‘MAR‘ (el NEGOCITO Records) by Oriol Roca Trio included on the 10 Best Jazz Albums 2017 by Catalan Enderrock Magazine critics poll, considered the Catalan Music Awards has been awarded as BEST JAZZ ALBUM 2018!!
“First album as leader of the drummer Oriol Roca. With the double bass of Manolo Cabras and the pianist Giovanni di Domenico, both old comrades of the Barcelona musician, they build a dense, yet diverse, and spacious sound space; just like watching the open sea in full navigation.” Enderrock Magazine (ESP)
An evening of drums & percussion at Citadelic Festival on March 6th 2018 at SMAK (Gent, Belgium)
20H – INGAR ZACH
Ingar Zach:percussion
Ingar Zach, born in Oslo, June 29th 1971, is one of the leading percussionists/improvisers from Norway. He is known for the wide range of sounds in his drum kit and he uses his percussion in a very dynamic but still energetic way.
Zach is also involved in multiple collaborations and has shared the stage with many other instrumentalists such as Barry Guy, Evan Parker, Axel Dörner, Agustí Fernández orDerek Bailey.
21H15 – ORIOL ROCA TRIO
Giovanni di Domenico (piano), Manolo Cabras (double bass), Oriol Roca (drums)
Oriol Roca, born in Barcelona, September 1979, has performed alongside some of the best improvisers and composers of creative music in Catalonia, as well as collaborating with figures like the Italian Paolo Angeli and Norwegian Jan Bang. But this is the first time Roca leads and writes music for his own band.
He is accompanied by two old comrades, the pianist Giovanni di Domenico(Nate Wooley, Arve Henriksen, Jim O’Rourke) and the double bass player Manolo Cabras(Charles Gayle, Erik Vermeulen, Enrico Rava) two of the most personal voices on the European jazz and improvisation scene. Together they form a trio built on complicity, risk and friendship.
“Le Catalan Oriol Roca, dont c’est le premier album en tant que leader, est un batteur d’une sensibilité frémissante qui ne manque pas de muscle pour autant. À l’écoute de ce magnifique trio, son jeu n’a cessé de nous renvoyer à l’un des plus grands percussionnistes qu’ait connus la free music, l’immense Barry Altschul (Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton), dont Oriol apparaît aujourd’hui comme l’évident héritier. Mais, même si cinq des compositions du CD sont dues à sa plume, Mar ne se résume pas à son seul leader et ne pèserait pas bien lourd sans la prestation du pianiste Giovanni Di Domenico, improvisateur souple et intelligent qui transcende chaque titre -Manolo Cabras, à la contrebasse, n’étant pas en reste. Indispensable.”
“Oriol Roca est de ces batteurs qui nous démontrent, par cette grande sensibilité qui le caractérise à la fois comme musicien et comme compositeur, que l’art de la percussion consiste à souligner l’impulsion d’une musique, non de taper sur quoi que ce soit. ‘Mar’ est un album gorgé de plaisirs éphémères, une musique qui prend le temps d’être concise, pour aller à l’essentiel et ne dire les choses qu’une fois.” Citizen Jazz (FR)
“It’s an uneasy serenity Oriol Roca settles into on his new recording Mar. All of the ingredients necessary for a strong dose of tranquility are present: melodic fragments suggestive of possible endings, the murmur of percussion like slow, easy breaths while dreaming, and highly-charged, vivid imagery. But the drummer, along with his trio of pianist Giovanni di Domenicoand double bassist Manolo Cabras achieve a tone that is subtly ominous and reveals a strange beauty” Bird is the Worm (USA)
“It’s the creative tension between ad libitum abstraction and an invigorating range of pithy assertion which—for all the aforementioned historical precedent—gives this striking session an ever-stronger impact each time it’s played.”Michael Tucker (Jazz Journal 2017)
My Ship (Fresh Sound New Talent 2017) by MUT TRIO & Masa Kamaguchi / Miguel Fernández (tenor and soprano sax), Albert Juan (electric guitar), Masa Kamaguchi (double bass), Oriol Roca (drums)
“I’ve always found the material on the New Talent side of the Fresh Sound label of interest and this compelling release from the Barcelona-based (and curiously named) MUT group is no exception. Usually a trio, here the group is augmented by Japanese bassist Kamaguchi. Pizzicato throughout—hear the potency of his figures within the building, thickening group textures of Torrance or the patient clarity of his solo on A Is to B—Kamaguchi fits seamlessly into what sleeve-note writer Dave Foxall aptly calls the spare structures and eloquent improvisation characteristic of the music.
Each musician is a fine player. Fernandez evinces incisive yet also painterly control of both textured sound and arching dynamics (witness the tenor opening of What’s Now?) while Juan and Roca are as one in their sensitivity to the interplay of cross-phrased “little sounds” and subtle colour. Anyone who appreciates the leaner or more oblique aspects of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter or Sam Rivers—or who has relished the interaction of Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian, for example—will find much to enjoy here: sample the opening moments of What’s Next?
MUT can burn, as in the offset drive of What’s Next? and Robot Skin, both of which feature Juan at his most linear and lyrical. But if there are welcome smears of blues-touched drama in Cançó sense lletra, the delicate opening guitar figures of My Ship recall the atemporal musings of Derek Bailey, an impression reinforced by the briefly plucked figures at the end of Caned. It’s the creative tension between ad libitum abstraction and an invigorating range of pithy assertion which—for all the aforementioned historical precedent—gives this striking session an ever-stronger impact each time it’s played.”
Michael Tucker (Jazz Journal Magazine, August 2017)
El baterista Oriol Roca ha publicado en septiembre de 2017 en el sello belga El Negocito Records, la nueva grabación del Oriol Roca Trio, titulada Mar. Acompañado por el pianista Giovanni di Domenico y el contrabajista Manolo Cabras presentará esta propuesta (grabada en febrero de 2017) en directo en 29º Mercat de Música Viva de Vic (viernes 15 de septiembre de 2017), y Jamboree en Barcelona (sábado 16 de septiembre). Ambos conciertos y la mencionada grabación son la excusa perfecta para charlar con este músico acerca del Oriol Roca Trio, y también de sus últimas grabaciones y proyectos: MUT Trío, Vrak’ Trio y Memoria Uno (proyecto ideado por Iván González en el que participa). Como complemento a la entrevista con Pachi Tapiz, en HDO 310 suenan sucesivamente temas (el sonido del cambio de LP lo anuncia) de grabaciones de estos grupos, y también de la Piccola Orchestra Gagarin.
Visita la galería fotográfica de Joan Cortès para la presentación de Oriol Roca Trio en el 29è Mercat de Música Viva de Vic, también en www.tomajazz.com
The Barcelona percussionist Oriol Roca has performed alongside some of the best improvisers and composers of creative music in Spain, as well as collaborating with European figures like the Italian Paolo Angeli and Norwegian Jan Bang. But this is the first time Roca leads and writes music for his own band with the album ‘Mar’, published by Belgian label el NEGOCITO Records.
Mar is a record of high emotional intensity, sometimes serene and at others volcanic, where north is always the melody. His two fellow musicians of the trio are Italians living in Brussels who he has shared projects with for fifteen years: the pianist Giovanni di Domenico, collaborator of Jim O’Rourke and Arve Henriksen and the double bass player Manolo Cabras, sideman of Enrico Rava and Charles Gayle.
Oriol Roca will be playing two album release concerts on Sepetmber, at 29th Mercat de Música Viva de Vic (Vic, Spain) on September 15th 2017 and at Jamboree Jazz Club (Barcelona, Spain) on September 16th 2017.
