The voice of Jazzmeia Horn opens the second week of the festival’s concerts
- The Texan artist will perform this Wednesday in the Rincón del Jazz (Jazz Corner), on Thursday at the Tenerife Auditorium and Friday in Fuerteventura
- Monika Herzig & Alexis Cole will stage a performance of the repertoire of Joni Mitchell at the MUNA in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Paraninfo of the ULPGC
- The ensemble Rey & Syl Dorrey from Poland will also perform this week
Islas Canarias, 04 de julio de 2023. Jazzmeia Horn’s voice and her extraordinary capacity for the art of improvisation take the helm at the beginning of the second week of the 32nd Festival Canarias Jazz & Más, following a start marked also by another portent of the vocal cords such as Kurt Elling. The Texan artist will perform for the first time in the Canary Islands staging three concerts, on Wednesday 5 July at the Rincón del Jazz – Jazz Corner (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria); Thursday 6 in the Sala de Cámara (Chamber Hall) at the Tenerife Auditorium and on Friday 7 at the Palacio de Formación y Congresos (Training & Congress Centre) in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura). A week that also features two concerts starring Monika Herzig & Alexis Cole with their adaptation of the repertoire of one of the great figures of contmporary American music, Joni Mitchell, where they will share the stage with a group from Poland, Rey & Syl Dorrey, led by the vocalist Lin Lyles and saxophonist Sylwester Ostrowski (Wednesday 5 at the ‘MUNA’ in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Thursday 6 in the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall) of the university ULPGC, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).
In 2015 Jazzmeia Horn (Dallas, Texas, 19/04/1991) won the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition and in 2013 the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. She has a name that speaks for itself capturing her very essence. Her reputation as a rising star didn’t take long in reaching New York. Wishing to pursue a solo career, Jazzmelia moved to the Big Apple and got her degree at the The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music and soon began performing with prominent musicians: Winard Harper, Junior Mance, Billy Harper, Lincoln Center Alumni Vincent Gardner, Delfeayo Marsalis, Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein, Johnny O”Neal, Vincent Herring, Kirk Lightsey, Frank Wess & Ellis Marsalis.
Besides & beyond biographical notes & CV developments, what seems certain today is that in a short space of time and despite her youth, Jazzmelia Horn has known how to catalyze and attract the attention of the public and, of course, the critics. The extension of her vocal register and her technical mastery instantly brought to mind to many the memory of Ella Fitzgerald, above all for the use of ‘scat’. However, her initial sources were others.
In the beginning was the chant, the church gospels, the spirituals… There, in those religious hymns of exaltation and deliverance, germinated the origin of everything and the origin of her own name. Because Jazzmeia is her real name, one that her grandmother gave her before she was born: “My late grandmother, who was married to the church reverend and played piano and organ in the church, gave me my name, Jazzmeia. She wanted to be a professional musician, but with her husband as the church minister, she was the church’s First Lady, and so was not allowed to play secular music like jazz or blues professionally. That was the reason she had picked out my first name before I was born. So in a way, I’m continuing her legacy.”
She currently teaches jazz classes at the NJPAC Wells Fargo (Jazz for Teens Program) and at Jazz In The Schools Program in Newark (New Jersey). She performs at a number of clubs on the national & international scene leading her lively group ‘The Artistry of Jazz Horn’ that usually includes piano, drums, double bass, saxophone, poet, dancer and of course, she herself as a vocalist. She confesses that she is “a humble person for whom music is above God”. For this tour she is accompanied by a quality band composed of Victor Gould (piano), Jason Clotter (bass) & Michael Reed (drums).
Both Sides of Joni Mitchell is a reimagined set of the music of Joni Mitchell with arrangements by the pianist Monika Herzig and sung by vocalist Alexis Cole. The Both Sides of Joni project was the product of a period of soul searching during the Covid Summer of 2020. Vocalist Janiece Jaffe started listening closely to Joni Mitchell’s music & lyrics with her jazz vocalist ears and found truth & wisdom that inspired her and that she wanted to share with the world to inspire others. She studied the words more deeply and got the urge to re-imagine them in jazz arrangements.
Together with friend and collaborator Monika Herzig, they spent many summer days of 2020 in the barn with keyboard and masks working out arrangements and rediscovering Joni’s music. In March 2021, the arrangements were premiered at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis to most enthusiastic response. Many audience members came together for the first time in over a year and the messages of overcoming challenges, endurance, rebellion, love, and regret rang deep.
They decided to record the music with a group of outstanding musicians and with community support from a successful Kickstarter Campaign. Just days after the completion of the Master Recording, Janiece left this world unexpectedly after heart surgery. This album is her legacy and her dream and we are grateful for her musical gift to us to be celebrated throughout 2023 with extensive tours in the US and Europe featuring renowned New York vocalist Alexis Cole.
Led by the Polish saxophoniost & producer Sylwester Ostrowski and the incredible vocal talent of American Dorrey Lin Lyles, this extraordinary band fuses jazz with romantic Polish music, blues & flamenco to offer a unique new & unique perspective. Street jazz. That’s what the saxophonist & producer Sylwester Ostrowski brings to the stage. With an international formation composed of Polish, North American & Latin American talent, the sound of the band is deeply rooted in the American tradition, but flirts with contemporary influence whenever it has occasion to do so.
This ensemble, called Rey & Syl because of a notion by Ostrowski himself to include the powerful vocalist Dorrey Lin Lyles, is designed to shake and move the spectator, mixing R&B, soul & jazz, plus the grooves that identify the rest of the band. From the Polish city of Szczecin, Sylwester Ostrowski establishes cultural connections on a global scale with jazz. It’s a rare case in the jazz world, because it successfully combines the role of musician – saxophonist- with cultural production, including the creation of the Szczecin Jazz Festival. He has recorded with the American jazz trumpeter Freddie Hendrix and has toured with musicians of the calbre of Bobby Watson, Wynton Marsalis & Keyon Harrold. The hospitality that Sylwester gives to artists, partners & guests when they visit Szczecin is legendary.
The ‘Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más’ will again have the support of the Canarian Government through the deputy minister of Culture & Heritage as main sponsor; the Island Councils of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife & Gran Canaria; the Gran Canaria Tourist Board; the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria & Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Halls, the Santa Brígida, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz, Adeje, Los Llanos de Aridane, Alajeró, Arrecife & Teguise Town Halls; and stage venues, such as the Tenerife Auditorium, Theatre Leal, Auditorium-Theatre Foundation, Theatre Guiniguada, Theatre Cuyás, MUNA in Tenerife, the Elder Museum of Science & Technology, the ‘Paraninfo’ at the ULPGC, the Santo Domingo Convent in La Laguna, Art, Culture & Tourism Centres of Lanzarote (CACT) and Fábrica La Isleta.
Programme:
Wednesday 5:
Alfredo Kraus Auditorium (Rincón del Jazz – Jazz Corner, 20.30 hours)
Jazzmeia Horn
MUNA (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 20.30 hours)
Both Sides of Joni Mitchell feat. Monika Herzig & Alexis Cole
Rey & Syl Dorrey _ Lyn Lyles – Sylvester Ostrowski
Thursday 6:
Paraninfo de la ULPGC (19.00 hours)
Both Sides of Joni Mitchell feat. Monika Herzig & Alexis Cole
Rey & Syl Dorrey _ Lyn Lyles – Sylvester Ostrowski
Tenerife Auditorium(Sala de Cámara – Chamber Hall, 20.30 horas)
Jazzmeia Horn
Friday 7:
Palacio de Formación y Congresos de Fuerteventura (Puerto del Rosario, 20.30 horas)
Jazzmeia Horn / Second Brain
