According to the Spanish press, jazz bassist
Javier Colina is one of the nation's great musical treasures. His passionate, woody, warm sound has graced dozens of albums since his emergence on Huecha's 1988 debut Ciudad. He has recorded and toured with
Chano Domínguez,
Carmen Linares,
Beto Valdes,
Tete Montoliu, and issued a bevy of highly-regarded albums including 2002's Si Te Contara, 2007's Live at the Village Vanguard, and 2017's Jazz a l'Estudi: Javier Colina; he is as at home in flamenco and Afro-Cuban son as he is in post-bop, modernist, and contemporary jazz.
Colina was born in Pamplona in 1960. His earliest studies were in piano, accordion, and guitar. He was deeply influenced by flamenco (a genre he continues to perform and record in) and other Spanish music before encountering jazz and teaching himself to play the unwieldy double bass. He began working in a trio with guitarist
Perico Sambeat and pianist
Jorge Rossy in the mid-'80s before beginning his recording career with Huecha. During the '90s, he was recruited by world-renowned jazz pianist and fellow Spaniard
Dominguez and has worked with him on and off since. Because of his precision and openness to so many kinds of music,
Colina has become an in-demand session and touring player in a variety of genres. He is a favorite of jazz pianists and his résumé includes stints with
Hank Jones,
John Hicks, and
Michel Camilo. Other jazz musicians who have recruited him are saxophonist
Gary Bartz, guitarist
Pat Metheny, griot
Toumani Diabaté,
George Benson, and conguero
Jerry González, to name just a few. His flamenco credits include collaborations with
Tomatito,
Diego El Cigala, and
Enrique Morente.
Colina's credits as a leader are relatively few and are usually collaborative dates, but all have been acclaimed. His leader debut, Si Te Contara (2002) on Calle 54, included jazz, flamenco, and Cuban standards. In 2007, he and
Valdés cut the concert date Live at the Village Vanguard, a year-end contender on many jazz critic's best-of lists (he also played on
Valdes' and
El Cigala's 2003 classic Lágrimas Negras). Throughout his career,
Colina has become a favorite accompanist for singers in a variety of genres. He has worked with pop stars such as Juan Perro and
Jorge Drexler, Cuban sonero
Compay Segundo, and flamenco singers such as
Luz Casal,
Martirio, and
Esperanza Fernández. In 2011, his own longstanding trio (with drummer
Marc Miralta and pianist
Albert Sanz) backed flamenco-cum-jazz singer
Silvia Pérez Cruz on her award-winning breakthrough album
En La Imaginación. In 2016 he collaborated with world-renowned flamenco guitarist
Josemi Carmona and
Bandolero for the award-winning
De Cerca, and followed it in 2017 with Jazz a l'Estudi: Javier Colina (with
Miralta,
Albert Bover, and
Martí Serra). Earlier that year,
Colina and
Dominguez recorded a live performance at Sala de Camara del Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid comprised of jazz and flamenco standards; they were culled for the album
Chano & Colina on
Sunnyside in the late spring of 2018. The following year,
Colina paired with pianist
Pepe Rivero for the album El Pañuelo de Pepa. ~ Thom Jurek