Oriol Roca

Oriol didn’t always know he wanted to be a musician, let alone a percussion player. There was always music at home, though. He remembers listening to classical music recordings with his grandfather at a very early age and playing Beatles tunes on a beat up guitar along with his father and brother when he was in primary school. Drums came later. So did improvised music. He learned the drumming rudiments through a friend, then found himself studying with committed and experienced teachers such as his mentor, German drummer Jo Krause, who encouraged him to move to The Netherlands to study at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Oriol followed his advice, graduated in 2006 and then went back to his hometown, Barcelona. In The Hague he learnt a few important things about himself: that he would only play the music he really wanted to play and that he could only make music with people he liked. In other words, he knew what he didn’t want to do. So far he’s been able to live up to those principles. With Barcelona as his base camp Oriol has played and recorded in all types of contexts: jazz bands, improvised music groups, singer-songwriters, projects rooted in folklore, others in the avantgarde tradition. The one thing they share is they all involve people who trust each other as artists and do whatever they do in the most honest possible manner. Other than that, bass players and band leaders David Mengual and Manolo Cabras, astonishing Sardinian guitar player Paolo Angeli, unorthodox singer Stephanie Pan, his colleagues at MUT Trio or Jan Bang, electronics maverick from Norway -to cite just a few of Oriol’s associates- have very little in common. His first record under his own name, “La tomba dei giganti” (2010), came about when as he was invited to Sardinia to do his first solo concert ever and someone happened to be there to record it. Listening to it afterwards Oriol recognised himself so much in the recording -a certain musicality, a love of detail, a way of moving through time- that he decided to make that live recording his first instalment as a solo artist. Most of the time he makes music he does so behind a drum kit that seems to be forever shrinking in size but expanding in tones -Oriol is constantly looking for stuff that will make a joyful noise, be it a tiny bell from China or a plastic action figure, probably made in China too.

When he’s not playing drums he can be found at the keyboard or practising double bass, an instrument for which he has a deep love but also too great a respect to call himself a bass player although he’s been known to play it in public a few times to wild reviews from his peers. Recently he’s started writing actual compositions -that is, melodies with chords and key signatures, but he is certain that those tunes will only fully come to life when played by the right people. A few notes on his taste: Oriol has great memories of opening for Henry Threadgill once, loves listening to Frederic Mompou’s records, admires Paal-Nilssen Love’s energy, was very sad to learn Paul Motian passed away and confesses that he nicked one of his signature snare patterns from Björk’s beautiful “Hyperballad”.

Awards

First prize on "Concurs de Jazz de Barcelona 2007" with Vrak' Trio

Gear

Oriol Roca plays TIMBALDRUMS