Chucho Valdés & Irakere 50 start their world tour with three concerts at the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más

• The award-winning Cuban pianist is sold-out for concerts in Gran Canaria & Lanzarote and very nearly so for his performance in Tenerife
• The programme starts on Friday in the two main Canary Islands capital cities with the Caribbean formation and Harold López-Nussa in the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall) of the ULPGC

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 02 de julio de 2024. Chucho Valdés & Irakere 50 kicks off his world tour this Friday with three concerts programmed in the 33^rd Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas. Two of these concerts are already sold out, namely, those at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium (Saturday 6) and Theatre Pérez Galdós (Sunday 7); for their first concert, scheduled for this Friday 5 in the Tenerife Auditorium, the last few remaing tickets are on sale. The response of the Canary public to this event that pays tribute to one of the most important bands of Afro-Latin music corresponds to the career path of its musical director, Chucho Valdés, who is a seven-time Grammy and six-time Latin Grammy winner and recipient of a Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award for musical excellence. This first weekend also features concerts in El Médano and Arucas, which are incorporated into the festival, and in La Laguna.

Today at a press conference, the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas presented an extensive programme that features 64 concerts which will be staged at 28 venues on eight islands between 5 & 27 July. The event was attended by Cristóbal de la Rosa, Managing Director of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries of the Canary Islands Government; Juan Jesús Facundo, Mayor of Arucas; Adrián Santana, Councillor for Culture at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Hall; Pino Esther Suárez, Councillor for Culture at San Bartolomé de Tirajana Town Hall; Avelina Fernández Manrique de Lara; Councillor for Culture at Santa Brígida Town Hall; Tilman Kuttenkeuler, Managing Director of the Auditorium & Theatre Foundation of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; José Miguel Álamo, Vice Rector of Culture at ULPGC; and Miguel Ramírez, director of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas (Canary Islands Internacional Jazz & More Creative Music Festival).

34 ensembles participate at this 33^rd Festival Canarias Jazz & Más, featuring a billing that, in addition to Chucho Valdés & Irakere 50 and Harold López-Nussa, include the getting together of four state-of-the-art musicians such as Potter Mehldau Patitucci Blake and Cécile McLorin Salvant as the main artists, to whom the Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet, Estrellas de Buena Vista, Veronica Swift, Knower (formation led by multi-instrumentist Louis Cole and singer Genevieve Artadi), Ana Popovic, Harold López-Nussa, Jonathan Kreisberg Quartet, Theo Croker, Antonio Lizana, London Afrobeat Collective, Roxana Amed, Adèdéji, Rozier / Van de Zaal Group ft. Paul Van Kessel, Aleph Quintet, Loris Tils, Dainius Pulauskas Group, Infante Lemes Colina Trío, Alto for Two, Ernesto Hermida Quintet accompanied by a number of local groups, such as Germán López, Yul Ballesteros Trío, Yone Rodríguez Quartet, Perinké Big Band, Orquesta Jazz de Canarias, Idafe Pérez Quinteto, Fernando Barrios Quartet, D’Local Groove, Mosco Project, GAC Trío, Vanessa Lemoine Quartet, Morgan Hernández vs. Fernikhan backed by Dj Cisco and Sara Lilu & Alesander Peña are added, as well as the new project by Polo Ortí from Tenerife, who was present at the press conference offering his mastery on the piano.

Opening the procedure was the Managing Director of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries of the Canary Islands Government, who pointed out “the historical importance of the festival within the cultural programming of the Canary Islands”, for the permanence of the project and for the “experimented growth which is reflected each year in a top grade musical offering”. Juan Jesús Facundo, the mayor of Arucas, celebrated the return of the festival to his municipality, “it is a pleasure that Arucas is in the framework of the festival and that it gets back the venue of the surrounding environment of the square of San Juan with its historic quarter and with the church of San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist)”.

Adrián Santana, Councillor for Culture at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Hall, commented “one of the most important facets of the programme, by offering both emblematic spaces/venues such as the Public Square of Santa Ana as well as spaces/venues which form part of the ecosystem of the jazz festival, among us all we make it possible to gain access to a quality programme”.

Pino Esther Suárez, Councillor for Culture at San Bartolomé de Tirajana Town Hall, also vindicated the space/venue at which concerts are staged in her municipality, “the Faro (Lighthouse) of Maspalomas, an idyllic and exemplary place for our municipality”. In addition, she insisted on the idea of it adding value to the destination “with great cultural programming”. Not to be left behind in that sense, Avelina Fernández Manrique de Lara; Councillor for Culture at Santa Brígida Town Hall, by once more offering one of her best spots, “the Municipal Park of Santa Brigida, to which the inhabitants of the municipality have a special affection”. She also stressed an element that “we take great care of in Santa Brígida, education, with pedagogical concerts also included as part of the festival programme”.

José Miguel Álamo, Vice Rector of Culture at ULPGC, “with the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall), stage area of the cultural circuit of the capital, we are very proud to complement the cultural programming of the island, in a humble way”. He highlighted that “the function of a public university is to have a cultural policy consistent with our community and our time and environment”. Tilman Kuttenkeuler, Managing Director of the Auditorium & Theatre Foundation of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, said “it is one of the most important summer festivals we have in the Canary Islands” and he considered it a pleasure “to have” the best artists of the festival “in our two emblematic buildings”.

To close the proceedings, the Director of the Festival, Miguel Ramírez, offered his appreciation to all the institutions in the elaboration of a festival which “is the sum of good will”. With respect to the current edition, “the festival adds to the sensitivity of our audience with the care of our surrounding environment, for that reason this year we have a much more ambitious sustainability plan”.