'Round about Tete

When "Hamp" -the diminutive by which the great vibraphonist, pianist, drummer, singer and bandleader Lionel Hampton was known among his peers- proclaimed in 1956 "to have discovered the best jazz pianist in Europe", little could Tete Montoliu imagine that That heartfelt insult was going to bring about such a radical change in his life. An outstanding student of the generation that established the modernization of jazz, although an incorruptible hardbopper, Tete Montoliu adopted the virtues of the greats -who always treated and considered him as an equal (Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Thelonious Monk, etc.)- but, perhaps precisely for this reason, it was not freed from some of its defects and excesses. It is for this reason that a personality as complex and decisive for the history of local jazz as his makes it necessary, twenty-five years after his death, a choral approach that traces a plural, and open-minded biographical path - without the intention of falling into the hagiographical exaltation, but without the will, either, to silence certain controversies and contradictory testimonies. Taking and partially mutilating the title of a composition by one of his favorite authors, Thelonious Monk -with whom he shared initials: T. M-, 'Round About Tete offers a kaleidoscopic view through experiences, opinions, articles, statements, letters and other exhumed documents that deal with his life and work, contributed by many of those who had the opportunity to know him: musicians, managers, programmers, producers, journalists, writers, filmmakers, singers, friends, family, lovers, businessmen... It is accompanied this edition of the transcriptions of some of the compositions that made up his repertoire: standards, popular songs and compositions by other admired colleagues.