CARME PUCHE MORÉ  filmmaker

Director statement

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That was what happened: I was at the door of the Jamboree Jazz Club one evening, a Monday evening. It was raining -- yes, it was. Outside, tourists still hold on in the terrassas waiting for that magic light that Barcelona has when everything is going fine. I stepped down, one step, two steps. Twenty steps. Before arriving down, I felt it, I knew I would see something that was going to change my life. I was already listening to it. It was pure improvisation. And I don’t just mean some guys singing some lyrics in a base or a trumpet solo in the middle of a jazz standard. No. I’m talking about five hours of pure improvisation. Of course not! Of course they weren’t all good. There was some bad stuff, no doubt. But… the magic moments, THE moments of amazing pure improvisation worth five hours with a beer in my hand. Astonished.

So I called some friends and we started recording that jam session that has been going on there for eleven years. An improvised documentary. I know,  I know… cinema is all but improvisation. But we were not so young, but younger, and we were overexcited. Then real things came true: it was the year 2012, the economic crisis was worse than ever in Spain, we got used to see people protesting in the streets as part of our daily life, people from my crew -— this amazing crew that has been working for four years in the documentary -— were loosing their jobs. Musicians in the stage kept their passion, waiting for the light Barcelona has when everything is fine.

The Jamboree Jazz Club is set in an old convent. In fact, it was the room between a convent and a monastery, a place where nuns and monks could meet. It’s a strange place and becomes weirder at late night when chairs are removed to give way to the funky disco. Anyhow, Jamboree has a past in many ways and the “jazz past” of that venue is amazing. Chet Baker played there! For a month! And Lou Benett and Tete Montoliu… such big names. I was researching about those big names but suddenly small ones came appearing in documents: The Hand Brothers. Who were those guys? They were the ones who played for the first time there. Were they alive? Yes. Two of them: an American trumpet player and a Catalan pianist. So, we couldn’t stop ourselves. We needed to meet them; we needed to get them together again.

That’s the way an impro is build. And it is built upon reality, from what is happening in this very moment. And in that very moment, our lifes were down, musicians were in a big struggle, our society was in a big struggle. So we looked for a big picture to make things clearer and we asked the seniors to help us. That was what happened. Almost all of it at night, without the magic light that Barcelona has when everything is fine. But don’t let carried away by the flow of Barcelona's shiny brand, there is a light wholly made by survivors in our dark city.