This Wednesday 11 ‘Jazz & Movie’ offers cinema and live music in the hall ‘Sala Miller’

• Quevedo & Rascón will stage their performance just before the projection of the film ‘The Connection’ (1961)

The hall – Sala Miller (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) will be the venue for Jazz & Movie organised by the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más, this Wednesday 12 August (21:00 hours). The double programme featuring the concert by Quevedo & Rascón and the projection of the cult movie The Connection where attendance will be free & safe, also falls within the framework of the project Cultura en acción (Culture in Action), promoted by the Department of Culture at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Town Hall. Control of attendance capacity will be carried out by means of prior registration via the links allocated (each Friday at 08:00 hours) on lpacultura.com. The organisation guarantees compliance of all health safety recommendations that require minimum safety distances and will pay special attention to the correct use of face masks by the attending public, which should be kept on permanently from entrance point to the end of each show.

Jazz, flamenco and the Canarian song-book are the common focal points of David Quevedo & Yuniel Rascón. The Canarian pianist & Cuban guitarrist became acquainted by virtue of the timple player Germán López’s group around the year 2011. Now as a duo, they present a programme full of Canarian folklore references filtered & infected by the language of jazz and flamenco technique in a repertoire that also contains some original works by both artists.

David Quevedo (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1974) is a senior piano tutor at the ‘Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias’ (Advanced Music Conservatory). He complements his training by staying in touch with other pianists, such as Javier Massó, Polo Ortí, Steve Weingart, Jim Beard, Albert Bover, Albert Sanz, Jon Urrutia, among others. He is currently the piano teacher at the Municipal School of Musical Education of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, president of the AIM (Asociación de Improvisadores – Association of Improvisers) and artistic director of the ‘Ensemble Salvaje’. During his career he has recorded five discs as leader and collaborated with artists of the calibre of Richard Bona, Chuck Loeb, Eric Marienthal & Jorge Pardo, among others.

Yuniel Rascón (Isla de La Juventud, Cuba, 1982), started his studies at the ‘Escuela Vocacional de Arte’ (Vocational Art School). He graduated from the ‘Escuela Nacional de Arte’ (National Art School) in 2001, and was a member of the ‘Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba’ company, later becoming musical director there. He then settled down in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2011 working with artists such as Germán López, Saray Muñoz, Natalia Palacios, Daniel Amat, Totó Noriega, Mestisay, Sofiel del Pino, Esther Ovejero, Tana Santana & Kike Perdomo, among others.

The Connection (1961) is the first feature film directed by the American experimental film-maker Shirley Clarke having made several short films over the previous decade. Conceived at the height of the New York underground scene, it was the subject of controversy from the very start: based on a theatrical play by Jack Gelber, it follows a young filmmaker who attempts to film junkies who all live in an apartment, many of them jazz musicians, while waiting for their heroin dealer to arrive. As famous as she was unknown among moviegoers, Shirley Clarke gave top priority to the very music from the movie. “Jazz fans would be interested to know also that one of the jazz musicians who featured in the sordid world of The Connection was portrayed by the brilliant saxaphonist Jackie McLean” Luis Miranda, the director of the Gran Canaria Cinema Festival, points out. All the musicians from the original stage production appeared in the film: Freddie Redd (composer, piano), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Michael Mattos (bass) & Larry Ritchie (drums). The movie had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961.