Canarias Jazz & Más presents its 34th edition with a top notch billing staging 59 concerts at 28 diferent venues on the islands
Islas Canarias, 10 de junio de 2025. The ‘Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas’ began warming up with its complete programme featuring 59 concerts staged at venues on the eight Canary Islands, now available on its web page, by means of a presentation at a press conference, held at the ‘Espacio La Granja’ in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The director of the Festival, Miguel Ramírez, stated some of the figures that give an idea of what this Festival is all about, one of the most recognized and deeply rooted cultural events in all the Canary Islands. And so, from 4 to 26 July a total of 31 artists & groups mainly from the USA, Norway, Poland, Italy, Holland, Chile, Armenia, and of course Spain & the Canary Islands, will stage 59 concerts at 28 venues in 16 municipalities on the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, Fuerteventura, El Hierro and La Graciosa.
Almost half (42%) of these 31 ensembles are made up or led by women, an effort that has been made “until the day comes when this will not be given a second thought because it will be something quite natural”, pointed out the director. Equally so, the programme consists of 17 international artists, 3 at national level and 11 Canarian groups and artists, since “there has always been a space for our people”, Ramírez recalled.
Regarding the sustainability commitments made by the Festival, the director announced that this year the start time for the performances will be brought forward to 19:30 hours at many of the open-air concerts, which means substantial savings in electricity consumption, among other measures.
The Councillor for Culture and Museums of Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, thanked and expressed his appreciation for the performance of the pianist Alexis Alonso, responsible for creating with his music the jazz club atmosphere with which the act began; and rated the Festival as “a wonder and a luxury”, being “a well-established cultural event with magnificent programming, which has been increasingly comprehensive in terms of audience and stage venues, incessantly growing until it embraced the eight Canary Islands”, he stated. The councillor offered his appreciation for the effort made throughout the 34 editions by the director and promoter of the Festival, Miguel Ramírez, whom he described as “one of the people who has done more for jazz on the islands and undoubtedly one of those who knows more about this music not only in the Canary Islands, but worldwide.”
His counterpart from Lanzarote, Councillor Jesús Alexander Machin of the Cabildo (Island Council) of Lanzarote, shifted the theme by stating how Lanzarote “is experiencing an unprecedented cultural explosion”, and that precisely “this year it is the precursor of this festival, offering a choice of magnificent stage venues, in Haría, in Arrecife and even in La Graciosa”, he pointed out.
For his part, the Councillor for Culture of Santa at Cruz de Tenerife City Hall, Santiago Díaz, recalled the historical importance that the city has had in the programming of the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más, which “tends to usually book several of their best artists for venues in this city”, he reflected, as he looked to the near future “”for when the Guimerá Theatre can be restored for jazz performances.” although he considered that the Festival will be perfectly hosted this year at the venues of La Granja, Tenerife Auditorium, the City Square adjacent to the Auditorium and the CajaCanarias Cultural space. At the same time, he recalled that the entire Festival programme for the city will be available on the app ‘Soy Cultura (I am Culture)’ set up by his department at the City Council.
The Councillor for Culture at Puerto de la Cruz Town Hall, Desirée Díaz, recognized the course trajectory and roots of this cultural event “which has shown that success is not a matter of luck, but comes from the effort and work well carried out during 34 editions “, she considered, while urging the public to attend the concerts that will be staged at different venues in the municipality during the month of July.
Carlos Abismael Díaz Barreto, the Councillor for Culture at Granadilla de Abona Town Hall, had his say by spending some time considering the Festival’s status on an international level, “something that is due to the effort being made each year to give it visibility by raising awareness of the event outside the islands” he noted, and at the same time thanking its director for “his commitment from the outset to the municipalities”, to spread jazz and creative music throughout the Canary Islands.
The Director of the Autonomous Organization for Musical Activities at La Laguna Town Hall, Fernando Jiménez, pointed out the following ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’ has among the Canarian public & visitors/tourists, “a festival that is supposed to attract a minority and specialized audience but each year the public squares & theatres are filled with an attending audience, and that says something”, he stated. By the same token, he wished to highlight the performance by Gonzalo Rubalcaba, given that “one of the most important concerts of this year’s edition is being held in La Laguna”, he emphasized.
The artistic soundness of the programming of the 34th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más is supported yet another year by the composition of a Billing consisting of renowned top quality stars together with the pick of regional & local artists & ensembles, that includes such figures as the multi-award winning vocal group Take 6 together with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra ‘OFGC’, the voice of Dee Dee Bridgewater, the pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the “sonera del mundo” Aymée Nuviola, The Vijay Iyer Trio, Melissa Aldana Quartet and the New York sound of the Kennedy Administration. The international biiling is rounded off with the might & vigour of Lakecia Benjamin, Alain Pérez, the acclaimed Rita Payés, Krzysztof Kobylinsky, the versatility of the guitar by Matteo Mancuso, Nordic jazz by the Espen Berg Trio, the Sicillian Jazz Orchestra, Ellister van der Molen, Zuco 103, Patax, Arin Keshishi & Daahoud Salim.
The prominence & attraction reserved for Canarian artists & groups, an unmissable appointment for the great family of island jazz, will feature Las Albitas (Alba Gil Aceytuno & Alba Careta), La Local Jazz Band, the group Maravijazz led by Augusto Báez, Mónica Santana, Thomas Figueroa Grooving´Jazz Project, Luis Sánchez Quintet, Esther Ovejero, Anna & Three, Alexis Alonso Sextet, David Minguillón Trío and the Joven Canarijazz Big Band.
The Festival programme for this thirtyfourth edition features 59 concerts at 28 venues, of which more than half will take place outdoors with free entrance, and the rest to be held at 13 of the main auditoriums & theatres of the islands, in such emblematic places as Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Adeje, Granadilla de Abona, Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Santa Brígida, Arucas in Gran Canaria; Arrecife & Haría in Lanzarote; Puerto del Rosari in Fuerteventura; Los Llanos de Aridane in La Palma; as well as the islands of La Gomera, El Hierro & La Graciosa.
And so, the 34th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más will be held at venues such as the Tenerife Auditorium & the Afredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Casa de Colón (Columbus House), Theatre Leal, Theatre Cuyás, el Palacio de Formación y Congresos de Fuerteventura, Espacio La Granja, Theatre Pérez Galdós, (Cultural Space) Espacio Cultural Cajacanarias, Theatre Guiniguada, Expomeloneras, (Museum) Museo Elder and Auditorium of Jameos del Agua; but also and especially, at emblematic spaces of the islands, such as the public squares of Plaza Santa Ana, Plaza Ciudad, plaza of the Convent Santo Domingo in La Laguna, plaza de El Médano, the lighthouse Faro de Maspalomas, plaza El Almacén de Arrecife, Plaza Salytien, Arucas Park, Playa Santiago in La Gomera Beach, the Municipal Square of Santa Brígida, the lake – Lago Martiánez and the castle – Castillo de San Felipe in Puerto de la Cruz, among others. The Festival’s approach is such that all the Canary Islands, is in itself, as an entity, the stage of Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas.
In this 34th edition, `Canarias Jazz Más’ will feature on eight islands thanks to the collaboration of all the institutions & companies that make it possible to hold this musical event, viz. the Canary Islands Government; ‘Promotur Turismo de Canarias’ (Canary Islands Tourism); the Cabildos (Island Councils ) of Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera & Gran Canaria; ‘Turismo de Gran Canaria’ (GC Tourism), Art, Culture & Tourism Centres (CACT) in Lanzarote; the City & Town Halls of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Brígida, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Arucas, Arrecife, Teguise, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz, Adeje & Los Llanos de Aridane; the ‘Sociedad de Desarrollo de Santa Cruz de Tenerife’ (Santa Cruz de Tfe Development Society; stage venues Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Auditorium & Theatre Foundation; Tenerife Auditorium; Cajacanarias Foundation; Theatre Cuyás, Theatre Leal & Theatre Guiniguada; ‘Espacio La Granja’, Casa de Colón (Columbus House), Convent of Santo Domingo in La Laguna, ‘Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias’, the Convention Centres ‘Palacio de Formación y Congresos de Fuerteventura’ & ‘Centro de Congresos ExpoMeloneras’ and Avis .
All information regarding the artists participating at the 34th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas can be found on www.canariasjazz.com, as well as promotional material (photos & links to the group’s official video clips)
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