Anton Jarl

This elegant and forceful drummer began playing rock & roll as a youngster in his native Sweden and soon fell under the spell of jazz, so the most logical thing was that he should end up discovering the umbilical cord that unites the two: the blues, a genre he regards as the basic musical language of modern music. He plunged into it after arriving in Barcelona, around 2004, when he became a professional musician, first with the August Tharrats Trio and later with the most important outfits in the city devoted to African-American music. After forty years playing the drums, he assures us that “a good blues musician makes his instrument sing, uses it to tell stories”. As passionate as he is tenacious, his relationship with the drums is a continuous process of learning that has led him to move easily through various genres, although he acknowledges that the blues has given him unforgettable moments and connected him with a whole artistic heritage: “It has made me feel connected with generations of music that came before me. It is a legacy, a tradition of which I love to be part, and which gives meaning to my musical life.”