Tete Montoliu

[soulpope]

10 minutes ago, EKE BBB said:

New Tete recording is in the market:

 

And 😎 .... ?

[EKE BBB]

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/jazz-entre-amigos/tete-montoliu-parte-01-jazz-entre-amigos/1092267/

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/jazz-entre-amigos/montoliu-2-prueba/1092860/

Two 'Jazz Entre Amigos' programs on TVE, fully dedicated to Tete Montoliu.

The first video includes several performances with Lou Donaldson, Clarence Say and Billy Kay.

The second one covers a concert with a Wynton Marsalis extended troupe: Marsalis, Robert Watson on alto sax, Bill Pierce on tenor sax, Art Blakey and Ron Carter, among others. Plus some tracks with Sonny Stitt. Plus same with Harold Land. Plus trio performances.

All in all, two highly enjoyable hours, presented by one of our Spanish foremost jazz critics, Juan Claudio Cifuentes 'Cifu', sadly gone a few years ago.

DISCLAIMER: Anyway, Wynton haters can skip, if it gives them the heebie-jeebies

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by EKE BBB

[EKE BBB]

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Tete Montoliu's passing. Gone far too son (he was only 64).

 

[soulpope]

[EKE BBB]

This one with with Pedro Iturralde and a Miró painting in the background has always been a favourite of mine.

1 hour ago, soulpope said:

[soulpope]

2 minutes ago, EKE BBB said:

This one with with Pedro Iturralde and a Miró painting in the background has always been a favourite of mine.

Excellent and telling photography ....

[EKE BBB]

5 minutes ago, soulpope said:

Excellent and telling photography ....

Well, the music of Tete and Pedro is not as abstract as a Miró painting, but... 

[EKE BBB]

Just to keep things together, a few updates on Tete Montoliu from the last few years, as far as books are concerned:

 

- Benjamin Fraser: "Beyond Sketches of Spain: Tete Montoliu and the Construction of Iberian Jazz" (Oxford University Press, 2022)

The blurb: "Beyond Sketches of Spain: Tete Montoliu and the Construction of Iberian Jazz explores the artist’s life, musical production, and international reception within a cultural studies framework. This book moves beyond mere sketches of Spanish nationhood to challenge conventional scholarly narratives and recover links between the United States, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and Europe in the investigation of an impressive and often overlooked transnational modern jazz legacy. Eschewing Theodore Adorno’s denigration of Black American jazz, a more compelling model is found in Fumi Okiji’s notion of gathering in difference. In this work, Benjamin Fraser deftly mixes musical biography with urban history, spatial theory, and disability studies, fashioning a highly readable text for readers from all disciplines."

The reality (well, "my" reality, also confirmed bysome other Spanish scholars): this is an amalgam of different and "external" approaches to Tete Montoliu (flamenco-jazz (!), blindness, catalanism, jazz in Franco's Spain). No one in the Tete Montoliu "circles" that I am in touch with, was aware that this bio was in the works at that time, so no "inside" information. And, what is worse, not a single addition to the overall knowledge on Tete. This is just a pile of topics within Fraser's agenda, wherein Tete Montoliu is just an excuse to write a book. 

 

- Pere Pons Macías: "'Round About Tete. Una Mirada Coral A La Vida Y La Obra De Tete Montoliu" (Libros del Kultrum, 2023)

- 

Excerpts from the publicity blurb: ‘Round About Tete offers a kaleidoscopic perspective through experiences, opinions, articles, statements, letters, and other unearthed documents concerning his life and work, contributed by many who had the opportunity to know him: musicians, managers, programmers, producers, journalists, writers, filmmakers, singers, friends, relatives, lovers, entrepreneurs… The book, prologued by Paquito D'Rivera, is accompanied by transcriptions of several compositions that were part of his repertoire: standards, popular songs, and compositions by other jazz musicians. 

My personal opinion: Not much primary research, not too many pieces of new information or musical analysis are provided; hence, I would not deem this as a groundbreaking ouvre. Most relevant added value is, from my perspective, that some of the texts bring some 'flavour' on Tete Montoliu, the human being, from different angles.