San Sebastián (EFE).- The disco frenzy of Village People has opened the 58th edition of Jazzaldia with a great party on Zurriola beach.
As oblivious to jazz as San Sebastián is to the heat wave, Village People has more than fulfilled its purpose of making the start of the 58th edition of the Jazz Festival in the Gipuzkoan capital a space for fun and has turned Zurriola beach into a dance floor in the purest “disco” style.
People of all ages, many young people who weren’t even born when the American sextet topped the best-seller lists in the eighties, have come to the meeting.
disco frenzy
Some have even dressed up with some accessory to emulate the members of the group who have taken the stage with their characteristic costumes: James Lee (the military man); Jeffrey Lippod (the biker); James Kwong (the construction worker), Nicholas Manelick (the cowboy) and Victor Willis, the only one from the original 1977 lineup, (the policeman).
As promised at a press conference this morning, Village People has offered a show for people who want to have fun, enjoy the party and, above all, dance.
An audience dedicated from the first moment has chanted the great successes of this group that was “devised” and “manufactured” by the French musician Jacques Morali and the producer Henri Belolo in New York at the end of the seventies.
In 1977 they saw the then twenty-something Felipe Rose dressed as an American Indian coming out of a gay club in Greenwich Village, an image that apparently shocked them even though in those days the New York neighborhood of Manhattan was a hive of diverse urban fauna.
conflict with Trump
This was the germ of the group, which was structured around the characters that were then stereotypes of the gay community and that Village People brought to the stage and to the general public with a self-confidence unknown until then.
For more than an hour and a half, the Village People have reeled off their greatest hits in a concert in which Victor Willis, 72, has served as master of ceremonies and has left the choreography and anatomical exhibitions to the rest of the band members.
“Fire Island” opened the evening on the beach, followed by other of his greatest hits such as “Macho Man”, which swept the charts in 1978.
The song has been in the news this year for reasons unrelated to music, since it has been the subject of a conflict between the Village People -with the current line-up- and Donald Trump, in one of whose campaigns this song was played by a “cover” band of the group.
A matter that has been ironed out by Victor Willis who has also ensured that his songs were not written with the intention of becoming gay milestones and that even Donald Trump can enjoy his music because they do not want to do politics but only music.
“San Francisco”, “In Hollywood”, “I Am What I Am” have also played on the beach in San Sebastián and, of course, In The Navy, a song that at the time was intended to be used as an advertisement to recruit young people for the Navy but was ultimately not used for that purpose due to the controversy surrounding the double meaning of its lyrics.
Kenny Barron and the Young Musicians
“YMCA” has closed the performance of the American group that has managed to reach a full house in the Plaza de la Zurriola.
A few hours earlier, the atmosphere could not have been more different at the Kursaal, where the pianist Kenny Barron, one of the great names of the jazz “aristocracy”, offered a slow and serene recital together with the Euskadi Youth Orchestra (EGO), conducted by Rubén Gimeno, who made his debut at the Jazzaldia.
Barron, double bass player Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake have offered a lesson in lyricism within the parameters of jazz orthodoxy.
Trustee of an overwhelming career -Dizzy Gillespie hired him for his band when he was barely 19 years old- the experienced Barron and the young members of the Basque orchestra have synchronized their tempos and have offered a recital with songs composed by the Philadelphia pianist.
A concert in which there have been songs such as “Voyage”, “Concentric Circles”, “In The Dark”, “Lullabye”, “Illusion”, “Prayer” or the bossa nova of “Magic Dance” as well as other melodies that invite us to recollection such as “Clouds”.
Barron concluded with two encores that got the audience on their feet and left them wanting more: the composition “Cooks Bay” and a song by his revered Thelonious Monk in which the trio showed their technical mastery and their ability to move people.