The second great homage-musical tribute of these normal Mercè festivities has had this Sunday as its epicenter the work of the pianist and composer Tete Montoliu. While the other memory of this year had as its target the full artistic dimension of Pau Riba –who passed away this year–, the one offered on this occasion revolved around the work of Montoliu on the 25th anniversary of his disappearance.
The chosen day was climatologically sunny, not as cool as Saturday, and in the appropriate Teatre Grec. It was, thus, the first day of the festivities in which incidents of this type were not expected, since on Saturday the program scheduled at midnight by the Egon Soda group at the Teatre Grec itself was suspended due to rain. To which must be added the cancellation for technical reasons of the Delafé and the Blue Flowers early Sunday morning on the Bogatell beach.
Yesterday, starting at half past eight in the afternoon, the memory of Tete filled with jazz and blues (bolero included) a space –which at the beginning was close to full– in which it had premiered 32 years ago. Time flies, but art remains. And it is that it was the pianist Ignasi Terraza, with Pere Pons as ideologue, who steered the ship at the helm of the musical rudder, which was already synonymous with guarantee for a triple reason that is no less true because it is obvious: both are brilliant pianists, blind people and musicians with an enormous transmission capacity.
Over a repertoire of a dozen compositions, a base trio made up of Terraza himself, Horacio Fumero on double bass and Aldo Caviglia on drums (both collaborators of the honoree at different times) worked, as well as the punctual voice of Laura Simó, who She was Montoliu's vocalist in the last stretch of her career, and she reminded Joan Manuel Serrat with Perquè la gent s'avorreix tant. And they opened how could it be otherwise with Blues per a Tete, which would be followed by Milestones and an impeccable and fluid Blues medley, with bits of Montserrat, Caricies, Blues for Nuria and Blues for Line.
From then on, various guest musicians and vocalists alternated, highlighting a triplet of Catalan pianists from different generations such as Pere Ferré – slow walking but with fast hands at 91 years old: deafening ovation –, Manel Camp and Albert Bover. These last two gave virtuosic life to Blues for the unknown pianist, cut from the glorious album Vampyria, signed by Montoliu and Jordi Sabatés (who passed away this year). Also joining the party would be the pianist Elisabet Raspall, who recalled the also deceased Núria Feliu with Ves i perde't – an adaptation of Bye, bye, blackbird – and accompanied by her niece, the vocalist Mireia.
The saxophone Eladio Reinón and the trumpet Josep Maria Farràs also shared their memories of the maestro, who, among other pieces, played the closing Fried bananas with the vehicula trio. I don't know if 25 anys sense Tete as the call said, but last night he was more present than ever.
