He appears at the bar at odd hours, the sky has darkened and Jordi Pujol Baulenas takes a break from his feverish activity at the head of the Fresh Sound Records family, which brings together various music labels that position Barcelona in a privileged place in the international cartography of Jazz.
"Mine, more than a job, is a way of life ---he explains, after ordering a coffee with milk---, it absorbs me so much that there are a lot of things happening in the world that I don't even find out about".
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On the radio plays Bebo Valdés' Afrocuban Jazz Suite n.º 1 with Eladio Reinón, which he produced twenty-three years ago. "One of the moments I remember with most affection, when Latin Jazz took off among the general public here," he recalls.
Born in Barcelona in 1953, Jordi Pujol Baulenas comes from a family with a great love for Jazz and other music such as Bolero, Tango or Blues. A love that he inherited and that led him, at the age of thirty, to co-found Fresh Sound Records (which, for many years now, he has directed alone), a reference label that many collectors and fans still believe is based in New York, such is the quality and referentiality of this label that launches new artists and, at the same time, explores the recovery of old, rare or unreleased recordings, with an enormous bibliographic support work.
Thus, only in this complicated 2020 that has just passed, Jordi has released anthologies of René Thomas and Michel Haussier, respectively French guitarist and vibraphonist, with never-before-seen pieces, notes and photographs. And, at the same time, he has published the debut of the American Nicholas Brust, a new album by the promising French composer, Joachim Govin, or the new album by the veteran Barcelona jazz musician, Giulia Valle. Just to name a few of the many projects Jordi has been involved in lately.
--- And what will be next?
--- Finally, the recordings of Tete Montoliu's trio with Jerome Richardson that I recorded at Estudio Gema in Barcelona, in 1988, taking advantage of the fact that they were performing at La Cova del Drac at that time, will see the light.
Consistency is key
"In 1984 I traveled for the first time to Los Angeles and there I realized everything there was to do. I immediately connected with that city, with its people. Then, Barcelona was an unknown place for Americans and would remain so until the Olympics, so they saw it as a rarity that someone who came from an unknown and very distant place had an interest in seeing and meeting Jazz musicians, some already aged then. I felt very welcome."
Since then, Jordi has traveled to Los Angeles about fifty times, in addition to visiting other places. "From cities, I am interested in their people, their history, their musicians, their attitude."
--- With so much coming and going, you must have met thousands of people.
--- It has given me great pleasure to meet all the musicians whose paths I have crossed. Many are no longer here and I miss them.
Immediately after, he shows a photograph posing with Bernard Hilda and his wife, Irene, in Paris, with the anthology he published on the career of the legendary violinist of the Hotel Ritz. Another of those milestones he remembers with special affection.
"I am very satisfied with the projects I have brought to fruition. In each of them, I have worked very hard and many have ended up being referential. The secret is perseverance, not giving up, concentrating on your work, on your craft, on your art, and giving your best. With perseverance, results are always obtained."
Biographer of Barcelona Jazz
In 2005, Jazz en Barcelona 1920-1965 (Almendra) saw the light, an impressive history of the evolution of Jazz in the Catalan capital in its almost first half-century of life, authored by Jordi Pujol Baulenas. Profusely documented and illustrated, the volume was also accompanied by a box set of CDs with difficult (if not impossible) recordings, published by Fresh Sound. Absolutely impeccable in each and every one of the data and anecdotes it collects, the book established itself ---and remains, even today--- as an undefeated reference on the history of Jazz in Barcelona, and can still be found in Jordi's shop in Sarrià, Blue Sounds.
"I am no longer proud of this city, but its strength is superior to the incompetence of those who manage it and I trust that it will regain that splendor with which it shone in the 90s," he admits.
--- So, you don't have much of a relationship with Barcelona right now?
--- My relationship with the city focuses on its jazz scene… Well, and Barça. I also like Barça, although lately it gives me more disappointments.