Shanty Town, Ska-Jazz from Barcelona
Shanty Town takes form three years ago after the restructuration of the band called Smoke’Less. The young Barcelonians began to tune a sound that moved them away from the last ska 90’s influences. The first line-up began to destroy melodies when its members where only 16 year old. We can find there Guillem Puey (guitar), Martí Elias (drums), Pol Prats (alto sax), Arnau Cisteró and Sergi Moreno (vocals), Guillem “Puça” Juan (keys) and Joan Escartín (bass). For a while, they played in highschools, youth clubs and social centers. Their reward: a sandwich and a beer for musician each night.
The leaving of Arnau Cisteró and the entrance of the new vocalist, Ignasi Carbó, began a new stage full of learning, composition and changes in the line-up (Aitor, Albert and Jimmy pass by and arrives “Jordi Nipplecream”) that crystallize with the arrival of Gemma Abrié, authentic engine of the stylistic change of Shanty Town. From that moment the band grows up surrounding the great voice of the new vocalist searching the fusion of the old jamaican tunes in a latin-jazzy mood.
In this stage, with the members of the band saying goodbye to their childhood, Shanty Town signs up a new guitar player (Gorka Urtiaga), a trumpet (Pere Ponsatí-ex “petruska”), and finally an alto sax (Jaume Gual “gual-trapa”).
With this line-up Shanty Town begins the recording of his first CD called “Shanty Town Ska Jazz de Barcelona”. This stage ends with the leaving of one of the band foundators, Guillem Puey, and the goodbye of Gemma.
The state of alert and the “line-up chrisis” created with this losses could have ended with the band, but the destiny helped us with the sign up of Núria Valls, new female voice and new source of hapiness for the band. A few months later arrived Jordi Ordoñez (ex-Moonrakers, ex-Aggronauts, ex-gangster...) playing the guitar and finally sewing the injury in the line-up.
From that moment till now, we are living a new stage full of concerts, new compositions and complete harmony in the band.
1 ENGL A town or section of a town or city inhabited by very poor people
living in shanties
2 LOC ghetto of Johannesbourg, South Africa
3 ORIG Band from Barcelona that started on the year 1999. With a style
framed inside the jamaican music (mainly ska) but mixed, amplified and
enriched with jazz, soul, funk, pop and reggae. During almost seven years
they have been working on the definition of their own style with the single
purpose of doing their own and original music.
4 DISC One More Last Chance, their second LP, enlarges the direction started
by Shanty Town in their own research of a unique and untransferable style,
through songs that combine jamaican rythms, with the musical intentions of
jazz, and the easy listening emotional issues of the pop music
5 INT with this LP Shanty Town invites you to their own little universe of
good mood, chaos, nice lyrics, variety and dance.
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