BARCELONA TRACTION — Barcelona Traction (review)

BARCELONA TRACTION — Barcelona Traction album cover Album · 1975 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Gerinski
Barcelona Traction was a short-lived jazz-rock-fusion trio from Barcelona, Spain. Their origins are to be found in the jazz band New Jazz Trio formed in 1967 by pianist Lucky Guri (real name Luis Guri), who were regular players at the probably most emblematic jazz venue in Barcelona La Cova Del Drac. One of the contrabassists who played with the band was Jordi Clua. Riding along the wave of prog and fusion in the early 70’s Lucky and Jordi decided to switch their acoustics instruments by electric ones, recruited drummer Francis Rabassa who was coming from the rock scene in bands such as Los Gatos Negros, and formed Barcelona Traction in 1975. They performed at the mythical (for 70’s Spain standards) 1975 Canet 12 hours of rock festival, “the catalan rock mini-Woodstock”, alongside bands like Iceberg or Companyia Electrica Dharma (if you type Barcelona Traction Canet Rock in YouTube you can watch some of it) and released one self-titled album in that same year 1975. This debut album is great jazz-rock-fusion, maybe not too original nor complex but with great compositions and top notch musicianship. As a trio without guitars, the music revolves around Lucky Guri’s skillful keyboard playing, with lots of Rhodes piano for the main parts and Mini-Moog synth for the solo lines, the drums and bass providing an always solid foundation. While pretty obscure on international scale, Barcelona Traction actually enjoyed a short but highly respected reputation in the catalan scene of the mid 70’s. However, in 1976 Lucky Guri decided to quit and collaborated with Joan Albert Amargos’ amazing band Musica Urbana, and later on formed his own jazz band as Lucky Guri Quartet, Quintet, Sextet etc. Lucky’s place was filled in by Josep Maria Duran but not for long and the band did not release any new studio work with this lineup. Eventually Barcelona Traction’s original lineup reunited and released a 2nd album “Nano” in 1982, taking distance from the 70’s electric prog-fusion style and turning more to jazz with nods to funk and to the cabaret music of the 40’s and 50’s, then disbanded definitively. Lucky Guri went on to become regarded as probably the best jazz pianist in Barcelona and became highly popular by his frequent appearances on the catalan public television.
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