Glazz is a trio of outstanding musicians from southern Spain who are creating some of the most exciting progressive music in the Iberian Peninsula. Their style crosses numerous musical boundaries, ranging from progressive rock to flamenco, fusion and world music.
The trio includes Dani Escortell on bass, fretless bass, and keyboards; Jose Recacha on electric and acoustic guitars, Portuguese guitar, banjo, bass, synths and palmas (handclap percusssion); and Javi Ruibal on drumset, percussion, guitar, soundscapes, keyboards and aquasonic.
Glazz had a chat with Progressive Rock Central’s Angel Romero.
Tell us a little about the origin of Glazz.
Dani: I started playing in a cover band, with a bass I borrowed, when I was 15 years old. In my next group I was playing pieces by Hendrix and some jazz standards and was around that time when I received the call from Javi, who was a childhood friend, inviting me to a rehearsal of his cover band in which José was the lead guitarist. It was clear that we had the same musical interests and a few months later I replaced the bass player for a concert. We looked well on stage and soon met again in Javi’s studio to hang out, playing music. Over the years, when Javi returned from a season in Madrid, we decided to formalize the band and create a project in earnest. From that time, in 2006, until we released “Let’s Glazz” we spent two years in which we were making the album, little by little, and working on new compositions and also older pieces by Jose.
What is the meaning of the name of the group, Glazz?
It has no meaning, but we liked the way it sounds, like “jazz”, which is something daring and, in addition to being short, no another group uses this same.
What kind of musical training do you have?
José (guitarist) is the only one who was in the conservatory. Javi studied at Escuela de Música Creativa (Creative Music School) in Madrid, but also spent time with percussion masters in Cuba, the United States and, of course, Spain. Dani has participated in several jazz courses and for the last two years has studied bass with the idea of attending the Superior Conservatory.
Tell us a bit about the members of Glazz.
The influences of each member are somewhat mixed. Jose grew up listening to Eric Clapton and Progressive Rock bands such as Yes or King Crimson. For several years he’s been working as a luthier in the workshop of a friend and is gradually building an acoustic guitar from scratch but he has already built an electric guitar, a bass and has transformed his first guitar into an electric sitar. He shares with Dani a passion for video games and reading science fiction.
Dani went into the funk branch of Jamiroquai or Grand Funk Railroad although he also listens to more modern rock such as Muse, Radiohead, Refused, Porcupine Tree or The Flower Kings, with whom we played as opening act a few months ago, which probably explains the size of his pedalboard. He’s crazy about synthesizers and two years ago he incorporated a Moog controlled by his feet. Whenever we don’t have a weekend concert he escapes to go surfing, although I must say that he spends a lot time editing our videos, designing posters and performing various tasks related to the group’s image.
Javi has been showing the ethnic and flamenco side of music and often brings new albums to the studio that we hooked on. It was he who discovered for example Avishai Cohen, Richard Bona or more recently Snarky Puppy. Since he was young, he’s been playing with his father, Javier Ruibal and in the last two years has been touring the world with an excellent flamenco jazz pianist named Dorantes, Despite traveling around for the world, he’s always answering emails or the band’s “booking office.” He is the closest thing to a manager we have and the most imaginative cook, although Jose is not too bad either.
Who can cite as major musical influences of the group?
The followers of the progressive genre in Spain compare us with Iman, who were also our neighbors, but we are influenced by many other artists as diverse as Yes, Richard Bona, Pink Floyd, Avishai Cohen, Pat Metheny, Screaming Headless Torsos, Muse or King Crimson to name a few.
How does the composition process work? How is Glazz inspired?
We compose both from a song that José may bring as a demo as from a bass lick or a rhythmic pattern although that best thing for us is to meet in the studio and start recording an idea from scratch. we did Something like this year for a TV show to which we had to bring unreleased tracks, we locked ourselves about three days without any ideas and the three worked on whatever we came up with.
Glazz has an album called Cirquelectric in which the music ranges from Andalusian Progressive rock up to fusion and world music. Tell us a little about the album and concept behind it.
(Dani) was a two year work, between writing and recording, and we chose the circus-theme because we thought it was ideal to pull together a variety of musical styles and the different ideas we already had. We wanted to tell the story of a circus that arrives unexpectedly to an isolated village in the early twentieth century in which a young man who lives there is attracted by the paraphernalia, and lifestyle surrounding the show.
We did it thinking about playing it live because, as with the previous one, we wanted to build stage props, video projections, voice over narrations … We were lucky a few years ago to put together a concert with circus performers and several actors; it was a great experience.
Since we produced that recording in our own studio we were able to record as we composed. There were songs that were very clear and demoed and others that came into the studio with a simple rhythmic idea in Midi format. It took a while to release it because we have several collaborations with other artists such as Miguel Rios, Joaquin Calderon, Iñaki Salvador and Raul Rodriguez to name a few and we had to respect their calendars.
There is another completely different album titled The Jamming sessions, Take II where Glazz offers a series of jams or improvisations. How did this project come about?
(Jose) We went to Curro Ureba’s studio to record analog live pieces from our first two analog discs, as we had always recorded digitally. We started playing some songs, but soon changed our minds when he saw that we were pretty inspired, so we decided to keep playing until the tape ran out. The material was saved for a year saved until we mixed and another six months until we listened to it and wondered if our fans may be interested in having it. We decided to release it in a limited edition of 150 copies which sold out sooner than expected.
“Take II” came up in much the same way: someone had proposed performing in the Roman theater of an archaeological complex and discussed the idea of recording a video. Later we decided to use that morning to record only improvisations. Maybe the sun and surrounding environment took us into a kind of trance because we recorded more than 120 minutes of improvised music, of which 80 were used in the album. People liked it and has recently been recognized as the best Progressive Rock album made in Spain in 2014. With “Take 3” we will close this sort of interlude of improvisations between concept albums.
Is there another album?
We have the first concept recording ‘Let’s Glazz’ from 2008, sold out years ago, but we’ve been wanting to reissue it on vinyl, we’ll see.
As mentioned earlier, Glazz has influences from southern Spain such as Andalusian rock and flamenco. At progressive rock and festivals in the United States, I am often asked by collectors and specialized sellers why Spanish groups now no longer sound Spanish as they before and they miss the Spanish flavor. I think this is not the case Glazz, but what you think of it?
(Jose): I’ve heard some new groups that call themselves Andalusian rock, but they are usually too loud, closer to hard rock and lack the magic that Iman Califato Independiente, Cai, Triana or Alamed had. We integrate the sounds and rhythms of our land in a natural way fusing them with Jazz or Rock although on songs like “La Adivina Pastora ” we are more evident but is somewhat justified because that song was composed thinking of collaborating with Ricardo Moreno, an excellent flamenco guitarist.
How is the Andalusian rock landscape today?
(Dani): Truly, we don’t know. There have been attempts to bring back legendary bands and occasionally some tributes are made, but Andalusian Rock as was done in the past seems to have disappeared. I think that was more a situation than a style. Anyway, I do not think that we can classify within that label because we believe that it corresponds to a certain time period and a very particular sound with which we don’t identify with.
Are you devoted to music full time?
Yes, that includes: rehearsals practice, teaching, taking classes, traveling, being a manager, testing, composing … and of course, listening.
If you could gather your favorite musicians or groups, whom would you invite?
Javier Ruibal, Dorantes, Tony Levin, Iñaki Salvador, Eric Clapton, Pat Metheny, Marco Mineman, Ian Anderson, Guillaume Perret, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Hiromi, Les Claypool, Robert Fripp, Avishai Cohen, Richard Bona and long etcetera, in an unforgettable festival, of course. And of course we’d play a song with each and vice versa.
What are the next projects for Glazz?
(Jose) In the middle of this year we will publish the third and final installment of our improvisations “The Jamming Sessions” we recorded during our second tour of Japan a few months ago. At the same time, we want to finish our third concept studio album, which is still very special as the story will be interactive. In it, the listener will have to choose a track or another depending on which way he/she wants the protagonist to go. The booklet will be accompanied by a comic illustrated by David Rendo who already did an excellent job in Cirquelectric, becoming our particular Roger Dean.
We also have a long-term project compilation live with a big band. For now we are just working on arrangements but the idea has us excited.
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