Projects

Bratia, the Barcelona-based band, was born from the need of the Serbian double bassist settled in Barcelona, Ivan Kovacevic, to bring two musical worlds together in a thrilling proposition. The infinite sonic world of the Balkan countries and the energy, sobriety and precision of jazz manouche, unified by the nomadism of gypsy music, create an explosive cocktail that leaves no one indifferent…

As one of the pillars of the emblematic band Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra, Kovacevic, with the experience accumulated over years in more than 35 countries, together with his two battle companions, the Greek percussionist Stelios Togias and the violinist from Tarragona Pere Nolasc Turu, embarks on this adventure forming a quintet with two guitarists seasoned in the legacy of Django Reinhardt. The Mallorcan Biel Ballester, an artist who has been sweeping stages all over the world for years with the trio under his name, and Victor Paradis, of Canadian origin, a young promise who in a short time has become an essential of the music scene in the Catalan capital.

Traditionally, Barcelona has been presenting great jazz and swing Big Bands for many years. Since the beginning of 70´s there have been many musicians and music arrangers who were seduced by the caracteristic power and versatile style of this band formation. But, so far, none of them was envolved deeply in blues or rhythm´n´blues music. The Barcelona Big Blues Band, lead by double bass player Ivan Kovacevic, combines a group of great musicians who create an energetic sound that is capable of beeing wild, raw and sofisticated at the same time. In his arrangements, Kovacevic applies his whole experience and judgment that he acquired playing in small combo bands and also being a great fan of early R&B music. The final resault is a driving, powerhouse sound,following the line of bands like T-Bone Walker or Johnny Otis.

Starting from November 2015, BGKO evolves: after so much intense work and growth, we are responding to the urge to expand our artistic horizons. While we remain very interested in Klezmer music, we also want to gather inspiration from a wider spectrum of genres. Balkan music is, for us, a set of musical traditions and multiethnic cultures that surpass geographical confines, drawing on the historical traditions that have forever inhabited these lands: Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, Gypsies, Ottomans, Arabs…

In February of 2009 the trio of Bernat Font went on stage for the first time. Since then, they have performed all through Catalonia and Spain and have toured Serbia three times. They have published three albums which received very favorable feedback from both critics and general audience. Their first album (“The Shout”) won the Enderrock award for Best New Jazz Proposal, and the piece “Big 3” was included in the movie “Song for Marion”. Bernat is backed in his trio by Martí Elias on drums and, on the bass, Ivan Kovacevic up until 2013 and currently Joan Motera.

Los Mambo Jambo is the instrumental band that created the ‘Sonido Jambofónico’, a wild blend of rock & roll, rhythm & blues, surf and swing performed from a contemporary perspective. Their style is the product of a conjuring by its four members, emblematic figures of the rock & roll and jazz scene in Spain: Dani Nel·lo (sax), Dani Baraldés (guitar), Ivan Kovacevic (double bass) and Anton Jarl (drums).

The quartet was born in late 2009 in Barcelona. Instrumental music is a universal language and Los Mambo Jambo come together with the vocation of launching a direct and timeless proposition, an invitation that connects with anyone anywhere in the world. To date, Los Mambo Jambo have released three albums and four 7" singles, one of them in collaboration with American singer Barrence Withfield.

There was a time when jazz was breathing fire, it smoked up the air and it danced to the clink of ice cubes soaked in distilled liver-piercing fluids. More than music, it was a punch in the establishment’s face, a yearning for life and freedom that was expressed with no concessions whatsoever. Energetic, intense and vital, it was meant to shake the emotional nerve and make the body temperature rise while the pla­yers’ souls were burning in hell. lt was never a matter of form or aesthetics only, but rather a praise of immediacy.

Lazy Jumpers is a Blues and Rhythm & Blues quartet based in Barcelona, internationally recognised as one of today’s finest Blues and Rhythm & Blues bands. Its name is backed by its discography and live experience.

• Vocals and harmonica BLAS PICÓN
• Guitar MARIO COBO
• Drums DAVID GARCIA
• Double bass IVAN KOVACEVIC

DISCOGRAPHY

**1.»Comin’ On Like Gangbusters | ***El Toro Records 2007* **2.»Bad Luck, Turn my Back on You» El Toro R&B | El Toro Records 2005
3.Somebody tell that woman | **El Toro Records 2003
**4.LITTLE RACHEL & THE LAZY JUMPERS – There’a anew miss rhythm in town | **El Toro Records 2006

The Nu Niles formed in 1996 and since then they have never stopped making music. They began their career as a rockabilly band in its purest concept, when that style seemed to go against any musical movement and was possibly the most underground style of the moment. Today the band’s style contains ingredients of pure rock and roll , rockabilly , surf , punk , ska , tex-mex or spaghetti western, achieving a style of its own that is characteristic.

Genre

neo swing, crazy bluesin’, shaky rhythm, groovy boogie

Lineup

Hernán Senra (Chino): dobro and vocals
Duska Miscevic, alto sax
Pol Prats: tenor sax
Ivan Kovacevic, double bass
Marti Elias, drums

Record label

El toro records – Formula free – Indie

Down Home is one of the best groups Barcelona has brought forth in recent years. They started out inspired by the swing and jump blues of the 1950s, but over more than 6 years they have developed an unmistakable sound with an identity of its own.