Jazzaldia 2020 – A Jazz Festival Reworked for a Pandemic

This past week San Sebastian celebrated the 55^th edition of Jazzaldia, the city’s jazz festival (22-26 July). As you can imagine, nearly every public event has been cancelled in the city and around the country, which is especially disappointing during the summer season. But somehow the organizers of Jazzaldia figured out a way to put on this year’s event – albeit in a highly modified way.

We love Jazzaldia and look forward to it every year, so I kept a close eye on the program as it was developed and revised. The first thing they did was cancel all the free, outdoor concerts. You might recall that last year we saw Joan Baez in concert on the beach. Well, that venue, and artists traveling to San Sebastian from outside Europe had to be jettisoned. Instead, they used four main indoor venues, determined that capacity would be limited to about 50%, invited local artists to perform, and cut ticket prices. As the event got closer, they added a few free outdoor concerts with seating at tables spaced wide apart.

Two concerts caught my eye. The first was a recreation of a famous Charlie Parker concert at Massey Hall (Toronto) in 1953, featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus y Max Roach. 2020 is the centennial of Parker’s birth, and this was a rousing tribute. Listening to “Salt Peanut,” in an ornate Victorian opera house built in 1912 was amazing. The quintet did justice to many jazz classics. About half of the seats were blocked off, so we were spaced apart from other guests. They even organized the post-concert exit to avoid crowding. And, of course, everyone wore their masks and used hand sanitizer.

The second concert was a piano soloist, Paul San Martin, who is from San Sebastian. This concert took place at the San Telmo museum, in the former church cloister, so it was outside. The piano was set at one juncture of the cloister and the crowd sat in two of the cloister halls facing the piano, with seats spaced apart in a zig-zag pattern. The vaulted ceilings created wonderful acoustics and the program included many easily recognizable pieces, including Edelweiss (a bluesy-jazzy version), Georgia, and Swanee River.

Both concerts were quite a treat, especially because we paid less than $20 for both. It was a terrific opportunity to do something “normal.” Whether going forward with the concerts was the best idea considering there are small outbreaks here and there in our area, but none in San Sebastian itself, remains to be seen. Life is about choices and in these times all we can do is hope that the decisions we make, and the authorities make, don’t have calamitous results.

Stay healthy and safe,

Shana & Jeff

“A Hotelcation”

Earlier this month we took a short “hotelcation.” Surely you’ve heard of a “staycation,” a vacation taken while staying home or close to home. A “hotelcation” is a vacation taken while staying in a hotel in your own city. On July 7 we checked in to the Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra, which is located right on the La Concha Beach, for 2 nights and a change of scenery. It is nice to go to sleep and wake up to amazing views:

Our friend Ploy who worked at the hotel until it closed for the lockdown alerted us to an amazing “locals only” deal to be offered when the hotel reopened. The room rate was incredibly cheap for a 4-star hotel, especially for July and August with an ocean view and breakfast included, so we decided, why not? While it seemed silly to book a room in a hotel that is 15 minutes walking distance from our apartment, it also seemed like a good way to contribute to the local economy.

It turns out that a change of scenery was something we needed. We spent the first afternoon on the beach relaxing, had drinks at the patio bar, and then went out for pizza with Ploy & Carlos. We felt refreshed and relaxed by the time we sat down to enjoy our pizza. The next day we spent several hours on the beach – something we rarely do – and then acted like tourists in our own town walking through the old city before lunch. After kicking back during the afternoon, we headed out to dinner at Xarma Cook & Culture, a restaurant we had yet to try but that had been on our list for a while. It was a great meal, with terrific service since the place was almost empty. The waiter even guessed we were from LA! We especially enjoyed the most amazing grilled vegetables, and the pork sirloin tataki with cream of carrot, vanilla, and celery root with pearls of wasabi – a house specialty.

All in all, it was a nice little getaway. While the hotel was not even one-third full, it was good to see the hotel’s high level of attention to the sanitation measures required. which also made us feel that much more confident in our decision to visit. It was a good way to test out how we will experience travel from now on.

No regrets,

Shana & Jeff

Our Visit to a Basque Food Society

Basque food societies ("sociedades") are private clubs where people (usually men) meet to cook and share food. Traditionally, the societies were a place for men to get together because their wives did not want them in the kitchen at home (Basque culture is matriarchal). In addition, most societies include groups that perform in the annual Tamborrada drum festival, also celebrated with large celebratory meals. Today, almost all of the societies admit both men and women, but the more traditional do not permit women in the kitchens -- cooking is for men only.

We had known about these food societies, but have never known anyone who was a member, at least not well enough, to get an invite. That changed last week. Our friends Carlos and Ploy joined a food society called Euskal Billera just before the start of the coronavirus-related lockdown in March. With the lifting of the lockdown, and the re-opening of the food societies, they invited us to join them for their first meal at their new club.

Euskal Billera is one of the oldest societies in San Sebastian, founded in 1901, and it continues the tradition of only allowing men in the kitchen. So, even though our meal was Thai food, mostly organized and prepared by Ploy in their home, Carlos did all of the cooking. We had egg rolls, fried chicken wings with fish sauce and a pork dish with garlic, all accompanied by sticky rice and salad.  Because we cannot get good Asian food here, we were thrilled with this delicious meal:

The society is in a two-story building on the edge of the old city of San Sebastian (and near the main beach and port). There are separate kitchens and eating areas upstairs and down. The society maintains refrigerators with all types of drinks including soft drinks, wine, beer, cider and hard liquor. At the end of dinner, we entered what we used on a computer and each member gets a monthly bill. Members do the cooking, but the society does the cleaning.

Overall, we had a lovely evening but, to be honest, we are a bit unsure about the value of belonging to a food society, which requires a significant membership fee. Other than the traditional point of getting men out of the kitchen, it seems to us that it is a difficult way to entertain friends since you have to bring all of the food from home to be cooked there. On the other hand, it has the advantage of space, which many people do not have in their homes here, and you don't have to clean up any mess.

In any event, it was a really cool, traditional thing for us to experience in San Sebastian. And we are probably some of the only people to have eaten Asian food for their first meal in a Basque sociedad.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana