Jazz Nostalgia

In front of me, five people. One of them was the director, Miguel Martín, but at that age you don’t even think about it. I told them that I had been going to the festival for years with my parents, and that I wanted to be part of it. That I would do any job, from setting up the chairs to being part of the communication team. The feeling was immediate. And I was lucky enough to be told yes. Having worked for ten years in the world’s leading technology companies, when I give talks to entrepreneurs or large entities, I always use the example of Jazzaldi as a standard of trust and good work. I have never been so happy to go to work. It didn’t matter how few hours I slept. For four editions, I was happy. Miguel knows how to create a family (a very large family) and make you feel part of something special.

I comment in my talks on the speech he gave us on the first day, in which he urged us to make decisions. At a festival sometimes things can’t be consulted. Working at ungodly hours, each one in a different part of the city, at breakneck speed, you have to face new situations and be confident enough to decide, even at the risk of being wrong. But he told us that we could be wrong. That we should use our judgment, that we should take risks. And if it went wrong, we would work it out. I had never before been given that level of freedom and responsibility (which would later be so useful to me in Silicon Valley). That responsibility and that trust placed in us made us great, even though we were just kids. I can never be grateful enough for everything I learned in those offices in the Kursaal and Victoria Eugenia. The moments spent on the beach and on the different stages with the photographers, the laughs with my boss and my colleagues, our meals, the backstage, meeting who was then my crush, Jamie Cullum, at the Trini, sharing with Mitxel Ezquiaga the interview he did with the great Paolo Conte in his dressing room, printing hundreds of accreditations for the concert of Laboa and Dylan on the beach. When I had to quit, due to other work commitments, I was not able to go to see the concerts because I could not conceive of not being part of that great machinery of enjoyment. Now I do go, happy for everything they continue to achieve year after year, in a festival that is, in addition to a celebration of jazz and other music, a space for connection, cultural democracy and enjoyment. Forgive me for getting emotional, but it is inevitable when you are one of the Jazzaldi girls. It marks you forever.