The Festival Canarias Jazz & Más bids farewell until 2022 with Miriam Fleitas & D’Local Groove at The Paper Club

The 30th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más closes its programme this Sunday 25 July at 15.00 hours at The Paper Club (Calle (Street) Remedios, 10 – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) with a concert by Miriam Fleitas & D’Local Groove (entrance tickets on tickety.es), in a farewell party to an outstanding edition which has staged more than 50 concerts on eight islands featuring over 30 musical emsembles. With a placard stating ‘no entrance tickets’ placed outside most of the venues programmed in the festival, and in spite of the difficulties caused by the audience capacity restrictions required by health safety protocols to combat covid-19, Canarias Jazz & Más reaches this last event thanking its attending public for the trust placed in them at these complicated times for culture.

At this closing event of the festival, Miriam Fleitas & D’Local Groove present Hop-Jop, a disc that sets out music very urban, in which Miriam Fleitas’ voice features accompanied by an energetic & really rhythmic band. Full of very special and harmonically rich arrangements, the songs make references to neo-soul, R&B, reggae, funk & blues, as well as highlighting the richness of ‘groove’ with amusing & ironic lyrics, but also assertive. The disc is the result of a few years of fellowship & experiences, sharing & enjoying many of the musicals that have influenced the band most, and who have managed to attract a lot of fans with their live performances on all the islands. With lyrics by Miriam Fleitas & Miguel Ramírez and the music created by the group’s hard work, the disc will be on the market soon, both physically as well as in digital format.

Miriam was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1979) and ever since she was very young found that music was her great passion, to the point where it became her way of life. Always attentive & willing to discover & experiment with music, once at a gathering of friends she just jumped up and sang and amongst them was a musician, the Canarian bassist, Fabio Pérez, who encouraged her to sing in his group Transfúsion. She carried on with the ensembles Overbooking & Funky Lufuky Fundation. In 2016 she recorded an ‘EP’ with Banadú, a group where, as well as singing, she participated in the creation of its music & lyrics. They presented their disc at the ‘Festival Sonidos Líquidos’, ‘Maspalomas Soul Festival’, ‘Festival de Jazz de Canarias’, & ‘Monopol Music Festival’. She is a member of ‘La Local Jazz Band’ with whom she also participates at didactic concerts. Funk, soul, rock, blues, jazz… are the styles she has felt most comfortable with during the years of her musical career.

For a final session this Sunday, the Leisure Space ‘Lago Martiánez’ in Puerto de la Cruz will also stage performances by Ozma and the Gino Marcelli Trio (20.00 hours).

With seven albums to their credit, 450 concerts staged on 4 continents and over 40 countries, OZMA has also formed part of collaborative multi-disciplinary projects with artists from all over the world. So many dialogues and generous exchanges that have continued to feed the work of the musicians that make up the band. Since 2001, OZMA has taken us on journeys, across continents but also musical styles, borrowing largely from rock grammars, traditional music and electronic landscapes. Like a willingness to hear John Coltrane interacting with Rage Against The Machine, Ravi Shankar jamming with Pink Floyd, or Amon Tobin hitching up with the fanfares of New Orleans …

Born in Sermoneta (Latina, Italy), Gino Marcelli is an active composer, arranger, pianist & producer. He began in music as a child and after studying harmony with the maestro Gianfranco Sordi, played all over Europe with artists such as Leonard Johnson, Gerardina Trova, Andrea Bocelli, Mango, Tricarico, Tony Scott, Simple Minds, Feitless, Trilok Gurtu… In 1989 he moved to Milan, with Stefano Cerri (bass) & Andy Surdi (drums & vocals) forming the trio ‘Cerri Gas Station’. In 1991 he began a collaboration with Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo. In 1992 & 1993 he composed the music for the theatrical shows Aria di Tempesta featuring the participation of Marina Massironi, under the direction of Paola Galassi.

In this 30th edition, the Festival Canarias Jazz & Mas goes to the eight islands for the first time in the same edition (having already staged concerts on all, but not in the same year), a milestone that is due also to the collaboration of all the institutions that have made it possible to celebrate this musical event: the Canary Islands Government; the Island Councils of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife & Gran Canaria (through its Tourist Board); the Town Halls of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Brígida, Teguise, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz, Adeje, Los Llanos de Aridane, San Sebastián de La Gomera; and venues such as the Adán Martín Auditorium of Tenerife, the Auditorium & Theatre Foundation of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Theatre Guiniguada, the place of interest ‘La Granja’, and others that have been added this year, like the Elder Museum of Science & Technology, the Convent of Santo Domingo in La Laguna, the Convention Centre of ‘ExpoMeloneras’ and the Tenerife Nature & Archeology Museum (MUNA).