Belén Cabanes

Dansa i castanyoles
 

 
ELISABET RASPALL & BELÉN CABANES present:


“JAZZTANETS”

ELISABET RASPALL piano and composition
BELÉN CABANES castanets and dance


These two well known Vilanova artists have long wanted to join their art. It has finally been possible and they present a show of great beauty and emotion, where they combine the original music of the pianist and composer with the dance and the castanets of  flamenco and other styles dancer.


A magical, cosmic encounter, rooted in the Mediterranean, where childhood memories and vital moments play at the same time with the chance of improvisation and intensity to become a new sound and visual experience.


JAZZTANETS

Piano: Elisabet Raspall
Castanets and dancing: Belén Cabanes
Lights: Anna Boix
Composer: Elisabet Raspall
Choreography and castanets text: Belén Cabanes
Artistic consulting: Thérèse Lorenzo and Montse Llopis


Contact : 

Belén Cabanes belencabanes@yahoo.es / tel: +34 666 54 9949
Elisabet Raspall: elisabetraspall@yahoo.es / tel: +34 722 79 4988



ELISABET RASPALL

Pianist and composer with a recognized career in the jazz scene in our country. She has studied with Tete Montoliu, Lluis Vidal, Jean ‐ Pierre Dupuy, Silvia Goes, Iñaki Salvador, Albert Bover, Zé Eduardo, etc. She has graduated from the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, ​​the Taller de Músics, and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She has also studied in New York with musicians such as Barry Harris, George Cables and Fred Hersch.
She has participated in formations as diverse as Lee Morgan’s Tribute, Aljama, John Dubuclet’s Big Band, Bellaterra’s Big Band and with the groups she leads. She has participated in several Jazz seminars in Barcelona with musicians such as Brad Melhdau, George Garzone, Kurt Rosenwinkel, at the International Seminar of Jazz Schools in Dublin with Dave Liebman… And in various Jazz and Modern Music festivals.
She collaborates with different musicians such as Chris Cheek, Perico Sambeat, Mario Rossy, Brad Lealy, Bill McHenry, Pere Bardagí, Josep Mª Farràs, Joan Chamorro, Bobby Shew, Dani Pérez, Carme Canela, Eladio Reinón, Aleix Tobias, Pep Pérez Cucurella , Jordi Gaspar, Raynald Colom, David Xirgu, Jon Robles, Ray Ferrer, Xavi Maureta, Francesc Burrull, Ricard Roda, Acelino de Paula, David Mengual, Chris Higgins, Marc Miralta, Horacio Fumero, Peer Wiborys, Sheila Jordan, Moulay M’Hammed Ennajl “Sheriff”, Abdeljalil Kodssi, Martí Perramon, Danilo Pinheiro, Anna Luna, Dolores Mar, Errol Woiski, Tapàn Bhattacharya, Gani Mirzo, Geni Barry, Víctor Uris, Cesc Miralta, Rogério Botter Maio, Benet Palet, Jordi Rallo, Caíto Marcondes, Aldo Caviglia, Victor de Diego, Toni Xuclà, Miles Griffith, etc.


She has participated in bands of: De Diego Brothers, Errol Woiski, Rogério Botter Maio among others. She has won several awards, including 4 times for best jazz composition awarded by the AMJM (Association of Jazz Musicians and Modern Music of Catalonia).
She is currently an accompanying pianist at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, ESMUC.
She has released 13 CDs with her original compositions in which we find musicians such as saxophonist Chris Cheek and guitarist Dani Pérez, in addition to other CDs in collaboration.

13 CD’s originally composed by Elisabet:

TRIANGLES (FSNT 18 CD) – Best Sound Recording Prize in 1998, given by RNE (Radio Nacional de España).
LILA (FSNT 58 CD) –Best Contributionto Jazz Award in 1999, given by RNE.
MARAM (FSWJ 13 CD-2001)
QUATRO (PAE - 2005)
PLUJAZZ (RR001 - Raspall Records - 2010)
BOSSANOVA I LA GELTRÚ (RASPALL-ROSSI-STEIMBERG- WARBURTON / Nomada57 - Raspall Records N57/RR/213-2010)
L’ISTIU AL COR - SUMMER HEART (RR002-RaspallRecords-2011)
EL PETÓ- THE KISS (RR003- Raspall Records-2012 )
CONVERSES - El Colectivo (RR 214- Raspall Records 2013 )
PRESENT (RR004- Raspall Records 2014 )
VITAL (RR005- Raspall Records 2016 )
LINKS (RR006- Raspall Records 2019 )
I LOVE JAZZ (RR007- Raspall Records 2020
)


BELÉN CABANES

Teaches at the Spanish Dance Department at the Professional Dance Conservatory of the “Institut del Teatre de Barcelona” and Degree in Dance Pedagogy from the Escola Superior de Dansa of the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.
She graduated from the Royal Professional Conservatory of Dance Mariemma in Madrid, and finished the Superior Revalidation of the Emma Maleras Castanets’ Method.
She collaborated as a concertmaster in the recordings of the CD "Tanganera" by guitarist Victor Valls and in the CDs dedicated to the Spanish composers "Enric Granados" and "Isaac Albéniz" within a collection of Producciones Bellaterra Música.
Teacher in International courses such as Tanzhaus in Düsseldorf (Germany), Bolzano Tanz (Italy), Tanzist Dornbirn (Austria), Tanz Festival Bielefeld (Germany), etc.
(1988-1991) Member of the Spanish Dance Company of Barcelona, directed by her teachers Rosa Garcia and Enrique Burgos.
(1991-1995) Dancer at the Spanish Ballet Rafael Aguilar, Madrid.
(1996-2000) Founder of Flamenco Camerata with guitarist Andreas Maria Germek.
(1998-2002) Co-founder of “Cia 2D1”, directed by Juan Carlos Lérida.
(1998-2007) Partner of the Dancer and Castanets’ Concertist José de Udaeta with "El Secret de la Castanyola" performing at Aalto Theater in Essen, Staatsoper in Stuttgart, Staatsoper in Berlin, Vienna’s Opera, National Theater of Catalonia, among others, and winning the Critics Award at the 2003 Jerez Festival.
(2000) "Excellent Dancer Award" in the "Choreographic Contest of Spanish Dance of Madrid", with choreography by Juan Carlos Lleida.
(2003) Solo dancer of the “Talent Danza” Company, directed by Antonio Najarro and Pascal Gaona. She also premiered her own dance show "Temps de Flors".

(2004) Choreographer and dancer of the shows "Naked Soul" with cellist Anna Mora and pianist Marina Rodríguez and "Contemporaneous Castanets" with guitarist Andreas María Germek, touring all around Germany and Austria and performing at the Musikverain in Vienna, the Auditori de Barcelona, among others.
(2011) She created "Ivory Birds" with pianist Marina Rodríguez conducted by Juan Carlos Lérida.
(2014) Guest artist at the great GMMF Classical Music Festival in South Korea, together with the great cellist Lluís Claret.
(2015) She presented "Big and small percussion: piano and castanets" with the pianist Marina Rodríguez, in the VIII cycle of Music at the Barcelona Music Museum.
(2018) Presentation of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. In November that year, she was the driving force of the Tribute to José de Udaeta and Emma Maleras, presented by the MAE (Museum of the Performing Arts) at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.
(2020) She begins a new adventure with "Jazztanets" with the great jazz pianist Elisabet Raspall. In July she participated as a performer and witness of the last years of the artistic life of José de Udaeta, in a museum and interpretation center project in the Castle of Sant Pere de Ribes, where José de Udaeta lived his last 50 years. Also in 2020, she collaborated in the show “La Galeria”, by the young creator and dancer José Maldonado with a castanets show for the 2021 Jerez Festival.




JAZZTANETS’ PATH


The artists meet in February at Foment Vilanoví to record a short video as a presentation of the new project.

https://youtu.be/Uc7ev4DrW2k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpgFX6bw4R4&t=869s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb9tnHFlJKE



Premiere of the show is ready for August 2nd, 2020 at the Eduard Toldrà Auditorium in Vilanova i la Geltrú as part of the Festa Major program. They played it twice.
Here is one of the performances:


http://canalblau.alacarta.cat/fires-i-festes-populars/capitol/festa-major-vilanova-2020- jazztanyoles 


The show was later that year played in the MMVV (Vic Live Music Market), taking it to be mentioned at the program “Tots els matins del món” on Catalunya Ràdio, highlighting its quality and originality.



 JAZZTANETS PROGRAM


LA NINA (The Doll)

SEMPRE AMB MI (Always with Me)

INFANTESA (Childhood)


NONOM (Noname)

EL GRONXADOR (The Swing)

ENTRE LÍMITS (Between Limits)

ELS TEUS ULLS SÓN TRANSPARENTS (Your Eyes Are Transparent)

PELL FINA (Thin skin)

BLUES GAMBERRET (Little Playful Blues)

 Photo by Yann Pascual

JOURNALS


"Jazztanets", much more than a show.
August 7, 2020, La Fura News.


By Maria Rosa Noguè


Absolute silence in the room. Expectation, a tickling in the stomach among the masked audience. In Covid-19 times, the necessary isolation makes everything more intense and risky. And suddenly, with a firm step, they appear: just two women, two artists, two beautiful presences, with precise mise en scène (...) Both send us a big smile. They go straight to work: Elisabet on the piano, Belén dancing, with the castanets. Captivating music, mesmerizing dance. And then, they stand behind the microphone to talk to us, to explain to us, to be with us. They've been on stage for just a few minutes and we are already in love.
They explain to us that these days lack in shows, this one will have two parts: we just heard the first piece, The Doll, and the next ones are called Always with Me, Childhood, Noname and Swing. They are all compositions by Elisabet Raspall and are accompanied by the extraordinary dance and castanets of Belén Cabanes, who knows how to combine Spanish dance, flamenco and contemporary dance, with everything that helps the expressiveness of the movement art. The second part consists of pieces composed during isolation, and there is one, Fine Skin, dedicated to Belén’s mother and all the elderly who have died in these days of mourning. The silence in the room is immense again. Belén, now dressed in white, with red castanets at the height of her heart, recites a poem and makes us see with dance all the emotions of that goodbye (......) Then the music has returned to sound with that stamp of jazz, improvisation, quality and inspired personality that flows from the hands of Elisabet Raspall, who is sometimes accompanied by singing, an inspiring melody. Dance and music illustrate what is so difficult to put into words. Behind the masks, our lips tense with smiles as our eyes struggle to hold back tears; luckily, from time to time, we scramble to applaud and respond to the performers ’greetings.

We have been assured that there is a great deal of improvisation, but at the same time the dense network of work, effort, dedication is noticeable so that not a single note, not a step, not a look is missing. Jazztanets made us vibrate, laugh, cry, think, moved us and left us where we were. It ends but it doesn’t end, we leave but we don’t leave; we take with us an intense experience, an inner knowledge of what moves us, a renewed ear full of beauty, music, dance, life.

Much more than a show.






Article by Xavier Vernetta, Writer

Collaborations between artists who seem to have little in common are very common in the world of music or any kind of art. These collaborations sometimes serve to enhance the billboard with the coincidence of powerful names, sometimes they are an opportunity to show complicity, often simply represent an opportunity to have fun, the result of the good roll that enhances friendship .
Only very occasionally the fusion of two personalities with different styles result in a new, original, engaging creation.
Elisabet Raspall is a pianist and author of numerous pieces of seductive, enveloping, emotional, sophisticated jazz. Belén Cabanes is a dancer and concert performer who combines flamenco with contemporary dance. Both are well known in their field and the mobility restrictions imposed by the pandemic have given them the opportunity to do what they wanted many times but the circumstances and many commitments of both had made it impossible.
The result explodes on stage, it excites, it seduces. Music fills the room, piano combined with heels, palms and dancing. Pieces with a jazz based reinterpreted through flamenco, dance; reinvented folk songs; new creations that show a complicity that we hope will have a long way to go. A pearl.
It’s always hard to describe a show. In the case of Jazztanets the reaction of the public is the best way to talk about it. While they were on stage, the audience vibrated. In a room where there was the obligatory personal distance, the attention was absolute. Emotions, many emotions.
I don't know if Belén Cabanes and Elisabet Raspall are aware of this, but they have created a new way of presenting music and dance. A fusion of styles that is an open door. We hope that together we can take advantage of it.