Jorge Pardo joins the musical group of Michael League & Friends

• The award-winning Spanish musician will perform on the 13, 14 & 15 in Santa Ana, La Palma & Puerto de la Cruz, respectively

• In 2015 he received the prize ‘Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales’ awarded by the Ministry of Education & Science

Spanish flautist & saxophonist Jorge Pardo joins the festivities at the 29th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más participating as guest artist in the group led Michael League, bassist, composer, founder & leader of Snarky Puppy. Pardo joins Michael League & Friends, an ensemble of the first order composed of incredible musicians such as the eclectic Magda Giannikou (Banda Magda) keyboard player Justin Stanton (Snarky Puppy) and percussionist Adri Trujillo (Antonio Lizana) and will perform at the three concerts programmed for Michael League & Friends: Thursday 13, in the public square ‘Plaza de Santa Ana’ (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria); Friday 14, in the public square ‘Plaza de España’ in Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma); and Saturday 15, in the public square ‘Plaza de Europa’ in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife).

Last 25 July Jorge Pardo received the prize Donostiako Jazzaldia awarded by the prestigious San Sebastián Jazz Festival, which at previous editions had been given to musicians such as Keith Jarrett, John Zorn, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Hank Jones, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Clark Terry, Berbo Valdés & Wayne Shorter, among others. This prize is added to others as important as the award for Best European Jazz Musician given by the French Jazz Academy on 15 January 2013 and the award ‘Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales’ in 2015, given by the Ministry of Education & Culture at the Spanish Government.

Few musicians represent Spanish jazz better than Jorge Pardo. This brilliant flautist & saxophonist has collaborated with musicians like Chick Corea, Paco de Lucía, Wagner Tiso, Camarón, Tete Montoliu, Alex Acuña, Gil Goldstein, Peter Erskine, Chano Domínguez & Javier Colina, establishing himself as one of the most potent voices of European jazz and the most innovative among flamenco musicians. His career is filled with solo & joint assignments and from a very young age. He participated in Las Grecas alongside Johnny Galvao (in his first professional recording); with Pedro Ruy Blas in Dolores; with Paco de Lucia, with whom he collaborated over a period of time on a number of recordings and world tours. Also, at the same time, he got to know  Camarón and participated in the recording of La Leyenda del Tiempo and other productions, as well as in the flamenco studios ’Amor de Dios’…, in this new century, the highlights are of his recordings with D’3, his collection of Vientos Flamencos, the trio together with Carles Benavent and Tino di Geraldo, his participation in Touchstone together with Chick Corea, a tribute to Miles Davis recorded in New York and his work titled Huellas (2012), and his version with Big Band Flamenca  of Huellas XL, which premiered in Etnosur (2013).

Born in Madrid on 1 December in 1956, his style su estilo con la e created his own mixed musical language by gathering both jazz and flamenco sound. His personal style playing transverse flute and saxophone is considered as a benchmark of innovation and as one for all musicians for his capability & skill of fusing rhythms & genres. He has participated in a number of recorded discs with the so-called ‘young flamencos’, such as Ketama, La Barbería del Sur & Tomás San Miguel; in 2014 he presented Historias de Radha y Krishna in which he juggles with sounds that stem from groove and urban music, from flamenco and jazz, recorded with the collaboration of some 39 musicians, such as Carmona, Raimundo Amador, Flavio Rodrigues, José Vera, Phil Wilkinson, Baghira, Víctor Iniesta & J.R. Bandolero. In 2016 he introduced Metaflamenco; Djinn a sonorous journey which has been defined as “interdimensional metaflamencojazz” where jazz grooves, electronic beats and flamenco combine.

Michael League, three-time Grammy Award winner, is the creator & leader of the instrumental music band Snarky Puppy and is also a member of the World-Music group Bokanté, as well as co-owner of Atlantic Sound Studios, and founder of the record label GroundUP Music. He comes to the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más with Magda Giannikou (vocals & accordion) Justin Stanton (trumpet & keyboards), Adri Trujillo (percussion) and now Jorge Pardo (flute).