It is not easy to be a jazz bass player, especially to move around the world with this huge instrument. Everything is easier, of course, if you have a ukulele or a violin. But Chema Pellico has been playing the double bass since he was told he had the soul of a double bass player, which is like having a lute and being told that your thing is to take the controls of an aircraft carrier. Every time he has a concert, like on Sunday with his jazz band in es Cubells, he first has to put it in his van, a Ford Tourneo Courier that he bought specifically to transport it from one place to another on the island. His guitar head almost touches the gearshift. Because on a motorcycle or in a Fiat 500 it is an impossible task, although this Madrid native has seen tutorials from colleagues who show how to fit them in a Mini and even in a Corsa.
Pellico is 75 years old with a long life playing the four strings, starting with an electric bass, until they saw him play jazz, told him about his soul and loaded him up with the double bass (second hand, made of wood and bought from a Cuban, although “it was a bit worn out”). Cerebrum and Blue Bar were his first groups, with whom he played progressive rock, which gives an idea of what part of the 20th century we are referring to. In Madrid he combined playing wtih his bands with selling books for the Círculo de Lectores and delivering mail, until four decades ago he came to Ibiza. Here he was living the life: “There was no shortage of work. The hotels did not close and I could play all year round, for example at the Hawaii (Portmany Bay). Life was glorious. The scene has changed now, he assures: “They don’t want bands anymore, at most duos”.
“There was no lack of work on Ibiza. The hotels did not close and I could play all year round, for example at the Hawaii (Portmany Bay). Live was glorious.
Jazz and Bunyols
Yesterday he played with the Musicaires Jazz Band (he also part of the Ibiza Jazz Big Band) in the parking lot of es Cubells, while in front, Paca Marí taught the crowd how to cook bunyols. She was surrounded by women who already knew how to prepare them, because from time to time they could be heard whispering ‘I don’t do it like that, I do this or that’. But Marí continued to do her own thing, following to the letter what she learned from “sa mamà”, Catalina Ferrer: “Each family, each house has its own recipe, with its own small variations”, she explained while she poured over the flour mixed with yeast the infusion resulting from mixing the water from boiling the potatoes with green aniseed and pennyroyal. On an easel, held by a wooden clamp, he placed a branch of this aromatic herb, which those who passed by touched and then sniffed their fingers.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.