culturemagazine 5 JUly-August-september 2021
Contents Steffen Morrison 3
Vercher & Kamaguchi 15
BIG SOUND FEST 27
MOSTRA DE VALENCIA 53
Steffe Morriso
Lo V Writing and photography: Antonio Pozo
teffen Morrison transcends the mere and strict labels of the pentagram. He does it with progressively expansive elegance in step by step, cumulatively; when you feel that your gig has finished, which is not at the moment that it has been consummated on stage, its vibrations remain embedded in your auditory pavilions, and radiate to the brain, from where you register the shock wave caused by your work on the stage, elegant, and black, very black, of a deep, axiomatic beauty. He manufactures an enveloping neo-soul, although it goes further, endowed with an origin —Surinam— constituted in a humanist force that is certainly transgressive for a decadent civilization like ours, so in need of possible revolutions in the face of the galloping dystopia that is taking over the world. After passing him through the talent contest TVOH —2013—, where he resides, without having won, he managed to reach the soul of countless people; he collected large doses of new knowledge, and embarked on his quest for the genuine, alongside The Band of Brothers. In 2018 he published his first album —Movin 'on—, with the subsequent tour that brought him to a receptive Spain, permeable to his inner sound, legitimate, externalized through majestic vocal registers. A bond emerged between the two, reflected in a composition that he created one night in Valencia, during the tour, and included in the album released in October last year —Soul Revolution—, with the inevitable vicissitudes generated by the unusual pandemic still in force. He was presenting it on another Hispanic tour; he landed, again, in Valencia, specifically in one of the direct cathedrals in Europe, El Loco Club. And lo petó, how could it be otherwise, with an audience completely infiltrated by the emotional greatness gifted by an absolute Steffen Morrison in his epic, although certainly humble, physically agile, dynamic, impeccably assisted by The Band of Brothers. He practiced the Archimedes principle on us, cathartically, and there we have stayed. Inoculated.
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en on
oco Club València
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Photography: Antonio Pozo
he internationally renowned saxophonist Javier Vercher and the great Japanese double bass player Masa Kamaguchi present their album As We See It at the Jimmy Glass Jazz Bar, with the special collaboration of percussionist Sergio Martínez for this concert. Vercher and Kamaguchi undertake this subtle and organic project from the most creative and improvisational experience offered by their respective careers as international jazz musicians most committed to the avant-garde. Vercher, after his beginnings in New York, collaborated with great jazz figures such as Robert Glasper or Bob Moses (present in his first work, Introducing Javier Vercher Trio, 2004). Later he released eight magnificent albums with jazz greats such as Lionel Loueke, Larry Grena-
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dier, Francisco Mela, Dave Kikoski, Ferenc Nemeth, Eric McPherson, Perico Sambeat, Sam Yahel, Jorge Rossy, Masa Kamaguchi or Maikel Vistel among others. After he passed through Berklee College of Music in 1990, Kamaguchi played with musicians such as George Garzone, Bert Seager, Hal Crook, Herb Pomeroy and Frank Carlberg. In 1994 he moved to New York City, where he began working with musicians such as Frank Kimbrough, Sonny Simmons, Ben Monder, David Murray, Toots Thielemans, Tony Malaby or Charles Gayle. Since then he has worked as a sideman on more than fifty recordings with musicians such as John O'Gallagher, Ahmed Abdullah, Alex Harding, Jimmy Weinstein, Roberta Piket, Paul Motian, Vinnie Spe-
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rrazza, Jacob Sacks, Perico Sambeat, Javier Vercher, Harris Eisenstadt or Russ. Lossing.
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BIG SOUND FEST València
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Writing and photography: Antonio Pozo
The Big Sound Fest was held at the Ciutat de València Stadium between July 8 and 10, after being suspended in 2020. It is constituted as a natural response to the demand exerted by people who follow or practice urban sound, local, national and international. The global pandemic context caused several of the announced stars to finally fall from the cartel, although they will be available for next year's appointment at the Ciutat de Les Arts i Les Ciències, as their tours confirm. The absences did not cause the cancellation of the event, on the contrary, it was launched, exhausting all the tickets that the restrictions caused by the health situation allowed to be made available to the public. It has been the only great festival carried out in the Valencian Country. On stage were the artists Bad Gyal, Don Patricio, Ana Mena, Danny Romero, Mueveloreina, Paula Cendejas, Sandra Groove, Chema Rivas, MedinaKid, CHILAX, Robie, Elena Farga, Del Puerto, David Dancos, Kuki M and Nassim, attached in musical styles such as Trap, Dancehall, Rap, Reggaeton, Latin Pop, Latin Electronic, Latin Trap, HipHop, R&B, Funky or Grime. However, no pacatos are shown at the time of triangulating genders, with explosive ilations. A well-organized, necessary, essential festival for understanding the current panorama of urban music, exogenous and endogenous , with a high average artistic quality, high claims quotas, lots of parties and revelry as well; with possible improvements in the logistical aspect, but that will surely be refined with the celebration of future editions, in which parallel and transversal activities may have to be offered, given the nuclear themes contained in the festival's DNA, impossible to propose in the debut one, given the omnipresence of COVID-19. Very welcome, Big Sound, and long live! No. 5 | July-August-September | 2021 p. 28
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Lui
Pilar de Skals
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Global economic upheavals occur, by definition, all over the planet. When large economies are affected by constipation, they cause pneumonia to the rest. Without contemplations. One of the most disastrous derivations is that culture is formed as one of the first “expendable” elements. Public administrations cease their investment in it almost completely. One of the victims of this type of scenario was the Mostra de València Cinema del Mediterrani. Its latest editions did not go down in history because of the average quality of the participating films —low, very low— nor because they showed quality productions from countries in the Mediterranean basin. Media notoriety was sought. Although it was not achieved either. He governed the right in the Cap i Casal Town Hall. The progressive political forces recovered the Turia bastion. With this, a festival that, initially —1980—, exhibited creations embedded in very attractive programming, and developed by establishing itself on the international scene of film festivals. In 2013, an amalgam of people from different social and professional sectors created the Mostra Viva del Mediterrani, with the intention of rescuing the spirit of the 80s festival, with Valencia as a meeting place and reference for Mediterranean peoples. In 2018, its mayor, Joan Ribó, relaunched the celebration, in October months, of the Mostra de València Cinema del Mediterrani. This year of its thirty-sixth edition, between the 15th and 24th. A very good opportunity to get into Mediterranean culture through the seventh art. With interesting parallel activities.
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culturemagazine Director Claudia Butxana Editor Antonio Pozo Editor-in-Chief Sly Nell Photo Director Luz García Photography Antonio Pozo Sly Nell Sandra Narváez Emilia Camps Teresa Poma BONITAgency™ Writers Pilar de Skals Ancor Escrich Esteban Tortajada
Cover photography: Antonio Pozo
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