The voice of Roxana Amed opens the second week of concerts
- Vincen García Quintet and the trio composed of Infante, Lemes & Colina complete the programming for Wednesday 10 & Thursday 11
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, wednesday 9 july 2024. Whilst the echoes of Irakere’s repertoire still resound after the three concerts staged at the beginning of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas by Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the brilliant Cuban formation, the first concerts of the second week are on their way, which will feature as the main star attraction Argentine vocalist Roxana Amed. The programme for these first performances will include other equally interesting artists & ensembles; on the one hand bassist Vincen García and his quintet, who were incorporated into the billing last week following the necessary cancellation of KNOWER, and, on the other, the trio made up of guitarrist Javier Infante, timplist Alexis Lemes & double bass player Javier Colina.The concerts at the beginning of the week will be concentrated in Gran Canaria & Tenerife.
Roxana Amed, based in the USA for some years, has been nominated for a Latin Grammy and a Gardel Award winner. She is a singular singer-songwriter whose music blends South American folk traditions with art rock and modern jazz. An award-winning vocalist, producer, songwriter and educator, Amed has been praised by Grammy.com for her “artistic vision and understanding of her place in the canon”.
Amed is considered by colleagues, audiences and critics as one of the most important voices in South American music. She is currently a teacher at the Frost School of Music, Miami University, and has earned acclaim for her albums with fellow Argentine multi-instrumentalist and former Pat Metheny band member Pedro Aznar, including Limbo (2004) and Entremundos (2006). More albums followed, Cinemateca Finlandesa (2010), a duo album with pianist Adrián Iaies (Latin Grammy nominee), Inocencia (2011), followed by La Sombra de Su Sombra (2013) with pianist and composer Frank Carlberg featuring the poems of Alejandra Pizarnik. In 2019, she produced Instantáneas, an album with live-in-studio performances.
In 2023 she received a new nomination for the Gardel Awards for Argentine music and a Latin Grammy Nomination for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album for her album Unánime, which once again received distinguished criticism on the American, European & Argentine jazz scene. Los Trabajos y Las Noches (2023) with composer/pianist Frank Carlberg, second part of a project based on music written for poems by the great Argentine writer Alejandra Pizarnik. It received 4 stars in the jazz magazine ‘Downbeat’ and was successfully presented in New York last August.
Her new album Becoming human is the result of a New Jazz Works grant by Chamber Music America. Roxana comes to the festival in a quintet formation, with Leo Genovese on piano; Mark Small, saxophones & clarinetes; Edward Pérez on double bass and Ludwig Afonso on drums.She will be staging two concerts, one at the venue ‘Espacio La Granja’, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Wednesday 10) and the other at the Theatre Guiniguada, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Thursday 11).
Spanish bassist Vincen García, is already considered one of the most prestigious artists on the current jazz & funk scene worldwide. He is among the ten most listened to bass players globally in terms of streaming, accumulating hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views and reactions. His new album titled Ventura is receiving an overwhelmingly positive reception in cities around the world such as Madrid, Barcelona, London, Los Ángeles & New York.
In September 2023, Vincen received a call from Cory Wong to join him on his European tour. After acquiring knowledge and expertise both on stage and in recording studios with different artists and with the personal growth that the composition and creative process of his album offered him, he is more motivated than ever to hit the road with his show. Vincen wants to take his music to the next level by offering a show where you will be able to feel the energy, enjoy the improvisation and complex rhythms and groove to his new music and songs that will make you keep your eyes glued to the stage. He will have a top level band to accompany him on this trip for the 2024 edition of the Festival de Jazz de Canarias, featuring Andoni Narvaez (guitar); Manuel Pardo (trumpet); David Cases (sax); & Jairo Ubiaño (drums). His two concerts will be staged on Thursday 11 at the ‘Aguere Cultural’, La Laguna and Friday 12 on the Esplanade of Faro (Lighthouse) of Maspalomas.
Guiguan is the result of the collaboration between three musicians, Javier Infante (guitar), Alexis Lemes (timple) & Javier Colina (double bass), who share a deep desire to develop a unique style, entrenched in their island roots. This ensemble can be summarized in one sentence: “The sublime art of listening”. These three virtuoso musicians embark, like explorers of the sonic universe, in an incessant search for musical beauty, the subtlety of melodic counterpoint and the courage of risky improvisations. Their music represents an opening towards a genuine musical language, which is inspired by contemporaneity, jazz and the deep musical roots of its land. In short, this group is an emotional picture, where an experience that touches the heart and awakens the soul, are painted with musical notes.
CONCERT PROGRAMME
Wednesday 10th
Tenerife:
Roxana Amed – Espacio La Granja (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Gran Canaria:
Infante Lemes Colina Colina Trio – Auditorium of the ULPGC (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Thursday 11th
Tenerife:
Vincen García Quintet – Aguere Cultural (La Laguna).
Gran Canaria:
Roxana Amed – Guiniguada Theatre (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
