The 27th edition of the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken kicks off this Friday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife & La Palma

• The public square – Plaza de Los Alisios (at the rear of the Tenerife Auditorium) will host performances by the Christian Sands Trio, Keyon Harrold & Atlantic Jazz Ensemble on 6 July and Myles Sanko, Jungle Fire & Alexis Alonso Quartet on the 7th, at 21.00 hours
• The square – Plaza de España (Los Llanos de Aridane) will be the venue in La Palma for concerts featuring Huntertones & Myles Sanko
•  The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium opens the doors of the Sala de Cámara (Chamber Hall) and Rincón del Jazz (Jazz Corner) on the 7th for the first night of the festival in Gran Canaria
•  Huntertones and the group from Tenerife 3alDente will take the stage in the beach parking area-Parking de la Playa in la Garita, Arrieta (municipality of Haría) in Lanzarote

The Festival Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken kicks off this weekend with a double session of open-air concerts in the square – Plaza de los Alisios (at the rear of the Tenerife Auditorium). On Friday 6 July the billing will feature the local band Atlantic Jazz Ensemble, pianist Christian Sands in a trio formation and trumpeter Keyon Harrold. The concerts commence at 21.00 hours and are free-entrance. In this manner, Santa Cruz de Tenerife is able to recoup the open-air concerts it once staged, with a double programme as on Saturday 7 (same time & place) both lovers of good music & faithful fans of the festival, will be able to enjoy a second session featuring performances by the Alexis Alonso Quartet (Canaries), British artist Myles Sanko and the Californinans Jungle Fire. Two eclectic nights of entertaining exposure to two different ways of understanding & appreciating jazz, encountering from the classic & pure to the fusion of related rhythms like hip hop, soul & Afrobeat.

But it won’t be the only musical encounter programmed for this weekend. More concerts are to be staged in public squares & music halls. In keeping with a chonological sequence, La Palma also features as one of the first venues.  Myles Sanko and Huntertones are the star attractions for the christening of the 27th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken also this Friday 6 July, in the public square – Plaza de España in Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma). An open-air free-entrance concert featuring two very entertaining groups, different & international; a prime example of the continuing search for new artists that characterizes the billing at the festival.

And the following day, Christian Sands Trio & Keyon Harrold will fly from Tenerife to Gran Canaria to perform in a double session staged at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium. The shows for this first night will be held at two distinct premises; the Sala de Cámara (Chamber Hall), featuring Christian Sands starting at 21:00 hours and the other the Rincón del Jazz (Jazz Corner), with Keyon Harrold at 22.30 hours. Spectators have the choice of entrance tickets for both concerts at the sole price of 25€, or on an individual basis for 15€ each. There is also available a one-off payment for four concerts obtained via the Thetare & Auditorium Foundation sale points, that also include performances by Dhafer Youssef and Joao Bosco at the Pérez Galdós Theatre (price 60€, limited to 300 tickets).

And finally, to complete the billing for this intense weekend, Huntertones and 3alDente are the two groups which will feature at the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken, at a venue in Arrieta (Municipality of Haría). In their 27th edition, this veteran cultural event pays a visit this Saturday 7 July to the beach parking area – Párking de la Playa in la Garita, staging performances by two groups with all the expectations of a memorable night’s entertainment. The show kicks off at 21:00 hours and is free-entrance. The festival will return to Lanzarote on Friday 20, with artists Gilad Hekselman and Naughty Professor, the venue for that occasion being the Varadero in Puerto del Camen (Municipality of Tías).

 

Christian Sands, five-time Grammy Nominee, is an emerging jazz force. His abundant piano technique perfectly matches his conception, accomplishing a much deeper musical goal: a fresh look at the entire language of jazz. Whether it’s stride, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian or Afro-Cuban, Sands develops the past while providing unusual and stimulating vehicles for the present… and for the future.  He expresses himself through an extensive vocabulary of patterns, textures and structures, all the while maintaining a strong sense of sensitivity, taste and swing. His career took a significant leap when he caught the attention of Grammy award winning bassist, Christian McBride, who asked Sands, then 20 years old, to sit in at the Village Vanguard with his big band. That appearance led to Sands becoming a member of bassist Christian McBride’s Trio, with whom he has toured throughout the world.

 

Members:

Christian  Sands: Piano
Yasushi  Nakamura: Bass
Jonathan  Barber: Drums

 

Keyon Harrold was born and raised in Ferguson, MO, a St. Louis suburb. While Ferguson looms large in Harrold’s album The Mugician, it examines the troubled times its most humble inhabitants underwent. Sweeping and cinematic, the music draws on elements of jazz, classical, rock, blues, and hip hop to create something uniquely modern, unmistakeably American. Guests including Pharoahe Monch, Gary Clark, Jr., Big K.R.I.T., Guy Torry, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Robert Glasper add to the record’s eclectic nature, but it ultimately triumphs as a unified, cohesive whole, both because of Harrold’s virtuosic skill as a trumpeter and composer and because of his relentlessly optimistic belief in “brighter days to come”. In his work Mugician, which is a portmanteau of “musician” and “magician”, Harrold pushes beyond the traditional boundaries of jazz trumpet. In fact, the album doesn’t even begin with trumpet, but rather with a track called ‘Voicemail,’ which features an inspirational message from Harrold’s mother set to a stirring, orchestral soundscape. Entirely unedited, her words lay the groundwork for an album that celebrates the importance of family (ten of Keyon’s siblings appear on the record) and the absolute necessity of optimism in the face of darkness and doubt. Issues of identity and equality percolate throughout the record, sometimes subtly beneath the surface, and others more significantly.

 

Members:

Keyon Harrold: Trumpet & vocals
Shedrick Mitchell: Piano
Nir Felder: Guitar
Burniss Travis: Bass
Charles Haynes: Drums
Featuring Andrea Pizziconi: Vocals

 

The Atlantic Jazz Ensemble is a creation of the Atlantic Jazz Lab (Laboratorio Atlántico de Jazz y Nuevas Músicas – Atlantic Laboratory of Jazz & New Music), established with the aim of forming a regular group which would assist in developing, conserving & fostering the creation & pursuit of jazz in, for and from the Canary Islands. All this under the artistic direction of Natanael Ramos, founder of the Laboratory and one of the most outstanding Canarian musicians on the European jazz scene. From the year 2016 this ensemble has been leaving its mark on the public around the islands with a series of different itinerant projects, like the monograph of the album Round Midnight by Miles Davis, and since the end of 2017 with the project which they will present at this edition of the festival: The Music Of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.

 

Members:

Natanael Ramos: Trumpet & Artistic Direction
Claudio Marrero: Tenor Sax
Francis Hernández: Piano
Jose Carlos Machado: Contrabass
Nasim López-Palacios: Drums

 

Soul singer & composer resident in England known as Myles Sanko, made his debut with an EP titled Born in Black & White in 2013, which was acclaimed by critics & public alike. The disc consists of seven original tracks inspired by the style of some of soul music’s greats, such as Bill Withers, Otis redding, Al Green & James Brown; Myles openly and proudly acknowledging them as his main musical influences. It is a work that combines to perfection deep grooves and jazz. Dubbed “The Lovechild of Soul Music”, Myles began his journey singing & rapping alongside DJs in nightclubs. He has fronted some popular bands, like ‘Bijoumiyo’ and ‘Speedometer’. He will present his third album, with which Sanko adds another chapter to his particular and intense trip. Just Being Me “speaks of love, hope and policy and has a piece of me in every part,” he says.

 

Members:

Myles Sanko (Vocals)
Rick Hudson (Drums)
Tom O’grady (Keyboard)
Phil Stevenson (Guitar)
Jon Mapp (Bass)
Alex Hitchcock (Sax)
James Copus (Trumpet)

 

The sound of Jungle Fire delves deeply into Afro-Latin Funk with an authentic and highly explosive approach. This TropiFunk group from Los Angeles (USA) draw their influences from music legends like Irakere, Ray Barreto, James Brown, Fela Kuti & Manu Dibango (among many others), while creating a brew of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Western rhythms with breaks of classic funk. Since their emergence in 2011, Jungle Fire rapidly attracted attention within the Funk scene in Los Angeles, scorching dance clubs and underground festive joints throughout the city. The diversity of the musical & cultural origins of the members of Jungle Fire are a reflection of the musical & cultural panorama of Los Angeles. The mixture of the international and multicultural sounds & flavours are fundamental components of the band’s overall sound. Individually & collectively, the members of Jungle Fire have performed, recorded and/or toured with such different artists as Stevie Wonder, Ozomatli, Breakestra, Alice Russell, De La Soul, Celia Cruz, LCD Soundsystem, U2, Greyboy Allstars, Kelis and a host more.

 

Members:

Alberto López: Percussion
Steve Haney: Percussion
Michael Duffy: Percussion
Sam Halterman: Drums
Patrick Bailey: Bass
Aquiles Magaña: Electric Guitar
Sean Billings: Trumpet
Sam Robles: Baritone Sax

 

One of the characteristic features of the Alexis Alonso Quartet is its original formation within the jazz spectrum, considering that it includes a cello as an important feature of its overall sound. The feeling & sensitivity of the great cellist Ciro Hernández, the versatility & talent of Agustín Buenafuente on contrabass and one of the best drummers on the current jazz scene, Roberto Amor, gel together in an amazing cocktail that has moved along with the compositions by Alexis Alonso, a veritable magician on the piano, resulting in a really potent act.

 

Members:

Alexis Alonso: Piano
Ciro Hernández: Cello
Agustín P. Buenafuente: Contrabass
Roberto Amor: Drums

 

The band Huntertones was formed in Columbus, Ohio at The Ohio State University and hosted their first shows at a house on Hunter Avenue. They have since relocated to New York City, released two albums, and toured North and South America, Europe and Africa; experiences which have pushed the band to expand even further, stylistically. What started as a group of classmates finding a common voice/sound, has developed into a highly collaborative group of musicians travelling, sharing, and growing together. They are currently one of the most recommended brass band combination of young, regenerated musicians, integrated in a collective manner, much like the group Sanarky Puppy; the band’s members proffer a type of uninhibited jazz, brilliant, fresh & lucid and on the fringe of academic correctness, with the sousaphone & beatbox as explosive rhythmic elements, featuring a repertoire which is a mixture of renditions & original compositions.

 

Members:

Dan White: Sax
Jon Lampley: Trumpet & sousaphone
Chris Ott: Trombone & beatbox
Adam DeAscentis: Bass
John Hubbell: Drums
Josh Hill: Guitar

 

3alDente is a group made up of three seasoned Canarian musicians: Jonay Mesa, Carlos Pérez and Tomás LP Cruz. All three can boast an extraordinary & extensive career as professional musicians in very different categories that range from barroque music to current power jazz in the case of bassist Tomás LP, or from classic to jazz fusion, and even reggae & folk in guitarrist Jonay Mesa’s case, while the drummer/percussionist excellently handles just about any kind & style, from Brazilean music, for which he has a particular devotion, to avant-garde jazz-rock.

 

Members:

Jonay G. Mesa: Guitar
Tomás LP Cruz: Bass
Carlos Pérez: Druma & Percussion

 

There will be more than 50 concerts featuring 28 groups to be staged at venues on five islands- La Palma, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria & Tenerife-, for yet another year and another edition, as a result of the collaboration of the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Adeje, Puerto de la Cruz, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Santa Brígida, Puerto del Rosario, Teguise & Los Llanos de Aridane, and the sponsorship of the Canarian Governmant and the Island Councils of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura & Lanzarote, Casa África, the Tenerife Auditorium, the Auditorium & Theatre Foundation of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Theatres Leal & Guiniguada and the airline Binter. Organised by Colorado Producciones, yet another edition has received the sponsorship of the company Heineken.