Natalia has a BA Hons degree in Spanish and Drama (University of London & Central School of Speech and Drama). He has also started writing his memoirs and is currently working on an opera about the great Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí. He has recently toured the SE of the UK with the show Flamenco sin Fronteras: Danza Jaleos and finished two commissions: a musical (or jazz opera, as he likes to describe it) about Picasso ( click HERE for more info ) and a piece of Indian classical music written in Western classical language. Ramón is very active and continues to compose, perform and record around the world as a drummer and percussionist, as well as conducting the ONJAZZ. Ramón's daughters had gradually moved to the UK, first to study and later settling there, and now there are three grandchildren in the picture, so Ramón spends more and more time there, performing and spending time with his growing family. Īfter several decades based in Barcelona and Madrid, travelling the world and running his own successful publishing businesses ( Farrán Música, Creart Música ) and record companies ( Drums, Lemon, Olive Music ), the time has come for Ramón to expand his horizons even further and start up this new music publishing company in the UK. They have toured around the world with their Spanish symphonic roots jazz, a blend of Spanish folk & classical music and jazz, with collaborations both live and recorded from stars such as Randy Brecker, Jerry Gonzalez, Chano Domínguez, Paquito d'Rivera, Jorge Pardo, Roberto Pla, Miguel Ríos or Antonio Canales. In the year 2000 Ramón founded the ONJAZZ (Spanish National Jazz Orchestra), which has released two albums to date. In the early 1960s, Ramón ran the legendary Indigo Jazz Club in Palma, Mallorca, one of the few jazz clubs in Spain at the time, which received visits from illustrious international soloists. An example of his influence on pop music is his hit song Lailolá, with José Reyes, the father of the Gypsy Kings, which has been covered by various bands worldwide in the last few decades.Īs a drummer and percussionist he has worked with Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, Tubby Hayes, Tito Puente, Don Byas, Lionel Hampton, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins and Ronnie Scott, amongst many others and he has been musical director for artists such as Serrat, Julio Iglesias, Montserrat Caballé, Isabel Pantoja, Shirley Bassey and Celia Cruz. No stranger to the pop charts, his song Fiesta hit number 1 in Spain and other countries in 1970, and various singles by Los Amaya and Peret also climbed to the top the charts. He contributed a great deal to the new “gypsy pop” sound in the 1960s and 70s (especially in the genre known as “rumba catalana”) with his sophisticated production, and has written many television theme tunes (he adapted the Spanish version of Dogtanian and the Three Muskerhounds, amongst them) and film scores, such as Illegally Yours and Contra el Viento. He is one of the originators of the jazz movement in Spain in the 1940s/50s and his innovative horn arrangements have left a legacy in Spanish pop music. Ramón Farrán is a highly respected Spanish composer, arranger, producer, conductor, drummer and percussionist.Īlways ahead of his time, he is a true trailblazer – he was the first person in Spain to use a sixteen-track recording device, a synthesizer in a recording and a computer on stage.
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