The Canarias Jazz & Más International Festival will arrive this year, in its 29th edition, to seven of the eight islands. The incorporation of Lanzarote into the program fulfills one of its main objectives, to consolidate the presence of the festival in those islands that in recent years had participated permanently -Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura- and to add the islands of El Hierro and La Gomera, in which it had only been on one occasion.
In its most complex year, due to the situation caused by Covid 19, in which it has been forced to reschedule both the artists and the dates on which it was usually held, Canarias Jazz & Más has managed to reaffirm its commitment to live music, also offering international, national and local artists.
According to the Government of the Canary Islands, the 29th edition will adapt, as it cannot be otherwise, to the new normal, with which "health security measures will be guaranteed, both for our public and for the musicians" who will participate between July 31 and August 15 in almost forty concerts. This Tuesday, the festival was presented at the Guiniguada Theater (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), in an event that was attended by Juan Márquez, Deputy Minister of Culture and Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands, an institution that doubles its economic contribution in this edition.
Márquez himself announced the incorporation of Lanzarote and “it is still possible that La Graciosa will join, with which the festival would be present on all eight islands”. The Deputy Minister highlighted during his speech the importance of jazz in the Canary Islands. "It is a language that has caught on," said the Deputy Minister of Culture, who did not hesitate to relate the large number of followers that the genre has “with the celebration of a festival that next year will be 30 years old, it is already an institution and makes a huge contribution to our cultural ecosystem”.
The director of Canarias Jazz & Más, Miguel Ramírez, thanked “the involvement of all the institutions that in this complicated year have made it possible for us to be here today”. Regarding the program, he pointed out that what was planned before the appearance of the pandemic was "brutal". "But the bug messed everything up. We had to wait and then make the decision to save the festival,” he said. Even so, he defended a poster “in which there are very good international and national projects”. "Above all, we have also made a commitment to our musicians, we believed that in these circumstances it was also time to support them more than ever. There has always been a lot of presence of Canarian artists, but this year there will be more,” he stated.
Artists who will participate
The list of artists presented by this 29th edition will be led by the leader and bassist of Snarky Puppy, Michael League & Friends, who will tour throughout the summer of 2020 around the world with a top-level ensemble made up of incredible musicians such as the eclectic Magda Giannikou (Banda Magda), the keyboardist Justin Stanton (Snarky Puppy) and the percussionist Adri Trujillo (Antonio Lizana). During the concert, the band will take a tour of the repertoire of the best-known songs by Snarky Puppy and Banda Magda, together with some unpublished pieces composed for the occasion. League has won three Grammy Awards,
Another of the outstanding projects comes from Poland, Atom String Quartet; one of the most intriguing string quartets in the world and also one of the best Polish jazz bands. The group combines the capabilities of a string quartet (i.e. two violins, viola and cello) with improvisation in its broadest sense. Atom is made up of violinists Dawid Lubowicz and Mateusz Smoczyński; violist Michał Zaborski; and cellist Krzysztof Lenczowski. All graduated from the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
Internationally, the Belgian guitarist Julien Tassin also stands out; the Dutch soulman Steffen Morrison; the latin jazz combo The Cuban Jazz Sindycate; also Next.Ape, based in Brussels and musicians of different nationalities; North String Quartet, a Dutch jazz-folk quartet with which the local guitarist Javier Infante will perform; as representatives of national jazz we will have the Galician trio Sumrrá, the saxophonist from Cádiz Antonio Lizana or the excellent vocalist Susana Sheiman, who will be accompanied by the Chano Gil Quartet.
There will also be an important representation of local bands, names linked to the festival for years, some defending their projects from their current residence in peninsular lands, such as Polo Ortí, who arrives with his new project, OMN; or the Tenerife saxophonist Kike Perdomo, who will present his project in sextet format and his new show, inspired by the rain dance, and for which he has formed a sensational band composed of Nasim López-Palacios (drums), Daniel González (drums), Andrés Dorado (electric bass), David Quevedo (piano and Rhodes) and Nico Martín (guitar). The line-up is completed by 2 For The Road, A Few Colors, Alexis Alonso Quartet, Augusto Báez, Fábrica La Isleta, Local Jazz Band, Luis Merino Quartet, Mónica Santana Project, Orquesta de Jazz del Atlántico, Quevedo & Rascón, ST Fusion and Yul Ballesteros Canarian Quintet.
Stages and security measures
Canarias Jazz & Más will return to its usual venues, such as the Guiniguada Theater, the Tenerife Auditorium, the Leal Theater, the Plaza de los Alisios (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the Pérez Galdós Theater, the Plaza Europa (Puerto de la Cruz), Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma), Santa Brígida (Gran Canaria), the Fuerteventura Island Auditorium, the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium and the Plaza de Santa Ana (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), which also includes the La Granja cultural space (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) or the Víctor Fernández Gopar ‘El Salinero’ Theater.
In the enclosed spaces (theater, auditoriums, halls), the festival will apply the health protocols that are already in force and working since the de-escalation process of the state of alarm began. In the outdoor venues, the organizers are already working to guarantee security measures, which will involve closing the spaces to limit capacity. At these concerts, admission will be free, but an attendance control will be launched for which prior registration will be necessary. The festival will apply all the recommendations and established rules, in coordination with the health authorities, including social distancing measures, as well as the mandatory use of masks, hydroalcoholic gel, disinfection of common areas, etc.
