The 29th edition of the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más will also be held on Lanzarote

• It will take place on the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera & El Hierro as well

• It will feature more than twenty international, national & local musical ensembles

• All the concerts will take place with maximum health safety measures guaranteed, at both closed and open-air venues

This year, in which it completes 29 editions, the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más will be held on seven of the eight islands. The inclusion of Lanzarote in the programme fulfils one of its main aims, to consolidate the presence of the festival on those islands which have participated on a permanent basis over the past years -Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Lanzarote & Fuerteventura- and add to them the islands of El Hierro & La Gomera, where they have only been on one occasion. In its most complicated year, a result of the situation caused by Covid-19, finding it necessary to re-programme both artists as well as the dates on which it was usually held, the Festival has managed to reaffirm its commitment to live music, presenting international, national & local artists.

The 29th edition will adapt, as it has no other option, to the ‘new normality’ regulations, thus assuring health safety measures are complied with, both for the general public and the musicians who will participate between the dates of 31 July and 15 August staging nearly forty concerts. Yesterday, the Festival was presented at the Guiniguigada Theatre (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), in an official act attended by Juan Márquez, deputy secretary for Culture & Cultural Heritage at the Canarian Government, which is doubling their financial contribution in this edition.

Márquez himself announced the incorporation of Lanzarote, stating that “it is still possible that La Graciosa is added, and so the Festival would be present on the eight islands”. In his statement the deputy secretary emphasized the importance of jazz in the Canaries, “it’s a language that has made an impression” and had no doubt as to the large number of followers the genre has “with the celebration of a festival that in the coming year will have completed 30 years, it is already an institution and one that makes an enormous contribution to our cultural ecosystem”.

The director of Canarias Jazz & Más, Miguel Ramírez, thanked “the involvement in such a complicated year of all the institutions which have made it possible for us to be here today”. With regard to the programme, he recalled what it was before the pandemic appeared “was amazing, but the bug disrupted everything. We had to wait and later make the decision to save the festival”. Even so he defended the billing “in which there are very good international & national groups, but above all we have also made a commitment to our local musicians; we believe that in these circumstances we should support them more than ever. There have always been many Canarian artists featured, but this year there will be even more”.

The list of artists to feature at this 29th edition will be headed by the leader & bassist of Snarky Puppy, Michael League & Friends, who will do a summer 2020 world tour with his new group, an ensemble of the first order composed of incredible musicians such as the eclectic Magda Giannikou (Banda Magda) keyboard player Justin Stanton (Snarky Puppy) and percussionist Adri Trujillo (Antonio Lizana). During the concert the band will take a trip through a repertoire which features the more well-known pieces by Snarky Puppy & Banda Magda, together with some unknown ones composed for the occasion. League is a three-times Grammy award winner.

Another outstanding band comes from Poland, Atom String Quartet; one of the most intriguing string quartets in the world, and also one of the best Polish jazz bands. The group combines the capabilities of a string quartet (i.e. two violins, viola and cello) with improvisation in its broadest sense. The band’s members are violinists Dawid Lubowicz & Mateusz Smoczyński, viola player Michał Zaborski and cellist Krzysztof Lenczowski. All of them graduated from the Warsaw Frederic Chopin University of Music.

Outstanding also on an international level are the Belgian guitarrist Julien Tassin; Dutch soulman Steffen Morrison; the Latin jazz combo The Cuban Jazz Syndicate; as well as NextApe, who are based in Brussels but with musicians of different nationalities; North String Quartet, a Dutch jazz-folk quartet who will perform alongside the local guitarrist Javier Infante; as representatives of national jazz we have the trio from Galicia Sumrra; the saxophonist from Cadiz Antonio Lizana and the excellent vocalist Susana Sheiman,who will be accompanied by the Chano Gil Quartet; and there will also be an important representation of local bands, names that have been associated with the festival for years, some of them defending their respective groups from their current place of residence on mainland Spain, such as Polo Ortí, performing with his new ensemble, OMN and the saxophone player from Tenerife Kike Perdomo, who will present his new show which is inspired by the Rain Dance, featuring his new group in the form of a sensational sextet composed of Nasim López-Palacios (drums), Daniel González (drums), Andrés Dorado (electric bass), David Quevedo (piano & Rhodes) and Nico Martín (guitar). The billing is completed with the ensembles – 2 For The Road, A Few Colors, Alexis Alonso Quartet, Augusto Báez, Fábrica La Isleta, Local Jazz Band, Luis Merino Quartet, Mónica Santana Project, Orquesta de Jazz del Atlántico, Quevedo & Rascón, ST Fusion & Yul Ballesteros Canarian Quintet.

The festival ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’ will return to its usual venues, such as Theatre Guiniguada, Tenerife Auditorium, Theatre Leal, the public square – Plaza de los Alisios (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Theatre Pérez Galdós, public square – Plaza Europa (Puerto de la Cruz), Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma), Santa Brígida (Gran Canaria), Fuerteventura Auditorium, Alfredo Kraus Auditorium and the public square – Plaza de Santa Ana (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), to which the place of cultural interest ‘La Granja’ (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the Theatre Víctor Fernández Gopar ‘El Salinero’ (Lanzarote) will be added.

In closed venues, (theatres, auditoriums, halls) the festival will apply the health protocols which are already in force and functioning ever since the de-escalation process from the State of Emergency began. At the open-air venues, the organisers are working to ensure safety measures are in place, which would involve enclosing them in order to control audience capacity. At these concerts, prior registration will be necessary to limit attendance. The festival will apply all the recommendations & established rules or standards, in coordination with the health authorities, among which will be social distancing, compulsory use of face masks, the use of hydro-alcoholic gel, the disinfection of communal areas, etc.