Last August the Barga Jazz Festival welcomed an international meeting of four outstanding Iberian musicians: pianist Luis González, tenor saxophonist Pedro Cortejosa, double bassist Rai Ferrer and drummer Josep Cordobés. Performing under the name SOL, the quartet presented a programme that mixed original compositions with newly imagined arrangements of traditional Mediterranean songs.
Their music grew out of a tight and intuitive dialogue between the four players, weaving together distinctive harmonies, colours and textures. Flamenco-tinged bulería rhythms frequently drove the music forward, while the sound world moved easily between influences as varied as Mompou, Falla and Debussy, and the jazz and flamenco traditions of Paco de Lucía, Chano Domínguez and Ornette Coleman.
This evening Luis González returned to the Barga Jazz Club, this time for an informal jam session with local musicians — Nino Pellegrini on double bass and JJ Carde on drums