[Dixielandjazz] Madrid's Jazz Scene as seen by the NY Times

[Stephen G Barbone]

NY TIMES - April 20, 2008 - By ANDREW FERREN
 From Jazz to Fusion, Late and Live in Madrid

IT’S 11 p.m. in the Plaza del Ángel in Madrid, and the strains of a  
jazz sax solo can be heard seeping through the plate-glass windows of  
Café Central. Inside, couples and small groups huddle around the 20 or  
so tables set amid mirrored pillars that seem to multiply the ambience  
without blocking the view of the stage.

Just down the street at Populart a crowd of jazz aficionados sip gin  
and tonics from giant goblets. A few young Turks in leather jackets  
stick to beer at the far end of the bar as the West Africa-born Justin  
Tchatchoua and his Afro Group warm everyone up with selections from  
their new CD of African fusion beats.

Similar scenes — some rowdy, others refined — are replicated nightly  
all across the city. Within a 10-minute stroll from the Puerta del  
Sol, the center of historic Madrid,music lovers can take their pick of  
live jazz, rock, flamenco or folk-rock, or an ever-growing fusion of  
all the above by top Spanish artists like Manu Chao or the rising  
flamenco star Esperanza Fernández. Mixed in you might find  
international names like Busta Rhymes or the Strokes.

In the past year or so there has been a major multiplication of the  
number of establishments — ranging from cafeterias to small theaters —  
that now offer live music. It’s helped that city officials seem to  
have eased some of the restrictions and aggressive monitoring of  
clubs. Diego A. Manrique, the music critic of the daily El País and  
the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation, said: “It’s really still just  
beginning to take off. While many new places are finding their way,  
the old standards are adding performances and drawing larger audiences.”

“Madrid is an easy place to get hooked on live music,” says Curro  
González, an owner of La Boca del Lobo, as the local band Funk Attack  
clears the stage after midnight on a recent Thursday evening, and the  
crowd of about 100 drifts toward the bar in this compact multilevel  
club. He says the live-music scene works because so many of the people  
involved are industry insiders — producers, agents, music critics and,  
of course, the artists themselves — and their enthusiasm doesn’t  
disappear when they leave the office. “People do this because they  
love the music,” says Mr. González.

It also doesn’t hurt that Madrileños love night life and being out  
among the masses, so with cover charges that are rarely more than 10  
euros ($15 or so) and typically include a drink, a live performance  
from 10 p.m. to midnight gets people into the bars and into the mood.  
Many bars also serve relatively good and reasonably priced food,  
providing the possibility of a one-stop evening. The jazz club Café  
Berlin has a whole menu of “Bird” salads and “Stormy Weather”  
sandwiches and offers wine tastings of standout Spanish vintages.

Nor does it hurt that lots of the bars are serendipitously located  
near — even next door to — each other, creating lively neighborhood  
vibes that last all night.

Just a block off the Gran Vía is another vortex of Madrid’s music  
scene. The two-year-old Costello Club has quickly evolved into one of  
the city’s most popular destinations. Warm amber lighting sets a  
relaxed mood in the street-level bar that has a chill-out room in the  
back with deep sofas for lounging and conversation. Downstairs, the  
long brick-vaulted basement is a ready-made concert area for the  
nightly rock concerts and jam sessions. Costello’s owners, the  
brothers Dani and Paco Marín, both worked for recording labels and  
many musicians come here to drink after finishing their sets elsewhere.

But they don’t always come just to drink. Given the brothers’  
background, they bring in the occasional big-name international  
talent, bands like the Strokes and Keane. But given the club’s small  
size, these concerts get no promotion and are more or less a gift to  
Costello customers, Dani Marín says.

Around the corner is El Sol, a joint whose most commonly applied  
modifier is “mythic.” Open since 1979, it was the backdrop for much of  
the famous movida madrileña, the post-Franco punk-rock, pop-culture  
explosion that gave the world Pedro Almodóvar and Agatha Ruiz de la  
Prada. Even today, the large basement club — with it’s all-white décor  
glowing with pink neon tubes — still feels like an underground  
carnival. Nightly concerts can range from rock to pop to salsa or  
flamenco, and the place rocks to at least 4:30 (on weeknights).

Not far away is Café Berlin, perhaps the city’s most elegantly  
evocative jazz club, very likely because it opened as one in the 1950s  
and still retains its Art Deco interior, including the original jazz- 
inspired frieze behind the stage. Café Berlin is a classic boîte whose  
owner, Carlos Marquerie, insists that performers be versed in classic  
jazz. Every other Wednesday is big band night.

“Whatever kind of Latin-flamenco-jazz fusion you want to do,” Mr.  
Marquerie says, “you won’t do it here unless you can play classic  
bebop jazz vocals. People come here for jazz-jazz.”

Since they are mostly geared to tourists, many of the city’s flamenco  
stages, known as tablaos, set their prices back in the days when the  
dollar was worth something. At 31 euros per person, the 90-minute  
performances at Casa Patas can seem pricey to someone hoping to catch  
a song or two before moving on to another club. So now there is Patas  
Chico, a tiny bar across the street popular among the flamenco crowd;  
impromptu performances late at night after the shows are not  
guaranteed, but nor are they uncommon, and a glass of wine is just 2  
euros.

Yet another constellation of late-night revelry awaits north of the  
old center, near the Bernabéu Stadium, where Real Madrid plays its  
soccer. At Moby Dick, the sleek neon-lit facade conceals a rollicking  
nautical interior, complete with lighthouse next to the stage. With  
bands that rock and a youthful crowd that comes to move, it reads  
Jersey Shore, and is very likely the closest thing Madrid will ever  
have to the Stone Pony.

So whether you’re looking for mojitos and merengue or cold gin and hot  
jazz, Madrid has a foolproof recipe for everyone. “Just look around  
the place,” says Dani Marín as he surveys the wall-to-wall crowd at  
Costello. “We’re full like this every night.”

MORE INFORMATION

Café Central, Plaza del Ángel, 10; (34-91) 369-41-43; www.cafecentralmadrid.com 
.

Populart, Huertas, 22; (34-91) 429-84-07; www.populart.es.

La Boca del Lobo, Echegaray, 11; (34-91) 429-70-13; www.labocadellobo.com 
.

Costello Club, Caballero de Gracia, 10; (34-91) 523-01-74; www.costelloclub.com 
.

El Sol, Jardines, 3; (34-91) 532-64-90; www.elsolmad.com.

Café Berlin, Jacometrezo, 4; (34-91) 521-57-52; www.cafeberlin.es.

Casa Patas, Cañizares, 10; (34-91) 369-04-96; www.casapatas.com.

Moby Dick, Avenida del Brasil, 5; (34-91) 555-76-71; www.mobydickclub.com 
.