Thirty years ago Jimmy Glass opened in the Carmen neighborhood, a jazz club that took the baton from others like Tres Tristes Tigres (1977-1979) and Lost Club (1980-1995), a joint located in an old commercial basement on Sueca Street with which he lived for four years. Today only the Jimmy Glass, temple for jazz lovers in Valencia that in the year 2018 was included by the prestigious magazine Downbeat on your list of the best jazz clubs in the world. It is not for less, The tours of the great musicians of the genre take it into account and it has managed to make a name for itself at the state level., European and world programming jazz that does not attend to fashions. In its elongated space, the public gathers very, very, close to the musicians, in darkness, surrounded by jazz photos, while enjoying good beer, cocktails, cokes and high jazz. In addition to the thirtieth anniversary, In November they celebrate ten years of their International Contemporary Jazz Festival by programming four New York groups, five Europeans and a host of local musicians who have learned and grown within its four walls. We have spoken with the leader about all this, Chevi Martínez, about the festival poster, about Valencian musicians, and about the state of jazz in Valencia. In November, the sax and piano sound louder than ever.
Jimmy Glass collected Perdido's inheritance, a club with which he lived for a few years and which was a school for many Valencian jazz musicians.. Perdido opened in Russafa in 1980 when cultural activity was in Carmel, and Jimmy Glass resists in Carme now that the march has moved to Russafa. What is your relationship with the neighborhood like??
Carmen will always be Carmen. Before Perdido there was already jazz in Carmen. I have been very linked to this neighborhood since I set foot in it for the first time at the end of the sixties., when, both cultural and recreational, They were his hallmark. It's the place I want to be. Like any neighborhood it has had its stages but, for me, there is no other like it.
You have managed to put Valencia within the international jazz circuit. In thirty years of history, Jimmy Glass has received great figures such as Benny Golson, Kenny Garret, Lee Konitz, Lou Donaldson or Pat Martino. What glorious moments lived at the club do you remember most fondly??
Uf, glorious moments there are continually, because jazz is like that, especially if you have the possibility of having great figures and stars, Of course. Something special and surprising happens at any moment.. But everyone you mentioned has left their mark. Benny Golson was an exceptional and very exciting moment.
We said that very well-known musicians have performed at your club., regulars at the most famous clubs in New York and London, but you have also given scope to groups that are starting out in the world of jazz. Do you think Jimmy Glass, as well as a concert hall, It is a quarry of musicians? What unknown groups that started on Jimmy have achieved considerable status?
Musicians who have now become great international figures have passed through Jimmy., as Melissa Aldana, Linda Oh o Ambrose Akinmusire, among many more. And of course musicians from here too. Regarding the prominence of many current stars in major festivals, Many regulars at Jimmy's realize that they already visited Jimmy's ten years ago.. That's what the parish really values., be certain that with what you program, although unknown to most, you hit the nail on the head. Jimmy Glass receives the quarries created in schools around the world, also the Valencian ones, gives them room, he promotes them and they grow stronger.
The Palau de la Música Jazz Festival aims to program great jazz stars who in turn attract good numbers of audiences. Your goal is different, take care of the local scene, the vanguard, active jazz and new trends, without falling into the commercial. How do you value the work of festivals like the Palau, Peñíscola or Torrent in the diffusion of jazz? And what about the Sedajazz collective or the Berklee College of Music??
Bueno, I myself have been programming for the Palau and I have brought in big stars like Charles Lloyd or Archie Shepp to compensate for the excess of commerciality and it has worked, but it is logical that festivals also need media and popular presences. The work of Sedajazz is indisputable and the Berklee and the Conservatory are also contributing their own.
The Valencian Community is a land of musicians, many wind thanks to the roots of the music bands. In the jazz section we can boast of figures such as Perico Sambeat, Jesus Santandreu, Albert Sanz, Voro García and Toni Belenguer. Land of musicians yes, But is it also for jazz listeners??
I think that more and more. People are getting into jazz, or at least he tries. Of course at Jimmy we have a good number of regulars who have already become true connoisseurs who know how to value this music..
This tenth edition of your International Contemporary Jazz Festival began last month with Rick Margitza, member of the Miles Davis band in the eighties and nineties. Tell us which artists we can enjoy in November and why we shouldn't miss them.
Bueno, despite the difficulties we suffer because of the damn Covid, This year I have managed to schedule a selection of artists for the festival who offer an interesting variety within contemporary jazz.. At the moment we have had saxophonist Rick Margitza, the pianist and singer Champian Fulton and the trio of the great Greek double bassist Petros Klampanis, both residents of New York. He 1/11 In November we will present the new album by saxophonist Tobias Meinhart with his New York quartet, that includes an exceptional rhythmic base. Guitarist Tom Ollendorff also presents a trio album on the day 4/11. The day 9/11, mars, the Scopes quartet, with pianist Tony Tixier, also presents new album, as well as the great Korean drummer Sun Mi Hong in a quintet for Thursday 11/11. As a closing of the festival, the J.G. 30 Anniversary Jazz Band performs on the day 23/11. Besides, All Off Festival concerts include outstanding musicians from the Valencian scene, Spanish and international.
Right on the JG 30 Anniversary Jazz Band was our next question. To celebrate the venue's twentieth anniversary you set up this festival that is still active today, for the thirtieth you have created the JG 30 Anniversary Jazz Band with Perico Sambeat and other musicians residing in the Valencian Community. What can we expect from your concert?
for this concert, Perico and I have set up two bands, with two basic trios and several soloists who will be exchanged between the two shows of the concert. We have some of the best musicians here who have been present in the evolution of Jimmy Glass during these thirty years: Javier Vercher, Jesus Santandreu, Vicente Macián, Latino Blanco, Carlos Martin, Voro García, Pepe Zaragoza, Albert Sanz, Alberto Palau, Lucho Aguilar, Kamaguchi Time, Vicente Espí and Miquel Asensio. Everything you can expect with this lineup is more than good.
There are two women in the official section of the festival, Korean drummer Sun Mi Hong and pianist Champian Fulton, a fixture in New York jazz circles. Are women beginning to conquer more spaces within the world of jazz?
There are more women at the festival even if it is not in the official section. This is the pianist Kontxi Lorente, who presents an album with Latino Blanco, pianist SonAh Chae, the guitarist and singer Thaïs Morell, the pianist Chaerin Im or the pianist Marina Alcantud. Women have long had a leading role in jazz as instrumentalists. Y, fortunately, it's going to get more.
The non-profit association Gente del Jimmy Glass was recently created to support the club's activity.. How did the initiative come about?? How have you experienced these fourteen months of closure due to the pandemic??
The initiative started from a group of friendly people, regulars of Jimmy Glass who wanted to collaborate altruistically in maintaining the activity of this establishment that they esteem so much and means so much to them. People who have been coming to all the concerts for years, who have this site as their meeting place between like-minded people, like your second home. People I appreciate immensely. I have lived the closing with the greatest serenity possible within the exceptional moment that has been. But of course, with a state of total uncertainty. Everything was dragging on and you couldn't see the moment when it would end, if it's over.
