A great night of milonga and utopia with Jorge Drexler

BarcelonaJorge Drexler has several virtues. The most notable, without a doubt, is his ability to win over the audience with a single gesture, such as falling to his knees to acknowledge the welcoming ovation given him by the audience at the Palau de la Música on Thursday. And immediately afterward, after finishing the first song, Oh, algorithm!, to take the solemnity out of it all. "How wonderful to play here, with tickets sold out since January. I don't know what they were thinking when they bought them, but I love it," said the Uruguayan singer-songwriter. Both concerts in Barcelona, ​​Thursday and Friday, close out the tour. from the disc Ink and time (2022), which Drexler says goodbye to with just his guitars, a keyboard and a couple of occasional guests, such as the singer Andalusian Ángeles Toledano, with whom he sang Loneliness. Curious irony.

The format, that of a stand-up comedian, fits the mood of this Franco Battiato of the milonga, a musician who establishes a relationship of trust and intimacy with the audience. It seemed as if he had invited them to his dining room to have coffee, chat, and sing, because Drexler's audience sings a lot and sings very well. That's why he can afford to sing. a cappella the song On the other side of the river yielding a good part of the stanzas to the two thousand people who filled the modernist hall. Or to do You do me good in the last encore knowing that the leading voice will be collective.

Another virtue of Jorge Drexler is the musical richness of his compositions. He plays them naturally, as if they were the simplest thing in the world, without any virtuosity, although not everyone has the technical and artistic skills to perform pieces as convincingly and excitingly as his. Ink and time, Sea and Sister doubts. In addition, it optimizes resources so that with a camera and a screen it transforms Disneyland in a device more typical of an experimental David Lynch than a conventional singer-songwriter.

With the same naturalness he combines humor and emotion without the jump from one to the other compromising the sensitivity of the show. For example, he dedicated The age of heaven in memory of Joan Rosselló, the co-founder of The Project—the concert promoter—who died a few months ago. He also remembered his deceased father, to whom he dedicated Bolivia just after making a fun and witty "urban interlude", which is how he defined the version ofShe twerks alone, by Bad Bunny, and Touch you, the song he composed with C. Tangana for the album The Madrilenian"Urban chamber music," he said about how he turned the milonga into a hit Bad Bunny's. And with the same good humor he explained the adventures of recording Nominated with C. Tangana.

The concert also showed Jorge Drexler to be utopian despite everything. Before singing Milonga of the Jewish Moor He says: "These days I'm grateful to have a song like this to sing." He recalls that Bolivia was the only country in 1934 that granted a visa to his family, who were fleeing Nazi Germany, and that other relatives were welcomed in Venezuela in 1975 when they escaped the Uruguayan dictatorship – "Migration phenomena are two-way." And what links anti-war verses to Border, because "war and vanity eat at the same table." In short, a great night of milonga, sympathy, and utopia with Jorge Drexler.

Jorge Drexler at the Palau de la Música.