Echoes of ‘bebop’ turn up at the festival in the form of Immanuel Wilkins

• The young American saxophonist, star of the Blue Note recording label, will perform on Wednesday 6 at the Elder Museum and on Thursday 7 in the Sala de Cristal (Crystal Hall) of the Santo Domingo Convent (La Laguna) 

• Fábrica La Isleta will host the concert by the Carlos Meneses Trío (Thursday 7, 20.30 hours)

Islas Canarias, 5 de julio de 2022. The ‘Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más’ enters into the second week of concerts with Immanuel Wilkins, one of the most celebrated young talents by specialized critics and with a promising career ahead of him. At the mere age of 24, he has become one of the role models of the prestigious recording label Blue Note. Wilkins will perform on Wednesday 6 at the Elder Museum in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (entrance tickets here ); and on Thursday 7 in the Sala de Cristal (Crystal Hall) of the Santo Domingo Convent (La Laguna). This same day, Carlos Meneses will present his new trio at ‘Fábrica La Isleta. All the concerts will start at 20.30 hours. The festival starts its second week following a successful beginning starring the charismatic group ‘SFJAZZ Collective’ in its three concerts staged in Gran Canaria, Tenerife & La Palma, which also featured performances by the Trio Corrente, Jesús Prieto ‘Pitti’ & Projeto Brasileiro.

The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Jazz fans were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, which was named the Best Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. The album also introduced his remarkable quartet with Micah Thomas on piano, Daryl Johns on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums, a tight-knit unit that Wilkins features once again on his stunning sophomore album The 7th Hand, in which he explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite comprised of seven movements.

While writing, Wilkins began viewing each movement as a gesture bringing his quartet to where the music would be entirely improvised, channelled collectively. “It’s the idea of being a conduit for the music as a higher power that actually influences what we’re playing,” says the Brooklyn-based, Philadelphia-raised artist who Pitchfork said “composes ocean-deep jazz epics.”

The 7^th Hand derives its title from a question steeped in Biblical symbolism: If the number 6 represents the extent of human possibility, Wilkins wondered what it would mean — how it would sound — to invoke divine intervention and allow that seventh element to possess his quartet.

Wilkins and his band members reveal their collective truth by peeling themselves back, layer by layer, movement by movement. “Each movement chips away at the band until the last movement, just one written note,” says Wilkins. “The goal of what we’re all trying to get to is nothingness, where the music can flow freely through us.” The Line-Up for the concerts at the festival consists of Immanuel Wilkins (alto sax); Micah Thomas (piano); Tyrone Allen (contrabass) & Kweku Sumbry (drums).

On Thursday, Gran Canarian bassist Carlos Meneses will present his new ensemble, a trio in which he has been playing since the year 2020, with co-members Federico Lechner & Daniel González. Together they staged their first concert in October 2021, where they recorded their album ‘Live at CAAM’, which was released on the market in December 2021 in both physical & digital format. Famous Argentenian pianist, Lechner, has collaborated with a wide range of artists on the Spanish commercial music scene and in spite of his youth, he is well known on the national jazz circuit: in fact he has collaborated with Jorge Pardo, Antonio Serrano, Chano Domínguez, Perico Sambeat, Javier Colina, Pedro Ruy Blas, Bob Sands, Ximo Tebar, Víctor Merlo, Israel Sandoval, Paloma Berganza, Carlos Carli, and so on.. Dani González Batista, drummer born in Tenerife, moved to Barcelona to finish his higher musical studies at the ‘Escuela Superior de Músicos de Cataluña’. He was part of the Barcelona musical scene for a period of ten years. Since the tear 2006, when he started his professional career, Meneses has had innumerable collaborations with a wide range of artists.

This will be the start of the second week in which more than 60 concerts staged at 26 venues on the eight islands will take place, where 37 musical ensembles will participate following the recent additions of Fuensanta & Louis Cole and Los Aurora. Out of all these groups, 14 of them stem from the Archipelago. There will be a total of close to 200 musicians who will transit between 1 & 24 July for this cultural gathering, which for yet another year is backed by the Canarian Government through the Deputy Minister of Culture & Heritage, and present Marcus Miller, winner of two Grammy Awards and Gregory Porter, with another two, as the main attractions.

Among the artists & groups that will perform during the next few weeks to are Avishai Cohen ‘Big Vicious’, Nate Smith + Kinfolk, Ben Wendel Quartet, Samantha Fish, Kadri Voorand in Duo with Mihkel Mälgand, Septeto Santiaguero, Fuensanta & Louis Cole, Los Aurora, Pepe Rivero y Ángela Cervantes, Philip Lassiter, Yusan, Barencia, Pokaz Trio (Ucrania), Lucía Fumero Trío, Pepe Bao Sextet, Berta Moreno, Sumrrá and 14 Canarian ensembles: Gran Canaria Big Band, Ernesto Montenegro Quintet, Gabriela Suárez Trío, La Local Jazz Band, Rayko León Quartet, JC Machado, Jonay Martín Trío, Los Jinetes del Groove, Projeto Brasileiro, Javier Montero Jazz Band, Alexis Alonso Ensemble & JM Churchi & Son de la Tierra.

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, place of interest ‘Espacio La Granja’; the Elder Museum of Science & Technology, the ‘Paraninfo’ at the ULPGC, the Santo Domingo Convent in La Laguna, ‘Espacio R, Café Theatre Rayuela and Fábrica La Isleta.