Villa Egoki, Fuenterrabia

Finally! After hearing about Jorge's home in Spain during 1960s-1980s, I get an address. I've been looking for this since 1983 when JB listed it in an Directory of International Musicians as simply Apartado 5. A chance find among YouTube comments led me to Carlos Johansson.

Carlos Johansson has said that 'Jorge Bolet lived in our house in Fuenterrabia, Spain (the Basque country) for many years.  This was the Villa Egoki, which my mother rented to him and his partner during the years 1963-1967.  They paid 10,000 pesetas a month. Quite a lot at that time. 

'Unfortunately I never had the privilege of meeting him - as I was too little.  They had two caretakers who also lived there. They served the food in the dining room wearing tuxedos and white gloves!  Jorge B. used to give a big Christmas party. He invited a lot of people. My mother would go there, sometimes with my older brother Erik and my sister Blanca. The harpist Nicanor Zabaleta was invited, and my sister chatted with him for a long time that afternoon. On one occasion - my brother Erik says - two imposters who had no business being there crashed the party. Jorge kicked them out in a terrible mood!

'He fixed up the villa very nicely and luxuriously. White carpeting everywhere and the staircase, very pretty and well varnished by my mother, was painted black! (Something that surprised my mother a lot.) Many rooms on the lower floor were small lounges instead of bedrooms and in the large lounge - with excellent views of the Bay of Biscay and the French coast - he installed his wonderful grand piano.

'Jorge and Tex left the villa in 1967 because there was a small fire in the house, and the smoke damaged the house somewhat. They subsequently moved to a recently built apartment in Fuenterrabía (Apartado 5) in the Sokoa neighbourhood. They wanted to be in Fuenterrabía because it was close to Biarritz airport.'

Mattheus Smits has added: 'Jorge and Tex had a Volkswagen station-car which was used for travelling. Staying there was extremely cheap in those days.  Jorge told me once: "In Spain are no criminals except one!"

'In those days, he played many concerts in Spain.  He even played Rachmaninoff 2 with a fantastic brass orchestra. Of course he also started, after almost twenty years of neglect, to make records in Spain for Ensayo.

'In a Dutch radio interview (1978) Jorge mentioned that he had a house in Spain where he had a Bechstein, but the weather could be as bad as in Holland!'

There were two Villas Egoki, but Carlos Johansson has said that the one Jorge rented was in calle Marisantzenea nº7 (constructed in 1940).  *Thanks are due also to archivist Miguel at Artxibo Historikoa/Archivo Histórico, Hondarribia for help with this information.