The most comedian musician of the Ludwig Band releases a solo album

GironaLa Ludwig Band is a well of creativity. All its members are truly talented, they have a lot of artistic interests and always have some project on the go. Whether it is with the group, where everyone has their say, or also solo. This is the case of Lluc (or Lluki, depending on his stage name) Valverde, saxophonist and keyboardist of the band, born in Espolla (Alt Empordà), who has been releasing some tracks on his own for some time and has now just released his first album, titled A la catalana (Primavera Labels). There are ten songs, most of them Catalan rumba, filled with anecdotes, desires, and daily adventures in Barcelona, halfway between irony, bitterness, and revelry. The album, conceived above all to be performed live, with a very extravagant stage presence, was previewed at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic and on November 12th it will arrive at the Sala Upload Barcelona.

"I am very used to releasing records with La Ludwig, but now I feel like a novice: I have to take care of many things and I have been nervous all summer about the preview in Vic. I wanted to give a lot of myself," explains Lluki Valverde, who has experienced the step of heading a solo project in a very progressive and natural way. Not to replicate the same thing he already does with Quim Carandell's band, but to take his bet to its ultimate consequences and take more initiative. "Even before joining La Ludwig I was writing my own songs, and now I wanted to show them, to talk about things that matter to me and focus the energy on a project genuinely thought out just as I am," continues the musician.

And the result is stimulating. Songs that flow with a friendly cadence, starting from Catalan rumba, but also with references to popular dance music, melodic song, cabaret, or musical theater. From the festive spirit of Gato Pérez to the psychedelia of Pau Riba or Jaume Sisa, passing through the acid innocence of Albert Pla.

"I see myself quite a bit as a singer-songwriter with long lyrics. I have discovered many styles of music and many methods from around here, Iberian, from Laietana music, from Barcelona. And I have the small pride of trying to make music based on that, a bit isolated from the Yankee formulas of rock and blues," comments Valverde, who as a teenager trained at the conservatory, but who over time has known how to transcend the norms of classical music to move with ease through modern languages. Regarding the rumba style, the musician adds: "I am not a gypsy, but I feel like claiming the national heritage of the Catalan rumba and doing so rather from the line of the Nova Cançó, which is only used when it is politically interesting, in events like the Olympic Games and that's it.".

"I am a chronicler of wherever I go, with a taste for anecdotes"

Rumba, furthermore, is an ideal starting point for telling stories, and Valverde, who has also trained in theater and literature in Paris, is a great narrator. On the album, he talks about the Barcelona night and traces an entire map through nighttime walks through Carmel, the Heliogàbal, neighborhood festivals, unions, afters, protest meetings... "On one hand, it is quite sentimental music, a bit cheesy, and I like that very much: dealing with the vast abyss of feelings. And, on the other hand, there is a lot of stuff that I see around me. A compilation of stories from my life. And that makes me, truthfully, love stories very much. Like a chronicler of wherever I go, with a taste for a well-told anecdote," the composer relates.

A good example of this is the track El 248 del carrer Navas, a funeral ballad about the suicide of two evicted neighbors. Also the rumba harangue of L’ambaixada dels sentiments or the hymn with kitsch musical airs that closes the album, titled No vull tornar sol a casa.

And all of this takes on dimension in the live show, where the musician presents himself wearing makeup, tight clothing, little angel wings, and gives free rein to his facet as a comedian. Valverde, in fact, is the soul of the Col·lectiu Pedant a Missa i Repicant, the Ludwig Band company that has already participated in six musical theater plays and this year is a resident at the Sala Beckett. And in his project, he gives free rein to this scenic side, with eccentric music videos and a very powerful and original aesthetic. At concerts and in the studio, he is accompanied by Gabriel Bosch (from the Ludwig Band), Joel Sánchez, Martí Escobedo, and Lídia Facerías.