Societat de Blues de Barcelona

Barcelona, 2005

Anuario del Blues, BCN Blues Camp, Concurs de Blues SBB

In late 2004, an American musician settled in the city, Mike Shannon, floated an idea on the sleepy waters of Barcelona blues: to create an association that would bring together the musicians and enthusiasts who wandered scattered across a handful of venues. The idea was to join forces, and a couple of dozen individuals took it up and, after some weeks of drunken discussions, founded the Societat de Blues de Barcelona in early 2005. It was a turning point in the history of the blues in this country and marked a before and an after in African-American music in the city. The interaction it created in the musical milieu was not only a shake-up at local level, but also served to spur the creation, one after another, of similar organisations in the country’s main cities. Up to 2024, the SBB has had four presidencies: Vicente Zúmel, Ron Burke, Miriam Aparicio and Montse Pratdesaba. From the first jams to the latest editions of the Primavera in Black Festival, it has organised hundreds of concerts, series, talks and events of every kind, such as the Concurs de Blues, the BCN Blues Camp, the creation of the European Blues Fund in collaboration with the Tecla Sala Library in L’Hospitalet, or the publication of the Anuario del Blues. It is a member of the European Blues Union and is responsible for organising Spain’s participation in the European Blues Challenge, the European blues competition.