JAVIER GALIANA & SPICE BERBERECHOS
Javier Galiana, piano
Paco Weht, double bass
Daniel Domínguez, drums
Albert Cirera, saxo
Carlos Dénia, cante (flamenco singing)
Flamenco and jazz hybrid made in Barcelona and leaded by the pianist from Cádiz Javier Galiana, the first Spanish piano-jazz graduate and Manu Chao’s regular keyboardist. They present their first record ‘Werther en Nueva York’: jazz written as if it was flamenco, by Galiana himself. The band is well-balanced: Dani Domínguez playing the drums, the Argentinean Paco Weht at the double bass, Albert Cirera, one of the prominent saxos of the new batch of Catalan musicians, and Carlos Cortés and Carlos Dénia, who reinforce the flamenco spirit with the flamenco percussion and singing, respectively. They have played at the Budapest Jazz Festival, Terrassa Jazz Festival, Cádiz Internacional Jazz Festival, Ciutat Vella Flamenco Festival, Mercat de Música Viva de Vic, Fira al Carrer de Vila-Seca and the most important stages in Barcelona and Cádiz. They have recently played in Vietnam and Kamputchea.
“Javier Galiana controls like no one Chano’s (Domínguez) style and elevates it to the excellence” Martí Farré, JAÇ Magazine
“They know how to keep the jazz strain at the same time that they include the flamenco singing perfectly” Fermín Lobatón, El País
JAVIER GALIANA (Cádiz, 1975) Piano, composition and arrangements
Graduate of piano jazz for l’Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He has worked with Radio Bemba, Manu Chao’s direct band, with whom he is toured around Europe, North and South America. It’s also remarkable his collaboration with the flamenco singer Ginesa Ortega. He has recorded several works: La Sonora Big Band in Cádiz, with Chano Domínguez and Javier Rubial; and bassist Itiberé and trumpet player Altair Martins, in Brasil.
He’s worked as a musical critic for several magazines and newspapers: Sibetrans, el Periódico de Catalunya, Batonga and Lateral. He has also teached music at the Cádiz University. Nowadays he plays the piano with Pedro Cortejosa Sextet , La Sonora Big Band and Julián Sánchez Quintet.
CARLOS DENIA (Valencia, 1971) Flamenco singing
Self¬taught singer. He collaborates with Labryenco, Silvia de Paz y Grupo Sentío Flamenco, NL Mundo, La Primavera, Compasión, Mónica Triga, entre otros. He works in many different proyects. Some of them are International Dance Theater, Sufi¬flamenco, Opera ‘Mundo de guerras’ with the Pamplona Symphony Orchestra, the Generalitat Valenciana choir and The Amsterdam Percussion Group, La Vida Breve de Manuel de Falla with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, ethe flamenco guitarrist Pepe Romero and the soprano singer Charlotte Margiono. He has toured around
Europe (Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, France, Portugal), Turkey, India, China and Vietnam. He also plays the jazz guitar, and composes and arranges music. He has an own cd ‘Cante Errante’, and has recorded ‘Wanderers from Rajasthan’ with Internationaal Dans Theater., ‘Big band’ of the band with the same name, and Carlos Denia and Uli Glaszmann Duo’s ‘Ten Strings for Bill Evans’.
PACO WEHT (Buenos Aires, 1972) Double bass Graduate of double bass for l’ ESMUC.
He has worked with José Reinoso, Antonio Serrano, Dani Pérez, Raynald Colom, Alfons Carrascosa, Mariano Steimberg, Guillermo McGill, amongst other. He has also collaborated with Oscar Giunta, Juan Cruz Urquiza, Daniel Piazzolla and Rodrigo Domínguez. Outside jazz he’s played with the tango quintet El Berretín, the Argentinean folkloric groups Las Voces Blancas and Tatacura and the Venezuelan folkloric singer Cecilia Todd’s band. He has been more than three years in the Adrián Iaies trio, with
whom he has recorded ‘Nostalgias y otros vicios’ and ‘Las tardecitas de Minton’s’, nominated in 2000 to the best jazz record Latin Grammy. At present he leads his own quartet and works with José Alberto Medina trio and IEP! band.
ALBERT CIRERA (Igualada, 1980) Sax
He is been studying sax since he was 13 in different music schools until he graduated in jazz sax at ESMUC. He also studied for one year at the Den Haag Conservatory, thanks to an Erasmus scholarship. He has attended classes and seminaries with B.McHenry, G.Klein, M.Turner, P.Sambeat, P.Metheny, B.Barth, J.Cobb, N.Su, A.Is, B.Golson, K.Rossenwinkel, A.Carrascosa, E.Reinon... He has also studied Sound Painting with Walther Thompson. He has won several jazz contests with the bands Proyecto Zero, Happy
House. and Oliver Nelson Project. He plays regularly with ‘Pin¬Cirera¬Legido¬Martínez’ (Freecode, 2007) Seitons’ Tuff , Ismael Dueñas Himnes i Melodies Cèlebres, A Ship Called Freedom, Nelson Project (‘Full Nelson’ New Mood Jazz, 2007) and Duot (‘Duot’ 2008).
DANI DOMÍNGUEZ (Santiago de Compostela, 1977) Drums
He has played with Guillermo Klein, Abe Rábade, Joan Díaz, Miguel Angel "Anga", Tom Warburton, Joe Smith, Gorka Benitez, Nick Thys, Albert Bover, Ion Robles, Massa Kamagutchi, Dani Pérez, amongst other. He has recorded the records ‘Unexpected’ (FSNT157, 2003), ‘Las Flores De Mi Vida’ Celia Mur (Satchmo, 2003), ‘9 Muses’ (FSNT 193, 2004), ‘Free Quartet’ (FSNT208, 2004), ‘Unexpected plays the blues in Need’ (FSNT231, 2005), ‘Menta’ Free Spirits (Ed. L´Esguard, 2005), ‘Yesterday´s Sun’ Xavi Casellas (Blue Moon Inner Jazz, 2005), ‘Revolts’ Llibert Fortuny Electric Quintet (Nuevos Medios15 872, 2005), and the dvd
Llibert Fortuny Electric Big Band XXL (Nuevos Medios, 2006). He has won several with Happy House, Unexpected, Llibert Fortuny Electric Quartet, and Llibert Fortuny Electric Quintet. Nowadays he plays with Happy House, Llibert Fortuny Electric Quartet, Unexpected, Free Spirits 500mg.
wwww.myspace.com/berberechos
