Chet Baker, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Diana Krall, Enrique Morente and Camarón are just some of the performers who played at the San Juan Evangelista between 1966 and 2014. This residential college in Madrid provided its residents with the usual accommodation and meals, but the ‘Johnny’, as it was popularly known, was special: all its classes and activities were run by its own residents, who organised lectures, film screenings and concerts.
During the early days, during the Franco dictatorship, the ‘Johnny’ became a cultural island. For more than 40 years its music club, started up to cater to a few live music enthusiasts, hosted leading names from the jazz and flamenco scene. In this documentary Juan Claudio Cifuentes (Cifu), Estrella Morente, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, Javier Krahe, Jorge Pardo, Luis Eduardo Aute, Tomatito, Gran Wyoming and many others talk about what the ‘Johnny’ has signified for culture and music in Spain. As well as marking a turning point for flamenco and introducing jazz music to a grey Spain, the club can also be seen to reflect the country’s history from the Franco period to the present day. But above all the documentary discovers the person who made the San Juan what it was and opened its doors to musicians and spectators but has remained silent all this time: the great Alejandro Reyes.
