Mercedes Zabaleta
San Sebastián (EFE).- The trumpeter Enrico Rava, one of the legends of jazz, has offered a concert with his classic repertoire of melodies that have stood the test of time before an audience that has not lacked his stalwarts for decades. And that he has endured the downpour that has fallen on the Plaza de la Trinidad in San Sebastián tonight.
melodies in the rain
Hours earlier, Enrico Rava received the Donostia del Jazzaldia award from the city’s mayor, Eneko Goia, a festival that he “adores” and a city that “he likes everything about, including the food”, the artist assured.
As is frequent with him, he has played with young artists, a company that he does not search for because he considers that “it has the mission of discovering talent”, but because it needs to “surprise and be surprised” when he interacts with other musicians on stage, as he recognized during the award ceremony.
What this master of melody and improvisation is looking for is “that sublime moment of perfect democracy” -he has defined it- in which a musician receives that kind of “telepathy” from his stage partners and vice versa.
Today it seemed that the weather was going to give a truce and respect the performance of Rava, the drummer Evita Polidoro, the trombonist Matteo Paggi, the guitarist Franceso Diodati and the double bass Franceso Ponticelli, but a few minutes after it started a downpour fell that left several rows of spectators empty although most of them stayed in their seats.
constant research
The particular use of melody, the personality of this musician who is always in constant research, opening new paths since his beginnings in free jazz, have been appreciated in the one-hour recital that he offered today, in which there was no lack of classics such as “Sola” or “Cornette”.
The dialogues between the instruments have taken place on stage where each of the musicians has had their space to show off with the solos that have been interspersed throughout the songs.
Different, but also accompanied by young musicians, has been the proposal of Pat Metheny, another of the protagonists of this fourth day of Jazzaldia, although the guitarist has performed, yes, sheltered from the inclemencies of the Cantabrian Sea in the Kursaal center.
Versatile Pat Metheny
Versatile as always, Metheny has filled the San Sebastián auditorium into which he has burst in with his shaggy hair and equipped with his Picasso guitar with several necks and 42 strings, which luthier Linda Manzer made exclusively for him.
With “Make peace”, which he has performed solo, a concert has begun that has been practically an uninterrupted jazz interlude in which the songs have followed one another in an almost concatenated manner for two hours, with no breath between one and the other.
The Missouri artist has presented his latest project, Side Eye, which tries to support a rotating group of musicians who play new pieces.
instrumental paraphernalia
Chris Fishman on piano and keyboards and Joe Dyson on drums have held authentic duels between them and with Metheny himself, who has let his companions shine.
Metheny has deployed his instrumental paraphernalia which makes it difficult at times to identify which musician is responsible for the wide range of sounds coming out of the three-person stage.
The iconic “Bright Size Life”, from his first album that he recorded in 1976 with bassist Jaco Pastorius, has given way to “Better Days Ahead”, another of his hits, and “Timeline”, in which Metheny has had a “tete a tete” with Joe Dyson.
The intense “Phase Dance” and “Trigonometry” were followed by the more relaxed halo of “Zenith blue”, with which Metheny wanted to conclude the concert.
But the public wanted more and the guitarist gave away a first encore with a compilation of some of his melodies and a second with “Are You Going With Me” with which he said goodbye.