Toni Olivé

He belongs to the group of pioneers of Barcelona blues who grew up with Cream, John Mayall or Jimi Hendrix. In his city he began by listening to outfits such as Màquina!, Vértice or Toti Soler: “I did it without knowing that it was the blues. And so did Quico Pi de la Serra, who in his performances paid tribute to Big Bill Broonzy.” He began performing in the early seventies, but it was his encounter with Vicente Zúmel that led him to African-American roots music. “He invited me into his blues bands, and in the mid-eighties we formed the seminal Harmònica Zúmel Blues Band, made up of Zúmel himself, Carles Slide Nadal, Julian Garcia, Pere Sabaté and myself.” These are the first steps of Barcelona’s blues, and he recalls them with nostalgic precision: “We played great gigs and jams, joined by the likes of August Tharrats, Big Mama Montse, Ricky Gil, Amadeu Casas or Carlos Segarra, for example, and we had the honour of sharing a stage with figures such as Memphis Slim, B.B. King, Champion Jack Dupree or Maurice John Vaughn.” And ever since, he has remained in love with the apparent yet profound simplicity of a genre whose capacity for connection he values above all: “Being able to play with people and communicate with them instantly, almost without knowing each other, and to see that the music flows and that you understand each other perfectly.”