I still remember my first time in Barcelona. As I usually do when I visit a new city, I checked out the cultural events happening in town. That’s how I found out about the Monday nights Jamboree’s What the Fuck (WTF), the longest-lasting jazz club jam session in Spain. Usually, the best musicians in town, whether local or international, show up. I will never forget my first WTF jam experience. The music I heard was so free and powerful, it had so much duende, that it made me feel like I was literally floating in mid air. The music became an inescapable magnetic force that pulled everybody in.
Recently, I purposely went back to Barcelona on a Monday. I wanted to relive the WTF jam experience. Both times I told Aurelio Santos (master of ceremony and one-man orchestra) I wanted to jam. Aurelio asked me if I wanted to play standards or play free (free jamming started at 11). As an artist, I’ve always been in love with improvisation = taking true risks and not knowing where it’s all going to begin or end. To me, that has always been the true meaning of jamming: free, honest, unstructured, unplanned and spontaneous music. At times Aurelio will hum a created in the moment melody in your ear and everything starts from there. At other times he will become a human rhythm machine and we have to come up with a lick or groove. Either way something wonderful and unique is born every single time. Another thing I love about this particular jam session is that it is not centered around one particular music genre. It seems like these days most jam sessions focus on jazz and that’s it. But music is music. And music must be allowed to go wherever it wants or needs to go: from hip hop to flamenco to jazz to funk to soul to blues to rock to latin to wherever…
The environment on stage at the WTF jam is friendly, none of that show-off-ego-oriented-competitive attitude that obstructs good music from being made. Both times I had the chance to play several songs before Aurelio called the next pianist. And as I came off stage I found myself surrounded with new friends. And so I will always go back to Barcelona on Mondays.
