Christian Sands Trio & Keyon Harrold, emerging jazz for the first session of the Festival in Gran Canaria
- The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium is the venue for this double session to be staged in the Sala de Cámara (Chamber Hall) at 21:00 hours and Rincón del Jazz (Jazz Corner) at 22:30 hours respectively
Christian Sands Trio and Keyon Harrold will open the programme of concerts for the 27th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken in Gran Canaria with a double session to be staged at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium. The shows for this first night will be held at two distinct premises; the Sala de Cámara (Chamber Hall), featuring Christian Sands starting at 21:00 hours and the other the Rincón del Jazz (Jazz Corner), with Keyon Harrold at 22.30 hours. Spectators have the choice of entrance tickets for both concerts at the sole price of 25€, or on an individual basis for 15€ each. There is also available a one-off payment for four concerts obtained via the Thetare & Auditorium Foundation sale points, that also include performances by Dhafer Youssef and Joao Bosco at the Pérez Galdós Theatre (price 60€, limited to 300 tickets).
Christian Sands, five-time Grammy Nominee, is an emerging jazz force. His abundant piano technique perfectly matches his conception, accomplishing a much deeper musical goal: a fresh look at the entire language of jazz. Whether it’s stride, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian or Afro-Cuban, Sands develops the past while providing unusual and stimulating vehicles for the present… and for the future. He expresses himself through an extensive vocabulary of patterns, textures and structures, all the while maintaining a strong sense of sensitivity, taste and swing. His career took a significant leap when he caught the attention of Grammy award winning bassist, Christian McBride, who asked Sands, then 20 years old, to sit in at the Village Vanguard with his big band. That appearance led to Sands becoming a member of bassist Christian McBride’s Trio, with whom he has toured throughout the world.
Members:
Christian Sands: Piano
Yasushi Nakamura: Bass
Jonathan Barber: Drums
Keyon Harrold was born and raised in Ferguson, MO, a St. Louis suburb. While Ferguson looms large in Harrold’s album The Mugician, it examines the troubled times its most humble inhabitants underwent. Sweeping and cinematic, the music draws on elements of jazz, classical, rock, blues, and hip hop to create something uniquely modern, unmistakeably American. Guests including Pharoahe Monch, Gary Clark, Jr., Big K.R.I.T., Guy Torry, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Robert Glasper add to the record’s eclectic nature, but it ultimately triumphs as a unified, cohesive whole, both because of Harrold’s virtuosic skill as a trumpeter and composer and because of his relentlessly optimistic belief in “brighter days to come”. In his work Mugician, which is a portmanteau of “musician” and “magician”, Harrold pushes beyond the traditional boundaries of jazz trumpet. In fact, the album doesn’t even begin with trumpet, but rather with a track called ‘Voicemail,’ which features an inspirational message from Harrold’s mother set to a stirring, orchestral soundscape. Entirely unedited, her words lay the groundwork for an album that celebrates the importance of family (ten of Keyon’s siblings appear on the record) and the absolute necessity of optimism in the face of darkness and doubt. Issues of identity and equality percolate throughout the record, sometimes subtly beneath the surface, and others more significantly.
Members:
Keyon Harrold: Trumpet & vocals
Shedrick Mitchell: Piano
Nir Felder: Guitar
Burniss Travis: Bass
Charles Haynes: Drums
Featuring Andrea Pizziconi: Vocals
These two shows add to the start of what will be more than 50 concerts featuring 28 groups to be staged at venues on five islands- La Palma, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria & Tenerife-, for yet another year and another edition, as a result of the collaboration of the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Adeje, Puerto de la Cruz, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Santa Brígida, Puerto del Rosario, Teguise & Los Llanos de Aridane, and the sponsorship of the Canarian Governmant and the Island Councils of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura & Lanzarote, Casa África, the Tenerife Auditorium, the Auditorium & Theatre Foundation of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Theatres Leal & Guiniguada and the airline Binter. Organised by Colorado Producciones, yet another edition has received the sponsorship of the company Heineken.
