"Your father was an overflowing human being"

Barcelona"Your father was an overflowing human being", says Joan Manuel Serrat about Josep Maria Bardagí (1950-2001), the musician and arranger with whom he worked for many years. His son, Jofre Bardagí, confirms it with his gaze. "He and his father shared many things", recalls Jofre Bardagí, happy to have Serrat by his side as he talks about the project Jofre Bardagí interprets Serrat (U98 Music, 2025 and 2026), two albums in which he simultaneously pays homage to his father and the man who for him was "first Joan than Serrat". The live presentation will be at the Paral·lel room in Barcelona, within Guitar BCN, on May 13th at 8:30 PM, with special guests such as Sidonie, Beth, Glaucs, Litus, Juanma Latorre (Vetusta Morla) and Serrat himself.

Jofre Bardagí's initiative connects with Bardagí interpreta Serrat (1997), an album in which his father offered an instrumental reading of about twenty songs from Serrat's songbook, including Cançó de matinada, Mediterráneo, Plany al mar, and Paraules d'amor. "My father didn't choose Res no és mesquí, which I have included," says Jofre Bardagí, who has also arranged twenty songs with new arrangements and, of course, with the addition of his voice. "It's beautiful how it turns out. There are things he did differently, and he did them well," assures Serrat. Another difference is that in the albums, produced by Juanma Latorre, Bardagí wanted to incorporate collaborations: Santi Balmes on Temps era temps; Andreu Buenafuente, Litus, and Ana Belén on Malson per entregues; Depedro on Hoy puede ser un gran día; Ginestà on Plany al mar; his bandmates in the group Glaucs on Menuda; Sole Giménez on Es caprichoso el zar, and Serrat himself on a version of Una mujer desnuda y en lo oscuro, made from a demo of the original song by Josep Maria Bardagí. "Getting everyone's 'yes' was very easy for me," he says.

The project is born from the memory of that Bardagí interpreta Serrat from almost thirty years ago. "I listened to the album again in 2022, when Serrat was doing his farewell tour, and it occurred to me to combine concepts and that it would be very nice to do a double tribute. And I asked him how he saw it," explains Bardagí. "I told him to do whatever he wanted. I was excited. I saw many things reflected in the project, and they were all good," recalls Serrat.

The relationship between the Bardagís and the Serrats goes back a long way. Josep Maria Bardagí began collaborating with Joan Manel Serrat on the album Per al meu amic (1973). Jofre Bardagí was born in 1978, and "before long" he was already touring with them. "They used to make me a cradle with guitar cases. I love having experienced that since I was little," he says. For a long time, Serrat was "Maria's father." Later, when he was a teenager, the impact of consciously listening to the song Helena, from the album Per al meu amic, made Maria's father become "the author of brutal songs." "Since then, Serrat has been a very big influence, on par with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Radiohead," he assures.

"Your father was more high-strung, but you resemble each other – says Serrat –. I find many things that remind me of him. In fact, Jofre's daughter walks and clowns around like Josep Maria. There's a way of understanding life that comes from the factory".