Born in Caldes d’Estrac 25 years ago, Chumilla has trained in Switzerland, in Basel, where he has been a student of Mark Turner, Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, Ambrose Akinmusire, and other celebrities. In recent years, he has dedicated himself to developing his own sound and style, which have captivated figures like Larry Grenadier and Jordi Rossy, the rhythm section of Brad Mehldau’s trio for years. Rossy and Grenadier have agreed to collaborate on Gerard Chumilla’s debut album, ‘Introducing’ (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2024). At Jamboree, this time he will record his second album, also for the Barcelona-based label Fresh Sound. It will be his first title with a quintet formation and with a group of young talents from the national and international scene, like himself. Together they will perform a repertoire of compositions by Chumilla himself. The cream of the crop of our new jazz generations at the underground venue of Plaça Reial.

Looking back, the 2000s should be viewed as the second golden age of sludge-metal—a period when a whole new crop of bands were wading through the same muck the Melvins, Eyehategod, and Acid Bath trudged through a decade earlier, and tilling that sticky, filthy terrain into fantastically ugly new formations. Since then, big-name sludge-slingers like Mastodon and Baroness have chosen to wander upon cleaner, classier soil, while others have either called it quits (Kylesa) or reduced their output to a slow drip (Weedeater). But not only are High on Fire still going, on Cometh the Storm, their ninth album overall and first in six years, Matt Pike and Co. sound as heavy, gnarly, and gloriously sludgy as they ever have.