninguez, Perico Sarn- nent international exchange a reality. In of its spirit as a dynarnic nucleus of rnu- beat, Carnbalache and Miguel Poveda January 1983, during a week of excellent sical activity in the society it forrned part have seen their art applauded on stages weather, when the third edition of the Sern- of. Frorn the very beginning, the criterion all over Europe, Arnerica and Asia. inar was held at a hotel in Castelldefels, -well chosen- lay in calling the institution Either through its classroorns or through a seaside town close to Barcelona, the the Musicians' Workshop, the most all- intervention in one of its Serninars, there Workshop's educational and philosophi- ernbracing narne possible, and while jazz is no jazz rnusician in the country be- cal rnessage was already well known to forrned the rnain trunk of the school's ac- tween 25 and 35 who has not had links the public. Many young people frorn Bar- tivities throughout these years, it has put at one tirne or another with the Taller de celona and the surrounding area, in out stout branches devoted to rock, Afro- Músics. Young Catalan flarnenco, one of spite of their adherence to pop or rock, Cuban rnusic and, very especially, fla- the liveliest and most interesting of the looked in on its courses and ¡arn sessions, rnenco. In this last field, flarnenco, the so- moment at a tirne when this genre is flou- knowing full well that the Workshop was cial presence of the Taller de Músics has rishing all over Spain, is structured the home of the Orphean spirit carnphor- become most essential in its rnature phase. around the Workshop's courses and con- ated by the traditional rnusic schools and Once again, the right cornbination of cert activities. To the narnes already men- that the scene was still 670 kilornetres hard work, intelligent intuition and en- tioned, we could add those of Julián "El away. The Workshop and its activities lightened cornrnon sense have given birth Califa", Conchi Carrnona, Pepe Motos, and services had found their place in the to and nurtured an essential strategic break- Chicuelo, Pep Pérez, La Tolea, La Tani, city and its surroundings and before long through in Catalan musical creation, Montse Cortés, Miguel de la Tolea, Mi- would do so in the rest of Catalonia, in whose scope and repercussions are as guel de Toleo, etc. Spain and in rnany places abroad. To- important as they are difficult to weigh up HOWrnany centres linked to the day, there are rnore than twenty schools exactly. Once again Lluís Cabrera has rnusic of our age can offer a cornparable in Catalonia following the structural rnod- put into effect his irresistible dynarnic inventory? el of the Taller de Músics, alrnost all of force as a social catalyst to return to our thern controlled and run by rnusicians society the place it rnust never lose in who at sorne tirne or another took their such an essential field of Hispanic rnusic Seat in its classroorns. as flarnenco is. The period between 1979 and 1983 was The link between the Taller de Músics and a trernendously dynarnic and changeable flarnenco was explicitly established as phase in the Workshopls inside history. such frorn the tirne of the school's first ac- Frorn this moment on a far rnore complex tivities. Lessons in Spanish guitar were and regulated teaching structure got un- started as early as 1979. In each and der way under the direction of the Portu- every one of the Serninars that were held guese double-bass player Zé Eduardo, flarnenco occupied a prominent and a neneration- of students took shape but this irnrnense flood of artistic creation I who today forrn the essential nucleus of carne to the fore towards the end of the young Spanish jazz: the Rossy brothers, eighties, very exceptionally after the cre- Sarnbeat, Reinón, Cardo, Capellas, Gá- ation and organisation of the Carrnen rnez. Later carne the Weeks, the Shows, Arnaya lnternational Flarnenco Serninar, the Festivals, the rnagazine Jazz Si, the held as part of the Cultural Olyrnpiad at rnanagernent office, the Taller recording Begur, in the surnrner of 1989. Since label, and after that the classes, the Sem- then, and through the Vic Live Music XTERIOR OF THE TALLER DE MUSICS CLUB .