The festival stages Kenny Garrett’s modern jazz featuring his disc ‘Do Your Dance!’

• The festival reaches its halfway point with more than a dozen concerts in Gran Canaria, Tenerife & Fuerteventura

One of the greatest stars of the 27th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken stages his performance this Thursday in Gran Canaria, presenting his latest disc. Kenny Garrett, an authentic legend of the genre, saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside some of the greatest luminaries of music, such as Miles Davis & Duke Ellington, will bring to the stage at the Guiniguada Theatre a display of all the elegance, exoticism and vigour in keeping with the numbers from his disc Do Your Dance! (Mack Avenue, 2016). The concert is this Thursday 12 July starting at 21:00 hours. Entrance tickets, priced at 25€, may be acquired at entrees.es. Garrett will also perform on Friday 13 July in Fuerteventura, the venue being the Auditorio Insular – Island Auditorium (Puerto del Rosario), commencing at 21:00 hours. Entrance tickets, priced at 20€, can be obtained at entrees.es.

The title of the disc is a clear indication of its intentions, which he applies to his live shows, and which invariably end up with the audience clapping and dancing to the music. Following an experience during a concert in Pennsylvania in 2014, he opted to up the tempo in his music, and the public responded by dancing. And so he decided to take up those compositions that he once played with Duke Ellington & Miles Davis; “people danced, which is not so common; we can’t throw history away in the trash can”, he commented a couple of years ago at an interview with the newspaper ‘El País’. From there stemmed the inspiration for the numbers featured on his latest album; full of AfroCuban & Caribbean rhythms, funk and with numerous acknowledgements to artists like Chucho Valdés, Chick Corea & Maceo Parker.

In his recent concerts in Spain accompanied by his quintet, he practised condensing more than 100 minutes of each performance into six themes; in which he experimented with avant-garde rhythms, exploring areas fringing on bop, tackling cathartic numbers of pure funky dance stuff, others more like Coltraine, urban & melodic. Genuine vital experiences & ingredients to enrich & spice up a brilliant live show.

The following day, Equatorial Guinea features prominently in Noche África (Africa Night), within the framework of the 27th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken. Two of their most outstanding artists, Alex Ikot & Nelida Karr, were the acts chosen this year to tour about a dozen festivals throughout Spain, having won the ninth edition of Vis a Vis, an annual cultural contest of collaboration between Spanish promoters and African musical artists, organised by Casa África. Ikot & Karr will take the stage this Friday, starting at 21:00 hours (free-entrance) in the square – Plaza de San Rafael (Vecindario – Gran Canaria).

After eight years of the contest being held in either French, English & Portuguese-speaking countries, in the year 2018 Vis a Vis was hosted in Equatorial Guinea, the only country where the artists sang in Spanish. The artists range from the highly individualistic & amazingly talented Nélida Karr, a 27 year old singer who had yet to perform on the European continent to the tenacity & dedication of a musician who has already acquired international acclaim, drummer and percussionist, Alex Ikot. He keeps progressing & endowing his own gifted personality to his latest project, a band where he displays his particular concept of Afrobeat mixed with styles, compositions & rhythms of Equatorial Guinea. Alex’s professional curriculum is perhaps the most international of other musicians from his native country, having played & collaborated during his long career with some of Africa’s greatest musicians, such as Manu Dibango & Youssou N’Dour; and also for having begun his initial playing alongside the most renowned drummer of the continent, the mythical Tony Allen.

This very same Friday night, velvety soul music by Tanika Charles & The Wonderfuls will feature in a live performance in The Paper Club (Calle/Street Remedios 10 – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) at just before midnight (23.45 hours). This will be the return to the islands of one of the most sought-after artists of the genre, barely six months since presenting her only disc to date, Soul Run in Gran Canaria. Entrance tickets (10 euros) are available on tomaticket.es  and also at the ticket-office.

The weekend’s concerts in Gran Canaria come to a close with a double session in the Municipal Park of Santa Brígida on Saturday 14 (free-entrance, starting at 21.00 hours). French-Dominican vocalist Cyrille Aimée and her liberal version of jazz, lover of improvisation, capable of renditions of gypsy jazz, swing and also a piece by Juan Luis Guerra, one of the emergent vocalists of the moment. Later, on the same stage the night’s entertainment of jazz is complemented with a performance by the superb Israeli guitarrist Yotam Silberstein accompanied by his quartet; giving free rein to all the music that  has formed part of his professional career from taking the stage at a very tender age to performing at venues all around the world. His repertoire covers just about all, from Brazilean to World music, blues & bebop. He is one of the most promising guitarrists on the scene today.

As for the island of Tenerife, the activities are centred in La Laguna (Thursday 12) with a performance by Cyrille Aimée , at 21.00 hours in the Leal Theatre of La Laguna with entrance tickets priced at 25 euros available via entrees.es; and in Adeje, the municipality that will stage the shows at the same venue as the previous year. The concerts are held over a two-day period, Friday & Saturday, free-entrance and commencing at 21:00 hours at the square – Plaza del Centro Comercial Salytién. The first night the audience will be treated to the music of a great vocalist, The Allan Harris Band, and an exceptional guitarrist, Israeli Yotam Silberstein and his Quintet. Saturday night smacks of a party with a lot of dancing at the hands of La Local Jazz Band and its tremendous groove, and the elegant soul of Tanika Charles & The Wonderfuls.

Allan Harris is an outstanding & internationally renowned vocalist, guitarrist and composer. His personal perspective concerning music can always be summed up in clear and straightforward terms. Over the past twenty years, Harris has steadily developed his reputation as one of the finest vocalists of his era. Brooklyn-born and Harlem-based, he has forged his sterling credentials through his previous albums, covering a broad range of contexts, all netted together within the rich territory of the jazz tradition. He has performed on a worldwide stage that has taken him to prestigious international festivals and halls in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as the 2012 Olympics in London

La Local Jazz Band is a group formed in 2010 by Miguel Ramírez (director of the Canaries Jazz Festival), with a view to promote & encourage and also contribute, with his ample jazz repertoire acquired over the years. The ‘LJB’ presents a concert featuring some of the most emblematic pieces from different varieties of jazz. Their choice of repertoire and stage presence are bound to make lovers of good music experience an enjoyable event. The ‘LJB’ presents a concert featuring some of the most emblematic pieces from different varieties of jazz. Their choice of repertoire and stage presence are bound to make lovers of good music experience an enjoyable event.

The 27th Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heinenen has provided for 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.