Jazz
Guim Cifré, one of the three people behind the reopening of JazzSí Club, died early this morning in a motorcycle accident in Barcelona, at the junction of Travessera de les Corts and Carrer d’Entença. He was 34. The motorcycle collided with a taxi during a heavy spell of rain; the causes of the accident haven’t been made public.
JazzSí opened in 1992 on Carrer Requesens, linked to the Taller de Músics, and for more than three decades hosted names like Enrique Morente and Miguel Poveda, with a young Rosalía passing through while she was still a student there. The pandemic disrupted its daily programming rhythm, and it ended up closing in 2023.
Cifré was bringing it back with Clara Conill and saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, all three partners in Girs Musicals; he and Conill came from the Milano Jazz Club, also closed in 2023. After two years of renovation work, the reopening was set for this weekend, under the title «Manifest Jazzsí»: Friday, a free opening party with a surprise concert; Saturday, Behenii II and Damoridemort; Sunday, a duo set from American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis with drummer Chad Taylor.
Before this, Cifré had worked as a sound engineer at venues including Jamboree and BARTS, and had spent a decade at the Milano, the last four years as artistic director.
«We now need time to take in this loss and to decide, calmly, how this project will move forward,» Conill and Villavecchia said in a statement from Girs Musicals, in which they explain that «for Guim, JazzSí was much more than a project: it was a dream, a life commitment he’d poured all his energy into, his vision, and an enormous passion for music and culture.» The Taller de Músics, in a separate statement, recalled the «conversations, ideas, projects and the great determination to make this space reopen its doors».
The reopening, planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, has been postponed with no new date set.
Text by Aina Torrents