This review of the Al Ras Bluegrass Festival is a contribution from Spanish banjoist, educator, and composer, Lluis Gomez. The fifteenth edition of Al Ras Bluegrass Festival took place this November in Barcelona and Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona, Spain). Al Ras is the
We heard this week from noted Spanish banjoist and teacher, Lluis Gómez, with a report on the first bluegrass instruction camp held in Barcelona. More than 70 people met last March 5th in Barcelona for a full day of bluegrass tunes, G-runs,
As the popularity of bluegrass music increases around the world, collaborations with virtuosic players from outside the genre become more common. In particular, musicians from other folk styles often find common cause with bluegrass pickers, and usually the fondness goes both
Spanish banjo master Lluis Gómez has a new banjo book which he says was only unintentionally released. He assembled it as a teaching aid for himself, but since students and workshop participants expressed such a strong interest in purchasing a
From Barcelona comes Grazztrio, a new experimental string band that performs their own original music. Their approach merges traditional bluegrass instruments and playing styles with rhythms and harmonic concepts common to jazz and classical music. Members include Lluis Gomex on banjo, Oriol
Our Spanish bluegrass buddies, The Cubero Brothers (Los Hermanos Cubero), have released their latest album, Flor de canciones. Like their previous projects, it features brothers Roberto and Enrique Cubero performing their mix of traditional Iberian folk music with the mandolin and guitar techniques
Spanish quartet Swing 42 has released a new album that mixes the traditions of bluegrass and manouche, the gypsy jazz style originated and popularized by Django Reinhardt in the 1930s. With tongue in cheek, they describe this hybrid sound as Gypsygrass and Blueswing. Déboucher
The new project from the Barcelona Bluegrass Band is now available to the US market through CD Baby. The band features noted Spanish banjoist Lluís Gómez, along with Joan Pau Cumellas on harmonica. Ricky Araiza and Albert Bello play guitar, Oriol
In our continuing coverage of the Spanish bluegrass scene... Lluis Gómez, influential Spanish banjo pioneer and long-time member of the Barcelona Bluegrass Band, has just published the first-ever banjo instruction book in Spanish. Manual de iniciación al banjo de cinco cuerdas
Another CD we received recently came from Spanish banjoist Lluis Gómez. His new project is entitled Quartet, taken from the name of his group, and features 10 instrumental tracks, most of them Gomez compositions. He is joined by the members of
