OLI Big Band

2022–23

In its first weeks the OLI was a series of informal sessions playing classic big band repertoire, still without a conductor. That stage ended when Cesc Badia, then a fourth-year student, suggested rehearsing his own arrangement of This I Dig of You, by Hank Mobley; from that rehearsal on, he led the group.

Much of the music in those first months came from the ESMUC library, with leading names of the genre such as Thad Jones, Neal Hefti, Sammy Nestico and Quincy Jones. It also included Bob Curnow’s arrangement of Have You Heard, by Pat Metheny, for which a vibraphonist from the Clàssica i Contemporàniadepartment joined. At that stage, two clarinettists from Jazz i Música Moderna shared stands with the saxophone section, doubling the alto parts, a practice that lasted a long time and was later joined by flautists from the classical department.

The debut took place on April 18, 2023 in the Sala d’Orquestra at ESMUC, with faculty members Ignasi Terraza, Gorka Benítez and Xavier Figuerola as guest soloists, and with singer María Pascual, then a jazz voice student, who worked with the band from that day until the end.

From the beginning the project had the support of the Jazz, Flamenco, Música Moderna i d’Arrel department and of ESMUC itself. Special mention goes to Jaume Cortacans, together with the Producció i Gestiódepartment, who always made the logistics easy and arranged some of the opportunities the OLI had outside the classroom.

2023–24

Between September 2023 and January 2024, while Cesc Badia was studying abroad, Jordi Mateu Morales, a conducting student, took over as conductor. During that period the band settled on the artistic direction that would define it: the repertoire left the more classic arrangements behind and opened up to music written around it, both by young writers and by established names, among them Alfons Carrascosa.

Alfons, a saxophonist, composer and arranger with a long career, is responsible for an essential part of the OLI’s repertoire, and this page wants to acknowledge his generosity. At the band’s request he lent his arrangement Txeroki, based on Cherokee (Ray Noble), which he had recorded with the Big Acoustic Band on the album Invisible Way (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2009), with Dick Oatts as soloist. Later he also entrusted the band with an unreleased arrangement of Without a Song (Vincent Youmans), which the OLI premiered.

On January 15, 2024 the OLI played outside ESMUC for the first time, at Nau Bostik (Sant Andreu, Barcelona), in a concert co-produced with the school. Juan Saus, then a student at Berklee, had lent the band his piece For Denmark No Sacrifice Too Great; taking advantage of his stay in Barcelona, he played alto saxophone as a soloist on several tunes and conducted his own piece. María Pascual and Víctor Carrascosa, who played on his father’s arrangement, completed the list of guests. That same day Jordi Mateu was unable to conduct for health reasons, and Lluís Marcet, called at the last minute, conducted almost the whole concert practically at sight. From then on he led the band and also became one of its key arrangers and composers.

On May 29, 2024 the OLI took part in a masterclass for students at the Conservatori de Manresa and gave a joint concert with its Coma Big Band, a collaboration repeated the following year. On that occasion it added to its repertoire OFO, by Lluc Casares, and Kōan, by Lluís Marcet.

On June 6, 2024 the band recorded Kōan in the studio with Lluc Casares as guest soloist.

2024–25

The 2024–25 season was the OLI’s most visible, on social media too. Much of its visual identity (the colour palette, the stage clothing, the photography) is owed to the extensive work of Aina Ribes, a student from the Clàssica i Contemporània department in the same year.

With Lluís Marcet at the helm, the band launched a big band arranging competition, judged among others by Néstor Giménez, a faculty member at ESMUC.

On November 22, 2024 the OLI closed a benefit concert in the Sala d’Orquestra for the Banda Primitiva de Paiporta, a community band hit by the DANA floods in Valencia. That night the OLI played under the direction of Guillermo López, who did an outstanding job. The evening opened with a symphonic band put together for the occasion by the Clàssica i Contemporàniadepartment. For that concert, with María Pascual as soloist, Lluc Casares lent his arrangements of Where or When and For All We Know, which from then on became part of the regular repertoire. The concert was possible thanks to the involvement of the Producció i Gestió department at ESMUC.

A week later, on November 29, the band returned to Nau Bostik with vibraphonist Christos Rafalides as guest soloist, a very inspiring collaboration for the musicians in the band.

In 2025 the OLI took its repertoire to two festivals. On March 22 it played at Jazz al Pati, the outdoor morning session that the A la Vora del Jazz festival in Mataró devotes to new generations, held in Plaça de Can Xammar as part of its 12th edition. On May 18 it closed the 27th Alhambra Festival Jazz Vic with a concert in Plaça del Carbó, in an edition opened by pianist Shai Maestro that brought together eighteen local, Spanish and international groups. Vic saw the premiere of How Much Sundays, by Edu Vergés, the winning entry of the arranging competition.

Three days later, on May 21, the OLI returned to the Conservatori de Manresa for a second concert with the Coma Big Band, this time with Lola Salas as guest singer. It was its last performance. Kōan was released in July 2025.

Over three seasons, two to three full line-ups passed through the OLI (even more in some sections), with students from ESMUC, Taller de Músics and Conservatori del Liceu. The project also involved students from several ESMUC departments: Jazz i Música Moderna, Clàssica i Contemporània, Direcció and Producció i Gestió. The list is too long to name every player without leaving someone out; the thanks on this page go to all of them.

Works and arrangements from the OLI’s circle that the band played regularly. The full programme of each concert is listed below.

• Amarga papallona — Cesc Badia
• Suite de bosc a nit closa — Cesc Badia
• This I Dig of You (Hank Mobley) — arr. Cesc Badia
• You’re Driving Me Crazy (Walter Donaldson) — arr. Cesc Badia
• Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most (Tommy Wolf) — arr. Cesc Badia
• Txeroki (Ray Noble) — arr. Alfons Carrascosa
• Without a Song (Vincent Youmans) — arr. Alfons Carrascosa
• My Favorite Things (Richard Rodgers) — arr. Eddie Carretero
• OFO — Lluc Casares
• Where or When (Richard Rodgers) — arr. Lluc Casares
• For All We Know (J. Fred Coots) — arr. Lluc Casares
• Kōan — Lluís Marcet
• Camí a Iizunako — Lluís Marcet
• Gnid (Tadd Dameron) — arr. Lluís Marcet
• For Denmark No Sacrifice Too Great — Juan Saus
• How Much Sundays — Edu Vergés

Kōan is the OLI Big Band’s only studio recording.

To everyone who played in the OLI, to those who wrote for it or conducted it, and to the audience that followed it through these years.