"The jazz community worldwide is gonna thank you one day, I’m telling you. What you’ve done is a great service to this music". This is how saxophonist Jesse Davis spoke to an emotional Joan Chamorro in the film A Film About Kids and Music. And he was right, because Chamorro has created a group of excellent young jazz musicians, unique in our country. While we were preparing the photo session at his jazz house in the San Andreu neighbourhood, I asked him what he considered to be his most personal work, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band or the groups where he plays with other professional musicians. He tells me that it's all the same work, because his youngsters, at the head of a time, are already so good that he can play with them at any level.
He talks passionately about how his students learn, how they fall in love with jazz, and how they then fly solo. And about the secret of it all: listening and studying a lot.
Joan Chamoro studied saxophone at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory and graduated from the Taller de Músics de Barcelona.
He has given master classes in schools and conservatories all over the country and also in Colombia, USA, Mexico, Poland, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Italy, presenting his San Andreu Jazz Band project (a different way of learning music).
He is a member of the Taller de músics Big Band and collaborates with Bellaterra's Big Band, John Dubuclet's Big Band, Jazz Terrassa Big Band, Eladio Reinon-Tete Montoliu's Supercombo, the Orquesta de Radiotelevisión Española, Manhattan Transfer and Stevie Wonder among others. He has played with great jazz figures such as Slide Hampton, Tete Montoliu, Frank Foster, Teddy Edwards, Frank Wess, Bebo Valdés, Randy Brecker, Gary Smulyan, Dick Oatts, Jesse Davis, Dennis Rowland, Carmen Lundy, John Mosca, David Allen, Bobby Shew and Judy Niemack.
In 2006, Chamorro founded the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, where he teaches young musicians (7 to 21 years old). He is the producer of the Joan Chamorro Presenta collection, which includes some of the members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, such as Andrea Motis, Eva Férnandez, Rita Payés, Elia Bastida and Alba Armengou, among others.
He has recorded some eighty albums and has received various awards such as the Arco, Altaveu, Jaç and Enderrock prizes.