I always liked the blues… since I had the first guitar in my hands I was seduced. Little by little I was driven by unexpected ways. At age 16 I played in the streets of Buenos Aires… three years later, across the ocean, in Europe, away from my neighborhood, my friends, family, looking for something unknown. And the unknown I liked.

But the sun does not always shine… and the storm came… “the law” forbade to touch the street. It was time to knock on the door of the unreachable clubs.

Over the years the doors opened, first in Barcelona, then in Spain, then in Festivals, now in Europe.

Still wondering why “The Big Bet”?

I’ve always bet with everything… with my life. I never had manager or producer or patron, neither money. All those achieved in these years is thanks to those who threw me a coin when I played in Florida Street, those who bought me the first CDs recorded at home, those who invited me to play in their bar, in their hall, in their Festival, etc…

I hope “luck” goes by my side and continue betting …

Thank you!

Look for in your mind a situation in which your body and your mind relax and transmit you well-being. There are many and each of us has his own. They have it? I can think of a few.

Drive along a long straight road and gentle curves with the mid afternoon sun on one side. Sit at a club table, with a soft drink and the only lighting on the stage. Or rest on a porch at dusk after a hot summer day.

A single ingredient is missing for each of the proposed scenarios. The soundtrack. These idyllic scenarios must always culminate the perfect soundtrack. And I’m going to tell you an open secret. You can get that culmination with three records. Three albums released by the same band. A same band that has the ability to adapt their sound to any pleasant state of mind.

And that band is called Chino & The Big Bet. And those three albums form a trilogy, Six, culminated in the recent publication of his third installment.

Let’s start at the end and let me share that idyllic personal setting.

Sitting on that porch, at dusk that happens to a long and hot summer day. The breeze of the moment brings us the trio formed by Hernán “Chino” Senra, Rod Deville and Giggs Nother, from his “Six 3”.

In its acoustic aspect, the trio settled in Barcelona (when they leave the road), shows us its soft and enveloping and precise in “Lovin ‘Greed” and “Lonsome Train”, in which we show how well they spend with the Vocal harmonies, which add to their already well-known skills in the composition of rural blues.

They make us catch air, hold our breath and release the oxygen while we lay our heads back, with the satisfaction that produces “Drivin’ my Blues Away”, later activating the limbs with the acoustic acceleration of “Tonite”. The rocking of the rocker becomes rhythmic in “Go’n Get It”. Accompanied and clear. Precise. Perfect? For a server, yes.

And an ingredient was missing for this rural setting. They return the vocal harmonies to complement a naughty and spicy quilted and comforting swing. That fast purring so necessary on summer nights, brings us the wonderful “Slow Down”.

But the trio not only dominates the acoustic and rural scenario of the scenario raised by the writer.

I will go back to the aforementioned road with long straight and curved hills. The soundtrack was already published previously with the first installment of the Six trilogy.

Start your engine and let it flow “I’m On The Road Again”. The gas pedal is pressed by them in just thirty seconds. As should be done with a well oiled engine. Gently but firmly. No jerks or jerks, but letting the engine roar until the slide of Chino, Rod’s bass and Giggs sticks put the vehicle at its cruising speed.

They can clap their fingers on the steering wheel to the naughty beat of “Bad Boy Blues.” Open the windows of the car, a treat.

Stop at the gas station. Víctor Puertas’s harmonica will join the trio to finish lubricating the machinery in “Jivin ‘Baby”, joining the slide of the Chino, will make sparks jump in our engine and burn just our tires to take us back to the road. Once there, grasp with both hands, but gently, the steering wheel. Relax your back and notice the gentle push and tickle in the belly that produces “Hush (Pretty Baby)”.

The neon lights of the cafeterias and the bars of bad reputation at the foot of the road will go through our windows until the dawn to which takes us “Hipsquake Mama”, with the addition of the voice of Maria Voronkova in the choirs of this comforting cut.

And to finish this electric trip, Chino & The Big Bet stepped on the accelerator with “Your Love is Dynamite”. You have to get to the club on time.

What club?

The one who described them at the beginning, the one where we had reserved table near the stage. The one that Chino & The Big Bet have been inviting us since their second installment of Six.

And for this mental scenario that propitiates the listening of this disc, Chino and his great bet bid up with force, and they do it reinforced by a section of wind of luxury. Artem Zhul’ev, Pol Prats and Big Dani Perez, add muscle with their saxes to the band’s potential.

They open fire trotting vigorously in “Broken Heart”. The place is filled with smoke of honker saxophone, as an added ingredient to the trio’s credentials. Let’s go to the bar and order another drink. The difficulty will be to try to return to the table with the full cup, since “Come Down to Harlem” makes to throw the ground of the club. The danger is mingled with the initial measures of “I’m Ready To Lose”. The band is stretched and tension increases the temperature of the room. The slide of Chino returns to fire, and the rhythmic base of Rod and Giggs watches that no one escapes, with the invited saxons of bodyguards. “Moonshine” invites us to leave the premises, to enter the night of the dark alley next to the club and Listening from outside to the band, which writhes on itself.

Back inside the room, “Blue” puts our arm around our shoulders and smiles at us, turning to the stage. Stage that turns on its lights clearly showing the band. “Evil Ways” clears the last drink. Elegance, comfort and shine to close with class this second delivery of Six.

Now the work is yours, listener. Order the trilogy at your leisure and choose what you want. Acoustic, electric or electric with winds.

Chino & The Big Bet will execute it perfectly. Versatility that leads to pleasure.

Bet on this formula.

They will tell me.

Arnau Serra (Hotel Blues)

The 2014 starts animated… Back on the road with The Big Bet! We expect more than 4000 km of travel, lots of food, drink, snow, 7 concerts in Austria and one in Switzerland. We will keep you informed through this blog and facebook…

I do not believe in horoscopes, witchcraft, or UFOs, but when I got in the car with Chino, Rod and Giggs to go to Toulouse at the European Blues Challenge 2013 I had a hunch. And I told him: “I think you’re going to be seconds.” I’ve known them for many years and I know that most people who attend one of their live shows do not easily forget it. By this rule of three, the jury must appreciate his talent. Although surely they would compete with other bands of great musical level, with which something told me that the second rung of the podium was feasible.

We arrived at the Grand Hôtel d’Orléans about midnight on Thursday, shortly after dinner at Mc Donald’s at the entrance to the city of South West France. Rod drove the four hundred kilometers that separate the Vallcarca neighborhood from Barcelona and Toulouse. The expectations were great and the European Blues Challenge was presented as a unique opportunity to meet programmers from any country, winning or not, was secondary. Neither for Chino & The Big Bet nor for the many fans and friends who accompanied them would have been a disappointment not to go up to collect a prize in the party room Le Bikini, where the contest was going to be held.

After a beer and a taco of beef and cheese sauce, at two-thirty on Friday Chino, Rod and Giggs stepped on stage for the first time where they were to have their twenty minutes of glory. The sound test was fast, just ten minutes out of the twenty-five that were programmed. Get some sleep in the hotel, get ready in the room and back to Le Bikini to prepare some of the great moments of the career of these three musicians who have installed their headquarters in Barcelona.

In the dressing room, shared with the Austrian musicians (good people), moments to warm the limbs, to review some finals, to timing some subjects. Cigarettes and some beer, little, and chicken with sauce and baked potatoes to fill the stomach. And it’s after dinner that I see nervous Chino for the first time in a long time. He is aware of the trampoline that the European Blues Challenge can bring to his training. The prize does not matter, but in twenty minutes must convince the public and the programmers and knows that there may be a before and after Toulouse.

22.30h. The moment arrives and its energy invades the room. Although the rush to avoid wasting time are somewhat obvious and Chino’s guitar is out of tune because of such a radical change in temperature, the Barcelona trio has the audience tucked into the pocket after two songs. Bad Boy Blues, Your love is dinamyte or Hush were the great successes of a performance that raised enthusiastic applause in the solos of each of the members of the formation. Final and ovation.

Congratulations of all kinds, of organizers, of programmers, of blues fans, of other musicians. The goal had been fulfilled: surprise. The next day, in the professional blues market, one of the attractions was Chino and his Big Bet, receiving the interest of festival programmers from all over Europe. Now there was only one doubt … what the jury had considered. “No, we certainly did not win” and “why not ?!”, that Saturday was all possible. In fact, there were still ten bands left to go on stage at Le Bikini. And I, of course, continued with my premonition. “Seconds, listen to me, you’ll have seconds,” I repeated.

“And the second place of the European Blues Challenge is for … I’ll say it in Spanish: Chino & The Big Bet,” exclaimed Jean Guillermo, vice president of the European Blues Union. The three musicians who had already won the competition in Spain were now consolidated as one of the reference bands of the European blues. Smiles, hugs and flashes. A small jam with the other winners and to celebrate with the people of the Barcelona Blues Society who came to give their full support.

Before the awards ceremony we repeated over and over again that if they did not win then nothing happened. Yes, of course, but second to Europe is the host, more when you compete with twenty other countries and the jury is made up of six experts of the genre. At noon on Sunday, luggage, return the hotel keys, some photos with the award and au revoir, Toulouse! A city of which I can not write wonders, because we did not have time to visit it, but it will always remain in the memory of the Barcelona blues as the place where Chino, Giggs and Rod consolidated their trajectories in the international arena. Congratulations guys! Seconds … if I already told you!

Eric Lluent

The Barcelona of the beginning of the present century had become the meeting point of many international street musicians who saw the Catalan capital as an excellent opportunity to make a living doing what the body asked them. Every corner of the Gothic seemed to be a good stage and the public, every day changing, was willing to reward them with the good moment lived with a few coins or buying their self-published disc. The city became the reference of the street music of Europe, a space with very little regulation, little police pressure and great tourist influx. In that context, those with more talent met and began musical projects of great attractiveness, some of them incorporating local musicians, less accustomed to step on the street with their instrument but with more academic studies. “In 2004 I studied at Conservatori Liceu and started doing street work with a band of dixieland, Los Krokodillos, in which all were foreigners but me. This experience gave me resistance, we played with cold or hot weather. But the street is very hard”, recalls Martí Elías, drummer Bernat Font Trio and soon to record disc with the Canadian pianist based in New York Gordon Webster. In the field of blues, ragtime, swing and manouche, the 2000 ‘street jazz’ generation was forged, the members of which were severely affected by changes in the rules for street musicians. Ciutat Vella and the Civic Ordinance, which came into force in 2006.

It was then that a few passionate jazz decided to stay in Catalonia and promote self-managed musical projects, drawing money from the bowls that came out in the rooms they programmed. Iván Kovacevic, bass player of Mambo Jambo and Bernat Font Trio, among others, the russian Mikha Violin, leader of Los Krokodillos, or the argentine Hernán Senra, better known as ‘Chino’, founder of groups such as “Down Home”, “Shine” or “Chino & The Big Bet”. “Before on the street in two hours you could get 20,000 pesetas. It was the golden age of street music in Barcelona, ​​but that’s over”, Senra laments. To date, the schedules and spaces are regulated, including the number of musicians who can act in a formation. “After the regulation one no longer knows how to make a living by playing in the street so we have looked for other ways to get ahead. I am now in five different bands and that’s why I have more concerts”, explains Violin.

The internationalization of these musicians who were forged in the open is not new, but it should be noted that in the last two years the activity has intensified. One of the most graphic cases is that of Kovacevic, who during 2012 has been working in countries like Colombia, Mexico or South Korea. The serbian bassist came to Catalonia in 2001 and one of his dreams was to travel with his instrument and meet new cultures. “I was surprised by the presence of the European and American blues in South Korea and in Mexico, in Colombia it is harder to find”, Kovacevic reflects after a year of intercontinental flights. Speaking of scenes of active blues, the Barcelona has nothing to envy most European capitals. As explained Miriam Aparicio, president of the Barcelona Blues Society, ​​every night in the Catalan capital can be found two, three or four concerts and jams of blues. “Now there are more smaller venues that program than 10 years ago, more musicians playing blues. Another thing is the labor situation of these, which has stagnated or worsened, like everything”, analyzes Aparicio.

As a symbol of the consolidation of the export of blues and swing born in the streets of Barcelona, ​​Chino & The Big Bet musical project has been selected to represent Spain in the European Blues Challenge to be held in Toulouse (France) in March. The training led by Hernán Senra, voice and guitar, and argentinean Rod Deville on the double bass and young Granger drummer Giggs Nother (all of them settled in the Catalan capital for years) will take their cool rhythm and thug to a stage that is presents as a unique opportunity to reach programmers and festival organizers from all over the continent. “Music is not just playing, it’s not just the technique of the instrument. It is about being authentic up on stage without imitating anyone. That’s what the greats have done and it’s what we want to do in Toulouse and any of our concerts”, says Senra, who organizes the blues jam at the Harlem Jazz Club in Barcelona every Tuesday for seven years. If they win in Toulouse, they will go to the International Blues Challenge that is organized annually in Memphis (United States). Precisely this week are participating in the contest of Memphis the Suitecase Brothers, duo formed by the Catalan brothers Víctor and Pere Puert

 

Only a musician who has grown professionally in the street could carry out a gesture like the one he saw last night on the stage of the Coliseum in Barcelona, ​​on the Gran Vía with Rambla Catalunya. Half an hour at eight in the afternoon and the blues and boogie marathon of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival followed his script. On top of the stage The Big Bet, with Rod Deville on the double bass, Martí Elías on drums and Chino on dobro and vocals. Last song. And Chino approaches the microphone not to sing but to explain something that, according to him, can not be silenced. It can be seen that the contracting company had arranged a table in which the public could acquire the discs – self-edited – of the bands that formed the poster of the night. Upon arrival at the theater the company informs them that 25 percent of sales will be left by the organization. Chino decides not to leave a cd on the table. After telling what happened to the public, he opens his silver suitcase, leaves it open on the edge of the stage and heads to the audience: “Take these CDs, tonight I’ll give them to you.”

I’ve known Chino for over four years. He is a very good friend and I could tell you a thousand stories of his concerts and the projects he leads – another day I will – but Sunday was the best performance I have ever seen and, curiously enough, he did not need to touch a single Rope of its double inseparable. The song that sounded was the dignity of those musicians who too many nights are not known by masters of locals who do not know or because they program music and who wake up to update their website and facebook, eat fast to go to class and fall asleep past the two after acting in any bar in the city.

Chino opened the suitcase and the people rushed for the discs. There was not one left and there were about fifty. Later, those who wanted to come to leave some coins or some money. To him, who grew up playing in the streets of downtown Barcelona, ​​this scene should bring him good memories. In the end, enthusiastic applause. The concert was not bad. The lesson was wonderful.

Eric Lluent.

On Friday evening, at the light of the Luz de Gas lounge there is no free chair, attendees look forward to the stage where musicians and those in charge of the room enter and leave to finish the final preparations before From the start of the show.

At 9:30 pm, Hernán Senra (El Chino) appears on stage to officially open the tenth edition of the Barcelona Blues Festival. An edition, as you know, very marked by the crisis and cuts, but, like the musical style it represents, an edition that has become strong in the face of difficulties and full of the best blues.

The beginning of the Festival has always been characterized by the presentation of a new album. In this year’s edition, Chino & The Big Bet have been responsible for the presentation of “Six“, the first part of a self-produced trilogy that has its own 6 tracks. Every 6 months we will be able to enjoy a new cd with 6 new songs until the end of this trip for the best Blues in June 2013. Once the trilogy has been completed, you can put all 3 discs at once to invoke the Devil or Well to make the neighbor tighten, you choose.

Hernán‘s jokes aside, Rod Deville (bass) and Giggs Nother (drums) appeared on stage and the first agreements on the first track on the new album, “I’m on the road again“, were not long to wait Starting a great journey of more than an hour for the inscrutable ways of Blues.

The concert offered us all the themes of “Six“: “Bad Boy Blues“, “Hush“, “Jivin’Baby“, “Hipsquake mama” or “Your love is dynamite“, combos with a song from the album tribute to Centennial of the birth of Robert Johnson “100 years” published last year, with which the band emerged. There were also no issues from the most acoustic beginnings of Chino and Rod Deville and some versions of Blues classics. Among all of these we emphasize: “Violent Love“, “When you are smiling“, “Caldonia” or “Dust my broom“.

The band, very acclaimed by the public, decided to get off the stage to make some exceptional views to the Luz de Gas and interpret “Hold you in my arms again“.

Chino, with his great charisma and the sympathy that characterized him, made the show entertain with the explanations between theme and subject. The good music did the rest and the time and the fourth that lasted the concert we were flying …

As a summary of the night, we can say that it was an unforgettable Festival start, with a great response from the public and a disc that is more than advisable at an anti-crisis price of only 6 euros. If you encourage yourself to buy it, you will be collaborating with your grandma so that quality music production can continue.

Laura Novensà (Dra. Blues)