"Through music is how I establish a bond with all those worlds that exist in this world." The version of Autumn in New York by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong accompanies the morning atmosphere of the Bar while, leaning against the counter, clarinetist, singer, and composer Carola Ortiz enjoys a steaming cup of matcha tea. "That's where you can tell I'm a Pisces! –she laughs– For that ability to connect with different universes."
Daughter of a jazz double bassist and a mother linked to the world of theater, the artist has been exposed, since her earliest childhood, to an endless array of musical stimuli that have made her travel very far. First, through sounds and, later, moving to remote places to discover their musical lexicons and, through these, the character of their people, their ways of being; of seeing and living life.
Perhaps the first trip that completely changed her coordinates was the one she made to New York at 27 years old. "I came from jazz and there I played with some very good local musicians, and everything was going well, everything flowed, but I realized that that is their language. That they are American and jazz is something of theirs, but I am Mediterranean, I have another background." That's when the artist began to delve into music that, by context, was closer to her: "flamenco, Maria del Mar Bonet or Greek song..."
From that moment on, it's as if life had conspired to lead her down various paths. Through sonic and spiritual journeys that have made her one of the reference artists of the so-called world music made here. What the artist defines as a persistent feeling of synchronicity through which she channels, one after another, projects that delve into different folklores. That visit all those worlds that are in this one.
The impregnable drive of synchronicities
In 2016, Carola Ortiz debuted with Sirin, an album that brought together all the influences she had been treasuring and that the artist remembers as "a party where I invited many of my friends to collaborate." Although it didn't have a clear direction, that album marked a less jazzy and more focused approach on the world music. It marked the future.After this, another one of those trips that change everything arrived. "I went to India and my mind exploded," she recalls. It was a turning point. "A feeling that everything was aligning to explore those sonorities." A synchronicity. From there came Spirala, her second album, which was included in the prestigious 2018 World music list by reference critic Ted Gioia.
A third epiphany arrived the following year. "I moved to Maresme and there I came into contact with the world of poetry, to which I had not paid much attention until then." Again, the perception that everything aligns. "I realized that poetry is, in itself, music. That it is pure rhythm." She began to explore Catalan poets like Salvat-Papasseit and to set their verses to music. "That's when I switched to Catalan, which until then was just one of the languages I used to sing." From that idyll was born Pecata beata, her third album, followed shortly after by Cantareras, which is ---of course--- the result of another vital synchronicity: the artist's encounter with the folkloric heritage of Galicia and its cross with another of her great passions, electronic music.
As it could not be otherwise, her new album, Enllà (El Segell Microscopi), also derives from a process of concordance, the one she experienced when she discovered the poetry of Dario Olaortua, from Argentona, which Carola has turned into a collection of eight songs that sweep from rumbas to habaneras or tango, "but going to the essence, without the need to over-dress each song." She sips some tea, proud to live a life in contact with her creativity, savoring each step of her many artistic processes.
Fleeing excessive posturing
Something changed in the parishioner when, some time ago, after twelve years living in Barcelona, she decided to flee to Maresme. Towards the silence and calm that distanced her from that cosmopolitan and musical city, full of distinct and distinguishable neighborhoods, which she had enjoyed, but which was now increasingly invaded by tourists and champions of a superficial posturing that she doesn't like.And, while living in an inner world that looks towards the sonorities of the Eastern Mediterranean, this devotee of Jordi Savall confesses ---finishing her matcha tea--- that, right now, and despite all the things she likes about it, she steps on Barcelona as little as possible.
--- Then we must take advantage of your presence here to tempt you with our gastronomic offer, now that lunchtime is approaching...
The bars of Gee, baby, ain't I good to you, by Ella and Satchmo, sweeten the midday. A confessed gourmet, Carola Ortiz smiles. "The midday menu calls to me if you have any fresh fish," she announces, and pauses before warning: "and it better have a good dessert, because as a granddaughter of pastry chefs, I won't forgive it!".