As a violinist, it is rare to grow up in a big band, but I have had the opportunity to do so and I want to tell you of my experience.
I studied classical violin until I was 17, when I joined the Sant Andreu Jazz Band and discovered jazz: that’s when I decided I wanted to dedicate myself to that kind of music. I loved the jazz language I was discovering and, above all, the possibility of improvisation and the freedom that this brought me. The truth is that I never felt out of place inside the big band; although I was the only violinist, I always felt very at ease with it.
The key is to imitate the language you want to speak, to immerse yourself in it, and what better way (in the case of jazz) than to do it in a big band.
I was surrounded by saxophonists, trumpeters and trombonists who transcribed solos, imitated them and played them with their instruments. I set out to do the same.
Joan Chamorro (the Director) has always taught in this way: without setting limits, with exigency and with passion, so I found the doors open to playing jazz with the violin, without any idea that would limit me.
Very soon we started to integrate my instrument into the big band: at first I played some small format songs and, later, we asked for arrangements for big band and solo violin, which we even incorporated into the wind section.
Soloist violin with big band
Small big band
In my first album, Joan Chamorro presenta Èlia Bastida, we wanted to record this violin color with the big band, as we had done with the small big band:
Violin in the wind section
The violin is, as are all the instruments, very versatile, which combined with the capacity of expression that gives its powerful and penetrating sound, also has a lot of rhythmic strength. That is why it is very important to understand that the instruments are the channel of expression of the language/music that we have inside. It’s all about working out how to make the sound come through the instrument in the same way that you imagine it in your mind.
Congratulations on your new web site, Elia! It’s wonderful.
Só conheci Stéphane Grapelli como violinista de jazz. Falando a verdade, não me agradava muito. Achava estranho violino no jazz. Bem… aí surgiu você. Hum… Violino no jazz… Mesmo assim ouvi por ser uma jovem e queria ver como tocava. Violino é um instrumento difícil para tocar e por uma jovem… Queria ver isso. E me desmontou!! Resumindo, hoje sou fã de violino no jazz, dá um som diferenciado. Quase toda noite procuro no Youtube você tocando violino como protagonista, ou com outros músicos, ou cantando, ou tocando sax. Adorei 3 canções em português que você cantou. O Barquinho, O Pato e Doralice. Arrasou! Élia, você é uma bi instrumentista e cantora de raro talento.
Adorei seu site! Parabéns!!!!