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Al Tall is a Spanish folk music band, known for its long career, and pioneer in the reinterpretation of the musical and sonorous tradition of its region in the Italian Riproposta style. They are framed in the Mediterranean conception of popular music. Vicent Torrent and Manolo Miralles are the only two founding members who have been part of it throughout their careers.
Chronology[edit]
The group's career lasted almost thirty-eight years, with more than fourteen albums released over four decades. Its first ten years were the most productive ones. In October 2012 they formally announced the end of the group's activity, performing the last concert on October 18, 2013 at the Valencia Conference Centre.
1975-79[edit]
Al Tall was founded in the early 1975 with Manolo Lledó, Manolo Miralles, Miquel Gil and Vicent Torrent as members. All of them are self-taught musicians from other already extinct bands (such as Lledó, in Els Sols, and Torrente, in Equip València-Folk) or with a modest solo career (such as Miralles) during the early 70s. After a couple of performances in Albal and in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of Valencia, the group made its official debut in Puebla de Vallbona.
That same year, without Lledó, they recorded and edited their first vinyl, homonymous (Cançó popular, País Valencià for discography purposes), which contained original songs such as Per Majorca (one of the most representative songs of their idiosyncrasy) or D'avui és el cantar; musical poems such as La mel (by Eugeni Evtutxenko), A una oreneta que em desvetllà a trenc d'alba (by Marià Manent) or Todos me echan pedretes (by Estellés); and Valencian folk songs such as L'hereu Riera or Cançó de la llum, which caused them more than one problem with the Late-Franco authorities.
The second album, Deixeu que rode la roda, was released at the end of 1976: dedicated to Ramon el Pansot (unconditional follower of the ensemble, who died that year). The track list included what is perhaps his most emblematic original piece: la del Tio Canya, as well as other outstanding songs such as Darrer diumenge d'octubre (a tribute to the Aplec del Puig), Del Saler (in a protest at the imminent urbanisation of that Albufera beach) or the Cançó de cuna tradicional valenciana. Here the singer-songwriter of Alberique, Enric Ortega was presented as a fully fledged member, especially in order to cheer the audience on during the concerts; his wife Empar Torres, who collaborated as a singer; and, from 1977 onwards, Oswaldo Blanco, who acted as the group' s agent and manager.
Unfortunately, Enric Ortega died on 14th May 1978, shortly after the presentation of the third album: Posa vi, posa vi, posa vi..., a monographic compilation of popular tasca songs in which he had a special connection, both in the selection of themes and in the arrangement of the versions. The remaining members of Al Tall, along with other prominent figures of the Nova cançó valenciana (and also his widow), paid tribute to him with a recital at the Viveros de Valencia. Enric himself had previously participated in another tribute: shortly after the edition of Posa vi, posa vi, posa vi..., Al Tall released their only single, A Miquel assasinaren, a petenera expressly recorded in memory of Alicante communist Miquel Grau, with lyrics by Ortega.
During the same year 1978, the group began a set of concerts that led them to perform in the German city of Tübingen (in a festival of homage to Victor Jara) and in the Sis Hores de Cançó in Canet (in reparation to Albert Boadella); and, already in 1979, in Paris (for the First Week of the Valencian Country), in the Sis Hores de Cançó in Perpignan, and in Villeneuve-sur-Lot (France). That year 1979 Quan el mal ve d'Almansa... was released, the band's best-known album, and perhaps its most ambitious project: to make the Battle of Almansa known through music. Although, in the end, the conceptual part of the album only filled one face, the cantata contributed emblematic pieces, such as Processó, Lladrones and Cant dels Maulets; the B face contained songs such as Nuclears? No, gràcies, the well-known A Miquel assasinaren and another composition by Enric Ortega, posthumously: Bolero.
1980-89[edit]
In September 1980 they participated for the first time in the event Rescontres de la Mar in Arles (Provence). It was a Mediterranean cultural festival which was organized by the Occitan musician Jan-Mari Carlotti. Later on, the Al tall members would bring this idea to Valencia. In December of that year, they released their second monographic disc into the market: Som de la pelitrúmpeli. It is a narration whose main characters are children who go on a musical trip around the Valencian regions. They use representative folkloric songs such as La Bolangera o Les Tomasines: it probably was the first disc of the musical movement Nova Cançó exclusively aimed to children.
In 1981, they participted in the support act to Joan Fuster organised by Acció Cultural in Plaça de bous de València. The essayist was honored by remarkable international intellectuals and Valencian artists in front of 20 000 people after having suffered a bomb terrorist attack. Moreover, Al Tall went to the Som una nació festival, held in Camp Nou facing a 100.000 people audience. In addition, they performed again in Rescontres d'Arles and in Marseille. These performances inspired them to create a new festival in their country: La Trobada de Música del Mediterrani. As a result of organizing this event, they can be considered to be a part of the Riproposta musical phenomenon. They would get to the same level of other important groups of the folkroric music like Nova Compagnia di Canto Popolare from Naples, Músics del Nil from Egipt, the Occitans Mont-Joià (with Carlotti as a frontman) or the Saharians Mulul el-Hwa. Al Tall wolud cooperate with them again in the following occasions.
Before, in 1982 they recorded a disc with the Mallorcan singer Maria del Mar Bonet called Cançons de la nostra Mediterrània. It could be considered the third monothematic disc of the group. It offers an ensemble of traditional songs from all the Catalan speaking territory regarding them as a part of the common tradition of all the Mediterranean people. Concerning what can be red in the file, the initial project was recording together with other Mediterranean artists. Their compositions would be included in a second disc of international songs (Argelian, Calabrese or Cypriotes) whose common link was the Mediterranean Sea. In Cançons de la nostra Mediterrànea there are songs from Catalonia (El segador més petit), the Balearic Islands (Sa mort d'en Colomer) and the Valencian Community (el Bolero de l'Alcúdia). It was that year when they participated again in the Rencontres of Marseille and Grasse and two festivals with very strong Mediterranean roots in Rome and Paris (Voix et Musiques du Bassin Mediterranéen). They also performed in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Valencia where they suffered a campaign against them planned by the local blaverism movement.
Next year, in 1983, they would come back to their musical evolution, which had been interrupted by the disc they made with Bonet. They edited Toques i vares, an experimental disc which was the maximum expression of the Riproposta principles. They copied the old ways of tuning the instruments, composing and improvising with vares (equivalents of palos in flamenco). We could find jotas, habaneras, valencianas and Moorish marches with original lyrics that aimed to reflect the social reality of those days. The critics to this record were from the most unanimous support to the most explicit condemn. As a result, Toques i vares became a turning point in the band’s career due to the content and the way of composing their songs. Surprisingly, la Cançó de la Llum was the only one in their playlist that got them in trouble with the authorities, like once in Alberic Alberic. Afterwards, the band presented its live album in Montpellier, Béziers, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca and in both festivals in Almansa and Benidorm.
1990-99[edit]
La Maregassa would be the contribution of Al Tall to the collective show Quart Creixent, a group concert launched in the year 1990. It reunited almost three generations of valencian music: Vicent Torrent, as well, was co-author with Enric Murillo of the song which gave name to the concert. That same year, the 9th of November, they were the warm-up for Loquillo at the Fiesta de Bienvenida of the University of Valencia, at the city bullring. Although the 1990s were the least successful ones of the group, Al Tall didn’t stop offering or participating in concerts related to social issues at a time of relevant political changes.
Thus, June 26th 1991, they took part on a concert for the freedom of the insubordinates at the Fuente de Sant Luís pavilion. It was organised by the Conscientious Objection movement. In 1992 they performed at the Universal Exposition of Seville (Expo '92) and Eurovision channel transmitted their concert at the Festival Cervantino. In 1993 they paid tribute to Estellés and Guillem Agulló, who died that year, at the 2nd Tirant de Rock. They dedicated their disc in 1994 to the young dead maulet, Europ Eu!, edited after six years of creative drought. Europ Eu condensed all the styles the group acquired for almost two decades of history: like in Quan el mal ve d’Almansa…, half of their songs belonged to one narrative unit, although it also seemed explicit pieces like the one that gives name to the disc.
After Europ eu!, it wouldn’t be until five years later that they released a new album whilst they wouldn’t stop taking part in social engagements, performing at the first Antiracist and Antifascist Week in Burjassot, and also in different editions of Tirant de Rock at Valencia’s city bullring. Vicent Torrent edited a solo album called Rosa perdida. In 1995, on the score of their 20th anniversary as a band, Al Tall offered a multitudinous concert at Valencia’s Main Theatre accompanied by a lot of their former mates and collaborators: Miquel Gil, Maria del Mar Bonet and Muluk el-Hwa, among others.
In 1999, they would edit their first “new era” disc, La nit¸ where explicit criticism will turn into the main point of the upcoming songs like La negociació or La pista homónima. This change is evident thanks to the cover’s design, which leaves behind classic imagery and bets for a more minimalist graphics design.
2012[edit]
The last disc recorded right before the band’s dissolution was a single with just one piece (Cant d l’Aplec dels Ports). It was composed specifically months before the date on the score of 21st century Aplec dels Ports¸ celebrated the last weekend of July in Forcall, with the intention of last in time as an anthem for this annual meeting at the northern territory of Valencian Community.