Oleándole at the Closing Party for the Mas i Mas Festival 2022

Next Wednesday, 7 September, we will experience
one night with four fusions at Paral·lel 62 (formerly Sala Barts)

In this new post, we will carry on talking about the fusions of the night of 7 September at the Mas i Mas Festival. This time, that means fusions of jazz with flamenco. 

We’ve all heard a lot about flamenco jazz. From Miles Davis to Paco de Lucía, including Chick Corea, Gil Evans, Pedro Iturralde, Carlos Benavent and Jorge Pardo (to name but a few), many models have been developed to integrate these two worlds, that are both intense and genuine in their own right.

In recent years, projects led by Antonio Lizana, Chicuelo and Mezquida, and bands like Aurora, as well as so many other initiatives by new talents emerging from the Taller de Músics (a real hotbed of creative musicians who can speak both languages at entirely native level), have clearly led the field in the fusion of flamenco with jazz.

However, it is not so common to hear Wayne Shorter’s repertoire played in a flamenco style. Or at least it doesn’t seem that way to me. Yet this is what is on the bill for the night of 7 September, when we experience the latest project from Oleándole. Because the collective, admirably led by Ramón Olivares, which is integrating the two scenes with unusual dynamism and truly original ideas, will perform a purely jazz repertoire with a flamenco sound. Their project, Wayne Shorter Goes Flamenco, originated and developed in live performances before finally becoming a recording (which we hope to see on the market soon).

Oleándole began with Olivares, with the collaboration of top musicians such as Jordi Bonell and Carles Benavent, and was later structured as a quintet, with Frederico Vannini (Brazilian flamenco guitar), the dancer Violeta Barrio, the singers Luís de la Fefa and José Martín “Salao”, the bassist and double bass player Jordi Gaspar, and some of the best jazz musicians of the city, such as Gorka Benitez, Albert Bover, Martí Serra, Guillermo Calliero and Gabriel Amargant, to name just a few. Remarkable names like Rodrigo Pahlen, Rita Payés, Oscar Latorre, Fernando Brox and Jorge Pardo himself have also featured in this special band’s projects.

It is about great creative musicians, always led by Ramón Olivares (percussion and direction), coming together to achieve a goal that is at once very personal and universal. Because Olivares considers Oleándole not only a pure jazz project, but also pure flamenco. In fact, he never labels it fusion jazz, he prefers to talk about fission jazz or fission flamenco. This is a metaphor to evoke the greatness of member of this collective, specially chosen to be dissolved within the two languages (Miles’s and Camarón’s) and to release all their energy for the benefit of this project. Don’t miss the 7th at Paral·lel 62… Unrepeatable Oleándole – you’re going to LOVE them.