MARTIRIO & CHANO DOMÍNGUEZ TRIO

Programme

Tonadijazz

About this event

As a child, Martirio could hear her neighbours singing coplas in the patios, while at the same time she listened to the jazz of American films on the TV. Chano Domínguez studied jazz but grew up in the copla culture of his native Cádiz. The musical careers of these two artists were bound to come together and create the fusion of copla music and jazz.

Biography

MARTIRIO | CHANO DOMÍNGUEZ

MARTIRIO, singer

María Isabel Quiñones, stage-name Martirio, began her professional career in 1981 with the Andalusian group, Jarcha. In 1984 she joined the group Veneno, led by Kiko Veneno, and two years later began her solo career as Martirio, "tonadillera posmoderna", with the aim of renewing the musical language of the Spanish copla. Always wearing dark glasses and a Spanish ornamental comb, she became one of the most original performers on the Spanish stage of the 1980s.

In 1986, she brought out her first solo disc, Estoy mala, a fusion of Spanish copla and pop-rock. Her second disc, Cristalitos machacados, is of copla music performed in the light of jazz and blues. The third, La bola de la vida del amor, mixes copla with new music, and for her fourth disc, He visto color (1994), Martirio wrote the lyrics of all the songs. In Coplas de madrugá (1996), she sings a selection of copla songs accompanied by jazz trio.

Martirio has worked with artists such as Jerry González, Maria del Mar Bonet, Chavela Vargas, Compay Segundo, Alberto Cortez, Pedro Guerra, Miquel Gil, Chano Domínguez, Susana Rinaldi, Mayte Martín and Miguel Poveda.

Notable among her discography are Mucho corazón (2000), Fundamental (2003), Acoplados (2004, with Chano Domínguez – Premio de la Música as best disc of canción española), Primavera en Nueva York (2006), Martirio. 25 años en directo (2009), and De un mundo raro. Cantes por Chavela (2013, with Raúl Rodríguez).

As an actress, Martirio has taken part in the films Belmonte (1995, Juan Sebastián Bollaín), Más allá del jardín (1996, Pedro Olea) and Iris (2004, Rosa Vergés). She has also taken part in a number of plays and television series.

In 1999 she published an autobiographical book, La vuelta a Martirio en 40 trajes, (Planeta).

CHANO DOMÍNGUEZ, piano

Chano Domínguez was born in Cádiz, and is one of the most famous jazz musicians “recruited” by flamenco. He began playing by ear at the age of eight, when his father, a lover of flamenco, gave him a Spanish guitar. When he was twelve, he joined the choir of his local church, where he played the organ on the quiet, and not long after he discovered and fell in love with the piano. He began to play in commercial groups and folk ensembles, and at eighteen formed his own group, Cai, with whom he made three discs of rock music. When the group disbanded in 1981, Domínguez began to move towards the world of jazz.

In 1992 he formed his trio with Javier Colina (double bass) and Guillermo McGill (drums). Together they recorded Chano, a disc which fuses flamenco and jazz.

Chano Domínguez has achieved a surprising unity between the language and rhythms of jazz and flamenco. He plays tangos, tanguillos, alegrías, bulerías, fandangos and soleás on the piano using traditional jazz structures. At present, Domínguez is one of the most sought-after artists in all genres of Spanish music.

He has worked with a wide range of musicians such as Enrique Morente, Estrella Morente, Martirio, Paquito D'Rivera, Jerry González, Ana Belén, Jorge Pardo, Carles Benavent, Paco de Lucía, Joe Lovano, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette and Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

His CDs include 10 de Paco (1994), Hecho a mano (1996), Acoplados (2004, with Martirio – Premio de la Música as best disc of canción española), New Flamenco Sound (2007) and Piano Ibérico (2010), in which he plays his own versions, with flamenco quartet, of classical piano works by Albéniz, Falla, Granados and Mompou. This CD was awarded the prize for the Best Jazz Disc by the Académia de la Música. More recent recordings are Flamenco Sketches (2011) and Chano & Josele (2014).

Chano Domínguez wrote the soundtrack for the film Siempre hay un camino a la derecha (1997), directed by José Luis García Sánchez, and in the year 2000 took part in Calle 54 (director Fernando Trueba).