"One day, when I was twelve, my teacher and musical father Dan Posen took me to the Jazz Cava in Terrassa to see a concert after a class. That day, John Faddis, Terell Stafford, and Claudio Roditi were performing under the name Trumpet Summit. Dan told them about me and, before the performance, they asked me to play a song. Since I had my trumpet with me, I played some notes that they liked. Later, during the concert, they called me to the stage and there I performed a blues with them. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to dedicate myself to music." Pol Omedes explains it with a special sparkle in his eyes, while enjoying an apple juice and the notes of Arietis, by his beloved Freddie Hubbard, echoing in the background.
The musician and composer, who arrived at the Bar in the mid-afternoon, defines himself as someone "enthusiastic, a dreamer, a friend to my friends, passionate about music, and a jazz trumpeter." Something that started very early in his life, when his father, a pianist, played or listened to jazz at all hours. "That was my very first and most important influence," he acknowledges.
Now he carries under his arm a copy of his recently released third album as a leader, Pura Vida (The Changes), of which he is immensely proud, though no more than of his conspicuous activity as a sideman for notable musicians like Irene Reig or Lluc Casares, or interesting projects like Smack Dab, among many others.
Pol met Lluc Casares at thirteen, a year after that concert at the Jazz Cava. "I met him at a classical music summer course. Back then, Lluc was going to be a clarinetist. We discovered we were neighbors, as he was also from the Sant Genís, Vall d'Hebron neighborhood, and it was the beginning of a long and solid friendship. The Casares family has been a fundamental pillar in my development as a jazz musician. For his part, Dan Posen would be the one to help me grow as a trumpeter and who would transmit to me a love for music until it became the rudder of my life."
Europe begins in the Pyrenees
After finishing high school, Pol Omedes entered ESMUC where he began to weave a network of friendships and musical complicities with which things went further. "We created a community that remains to this day. A reflection of this is The Changes Music collective."
But, for a jazz musician, Barcelona is undeniably small. "I had to leave, go abroad. I went to study in Graz, Austria, with master Jim Rotondi. There I met another musical and emotional family and lived an experience that made me grow a lot, both personally and musically. In many ways, from a musical point of view, Europe begins in the Pyrenees."
--- Hey, and why Graz specifically?
--- Because of its prestige. Think that since the 70s it has brought together many internationally recognized masters, like Karlheinz Miklin, whom I got to know. It is the main jazz department in Europe.
When he returned to Barcelona, Pol's musical career properly began, as a leader, as a sideman, and also as a teacher. "I started teaching at the Conservatorio Superior de las Islas Baleares, in Palma de Mallorca, and, since 2019, I travel every week to teach at the Conservatorio Superior Manuel Castillo in Seville." Another activity, teaching young musicians, which he enjoys enormously.
Barcelona round trip
"Here I have my home and my family, and I love the sea and the mountains, but this city lacks the cultural structure to support the career of its musicians. My relationship with Barcelona is, in this sense, one of love-hate."
--- Is Barcelona's music lacking steam?
--- If I hadn't gone abroad to study and make a living, I wouldn't have ended up doing what I do, playing around the world with incredible musicians and people. For my part, I can only invite young musicians to take the step and leave here. Go study elsewhere! Then you'll come back, but don't always stay here!
The conversation has stretched out and now what's playing in the background is Straight up and down by Eric Dolphy, with Freddie Hubbard accompanying on trumpet. Pol Omedes pauses, with a beatific expression, following the notes and measures of this absolute classic from the Blue Note stable.
--- By the way, do you want to have dinner? We have tapas, portions, and a delicious menu.
After a brief silence, the regular speaks: "A menu itself, although I'll tell you I'm more of a sweet tooth," he confesses with the smile of a child who carries a slingshot in his back pocket.