The Festival Canarias Jazz & Más kicks off its 33rd edition with 10 concerts staged on three islands
- Chucho Valdés & Irakere 50 and Harold López-Nussa are the star features of the first session on Friday in Tenerife & Gran Canaria
- The ‘Médano’ & Arucas are the venues programmed for Saturday 6 featuring groups such as the Idafe Pérez Quinteto, London Afrobeat Collective and the Ernesto Hermida Quintet
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 04 de julio de 2024. The Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas opens its programme this weekend featuring a predominant presence of Cuban musicians, such as Chucho Valdés & Irakere 50, Harold López-Nussa and the Ernesto Hermida Quintet, who take centre stage as part of the 10 concerts that are staged to raise the curtain of its 33rd edition. Three islands, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria & Tenerife will host these first performances, which also feature the presence of other musical ensembles such as London Afrobeat Collective and Idafe Pérez Quinteto. This first weekend also highlights the incorporation of two new venues, ‘El Médano’ and Arucas.
Without doubt, the main star of this starting weekend falls on the figure of Chucho Valdés, the renowned Cuban pianist & composer, who starts his European tour staging three concerts on Canarian soil, and all three with the same result: sold out at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium (Lanzarote) & Theatre Pérez Galdós (Gran Canaria), and on the verge of selling-out at the Tenerife Auditorium (just 50 seats left at the time of writing this article).
The response of the Canarian public also has to do with the project with which he comes here, the tribute to the repertoire of an unforgettable band, Irakere; for which Chucho Valdés brought together musicians from different generations to pay tribute to one of the most important bands of Afro-Latin music. Valdés is a seven-time Grammy and six-time Latin Grammy winner and recipient of a Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award for musical excellence.
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Another Cuban pianist tasked with opening the festival, and who figures among the emerging artists of this seemingly limitless music school, is Harold López Nussa, who this year begins an exciting new chapter of his fascinating career with his Blue Note debut Timba a la Americana, a vibrant album teeming with joy and pathos that was inspired by the pianist’s recent decision to leave his Cuban homeland and begin a new life in France. Produced by Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, Timba a la Americana unveils a brand-new sound across 10 dynamic original compositions. Entrance tickets for the concert by Harold in the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall) at the University – ULPGC (Friday) are also sold out; the concert will be repeated on Saturday in the public square El Médano (free entrance).
There will also be two opportunities to enjoy the live performance of the London Afrobeat Collective. On Saturday they will be in the public square of San Juan, in Arucas, and on Sunday in the Ex-Convent of Santo Domingo Square (free entrance in both cases). This band, which calls itself a tightly knit family of musicians from all over the world, is based in London and united by a love of Afrobeat and a desire to take original music to new places.
The ensemble of eight musicians from England, Italy, France, Congo, Argentina & New Zealand combines traditional Afrobeat with funk, jazz, rock, Latin and dub to create party-music born of its truly global DNA. In their two performances they will be accompanied by Ernesto Hermida, Cuban bassist based in Madrid and who will present Puntos de Vista (Points of View), his debut album as a soloist released in 2023; merging in his compositions the different musical influences that he has received during his career as a musician that range from Cuban music, Latin jazz, contemporary jazz, flamenco and Brazilian music.
The cast of artists who complete the weekend closes with the ensemble led by Canarian trumpeter Idafe Pérez in quintet format to present Ahul, an Amazigh (Berber language) exclamation that was used both to greet and say goodbye, and an expression of the wish for good fortune. This group of musicians uses the timbric and instrumentation of traditional jazz for their compositions, which capture the varied soundscapes that inspire them and the multitude of influences that define them. It is music in motion because of the improvisational character of jazz; and avant-garde due to the search for rhythms, harmonic colours, dissonance and the collective composition. Idafe Pérez Quinteto will stage their performance in the public square – Plaza del Médano (free entrance).
