Javier Subatin

Javier Subatin was born in Buenos Aires in 1985 and he is now living in Lisbon.

In Buenos Aires, at the age of ten, he felt the calling for music and guitar playing. When he was 14 he started composing music for guitar and different ensembles and his curiosity about music led him to study jazz guitar, improvisation and composition with several teachers.

In 2005 he completed the first year of the Bachelor on Electroacoustic Composition at the Quilmes University and in 2008 he got a Bachelor’s degree in popular music with a specialization in Tango guitar. Between 2012 and 2013 he studied music production at INARTEC. In 2014, he moved to Paris where he worked on different projects including Tango ensembles, private teaching and composing original music for a stage production.

In the past years, he was selected to participate in various international contests and festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition 2015, Komeda Jazz Composers Competition 2017, the Euroradio Jazz Competition 2019 at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, So What’s Next? Jazz Festival 2020, Südtirol Jazz Festival 2019 and Gaudeamus Music Week 2020.

He started his path as a composer and guitarist in the European jazz scene in 2018 with the release of his first recording “Autotelic” with the support of Sintoma Records and Antena 2 radio station. And in the course of two years, he released three recordings and is currently working on two new albums to be released in 2021. Additionally, in 2018 and 2019, he won a grant from Fundação GDA for the production of his second album “Variaciones” and for his fourth album that will be recorded in March 2021 with the support of Antena 2 and Musiberia.

His first recording, “Autotelic”, is based on a duo of piano and guitar with the renowned Portuguese jazz pianist João Paulo Esteves da Silva. His second album, “Variaciones”, has the collaboration of some of the most relevant jazz musicians from Portugal. Variaciones (March 2020) had its debut presentations in 2019 in Hot Club de Portugal and Porta Jazz. His third recording (Trance), which was released by Ears&Eyes Records in November 2020, is based on a trio of guitar, alto saxophone and drums. With this project, he performed in festivals such as Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Südtirol Jazz Festival and Somersby Out Jazz. Currently, Javier is composing for a new trio project and working on a solo performance in which he works on compositions and free improvisations using extended techniques and electronics, thus creating a musical context that mixes contemporary improvised music, jazz and electronic music.

Javier also works on classical and new music composition. His piece “Pensando Vientos” (for flute, clarinet, horn and string quartet) has been selected to be part of a workshop at the Annual Royal Music Association conference in Bristol. Furthermore, his experimental piece for solo guitar and surround electronics “Untitled#1”, in which he explores original ways of writing for prepared guitar with different objects, loops and electronics, has been selected to be performed at the international conference 21st Century Guitar - Unconventional Approaches to Performance, Composition and Research in March 2021. Additionally, his four pieces series of interactive compositions “Exploración 111” was selected to take part in the Gaudeamus Music Week 2020 (Netherlands).

In 2019 he finished the master's degree in jazz performance at the Superior School of Music in Lisbon (Instituto Superior de Música de Lisboa) during which he developed two research projects. The first year he worked on a study about the contemporary jazz current reality that was presented in the Nova Contemporary Music Meeting 2019 and it will be published during 2021 by CESEM. He also finished his dissertation about the first stage of the compositional process in contemporary jazz where he developed a map that proposes a methodology to approach and analyse the initial stages of the creative process.

In 2020, he founded the Composers and Improvisers´ Community Project (CICP) where musicians from different parts of the world release solo performances in video format and collaborative recordings produced remotely. Currently, the CICP project includes more than 15 musicians from Portugal, Italy, Finland, Argentina, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and is constantly growing. Starting in 2021, Javier will program a series of 20 live streaming performances with the support of the Antena 2 radio station. Show less

Tags

Album Review

Variaciones by Jakob Baekgaard
Autotelic by Jakob Baekgaard

Argentinian-born Javier Subatin is gradually imposing on the Portuguese jazz scene and way beyond with music that plays with the contrast of the familiar with the stranger. The rhythmic and harmonic elements of jazz emerge in the place that the history of the genre was destined for, and the melodic work is what we could expect from the intersection of the post-bop tradition with the music of its author’s geographical origins. Drenched in live, surround electronics. Very exciting! (So What’s Next Jazz Festival) Javier Subatin is gradually imposing on the Portuguese jazz scene with music that plays with the contrast of the familiar with the stranger. The rhythmic and harmonic elements of jazz emerge in the place that the history of the genre was destined for, and the melodic work is what we could expect from the intersection of the post-bop tradition with the music of its author's geographical origins, but the way in which it deals with these parameters make the recognizable, the usual, something completely different. […] A song that is frankly difficult is heard as if it were an easy thing, and if in it all the codes of “mainstream” jazz are respected, they come up with treatments that would be more expected in the “avant-garde” trends of the genre. What a nice surprise. (Rui Eduardo Paes / jazz.pt)

[...] Gathering of technique with melodic integrity and sophistication. It begins simple and then blossoms into the infinite possibilities that exist in musical creation with the fluidity of jazz aligned to the structural temperance of classical music; the laid back Latin rhythms and the unpredictable and surprising factor of improvisation. (Cláudia Zafre / acordesdequinta.pt)

The history of contemporary jazz's happening here. (altamont.pt)

[...] Very well done, rich in discoveries, in complexity, but never boring because it always carries a fresh breath. (Yves Dorison / culturejazz.fr) A melodic narrative where the music flows like a kite in the air, carried by its own will, and yet in the safe hands of the musicians who give the music the greatest trust: to let go and play without a reel. (Jakob Bækgaard / All About Jazz) Javier Subatin […] has provided us with an authoritative work where there is an abundance of clarity of ideas, good taste, detailed elaboration. (Sergio Piccirilli / elintruso.com)

Even when it goes wandering far and wide, the music [...] possesses a directness that brings the journey right to the listener rather than insisting on a chase to go after it. (Dave Sumner - Bird is the Worm)

Subatin has here a compositionally strong work. (Filipe Freitas / Jazz Trail)

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Primary Instrument

Guitar

Location

Lisbon

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

After 17 years of teaching experience, I’ve developed a flexible method that permits to adapt to each student giving priority to his particular needs and interests. The learning process is based on a set of personal goals that are discussed with the student during the first experimental lesson (free of charge) and usually cover the following topics: - Technique: if you are interested in jazz, improvisation is one of the most important aspects and to be able to create music at the moment the technique is essential. - Harmony and theory: to understand how to play and improvise over the standards is imperative to know about how the harmony works in order to play solos and to develop good comping. - Improvisation: it is not only important to know the scales and melodic elements in order to play and improvise, but it is also vital to learn what to do with all the notes! - Repertoire: the best way of learning jazz and being able to jam with other musicians is to study the standards. If the student is interested in composition and arranging both topics would be added to the previous ones.