Personnel:
Xavier Casellas (vcls), Emilio Solla (p), Tom Warburton (b), Dani Dominguez (d), Gorka Benítez (ts), Cristo Fontecilla (g), Raynald Colom (tp), Pere Bardagi, Jordi Coll (vln), Manuel Martinez del Fresno (cello), Quim Badia (viola)
Reference: BMCD 2504
Bar code: 8427328025041
"My father was definitely not a musician, but he had this obsession with the great old crooners and big bands from the 30's and 40's. Frank Sinatra, conducted by Nelson Riddle, Tony Bennet, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Nat Cole, Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington... and so many others. All those great musicians used to open wide my ears and my soul to a music that I always felt very close. I spent hours singing along to the vinyl records that he used to play all the time.
Many years laterand I bet my sing-alongs had a lot to do with itI made a profession out of singing. I had the chance to play other styles of music like rock and roll, country music, dance, latin, pop et al. But oddly enough, jazz music was left forgotten where your deepest feelings rest surrounded by intimate memories, safe and dormant.
But as time went by, and almost by accident, those memories started coming back. The music that made me daydream as a kid became alive again and has become the main means for my musical expression and the most rewarding. Xavier Casellas Quartet started out of that desire to find the dormant voice within me. From here I would like to thank a bunch of excellent musicians and better friends amongst which pianist Emilio Solla, bassist Nono Fernández and drummer Aldo Caviglia can be counted.
The first step was taken, now there's still a long way to go, but that voice is certainly coming up strong. With a respectful gaze of almost veneration for those classics, I want to walk forward to return them what they gave me. I'm willing to make my modest contribution to the world of music."
—Xavier Casellas
