Vecindario and Santa Brígida take their place in the Festival Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken’s programme with open-air concerts

• North American vocalist Becca Stevens and the Ximo Tebar Soleo Band perform this Friday (21.00 hours) in the public square – Plaza de San Rafael
•  Brazilean pianist Ivan Lins and the tribute – Ella at 100, The Latin Side of Ella Fitzgerald, feature in the double concert for Saturday night

The municipalities of Santa Lucía de Tirajana and Santa Brígida are hosts on 14 & 15 July, respectively, to four concerts at the 26th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Heineken. On Friday, Becca Stevens and Ximo Tebar will take the stage in the public square – Plaza de San Rafael in Vecindario, starting at 21.00 hours (free-entrance). And on Saturday at the same time, Ivan Lins and Ella at 100, The Latin Side of Ella Fitzgerald, will stage their performances in the Municipal Park of Santa Brígida.

Brazilean composer & musician known for his many recordings and work all over the world, and also for his different harmonies & arrangements; all refined and popular at the same time. Ivan Lins spent part of his youth in the USA where he got his first taste of musical influences. When he returned to Brazil, he began making contact with some of the great artists and songs of that time period, which he had heard in his grandparent’s house. Later, jazz and Brazilean music, especially the bossa nova, were added to the melting pot of influential factors. At the age of eighteen as a university student, he adopted the piano as his favoured instrument and started his career as a composer. His compositions with such a different harmonious structure, harmonies threaded with strands of Brazilean music so unusual in the 70s, were the making of him as an artist, well respected among other musicians.

Ivan also had a number of hits as singer & composer, including Madalena, inmortalised by the unforgettable Elis Regina, Abre Alas, Somos Todos Iguais Essa Noite, Começar de Novo, Dinorah, Dinorah, Bandeira do Divino, Bilhete, Desesperar, Jamais, Aiaiaiaiai, Vitoriosa, Vieste, Lembra de mim, Depende de nós, Novo Tempo, Meu País, among others.

With the passing of time, his work became reformed & updated, always contributing new musical values & ideals, without ever losing his identity or originality. From the 80s onwards his work had great international impact, particularly in the USA, where he collaborated with artists of the calibre of Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Manhattan Transfer, Take 6, Nueva York Voices, Sting, Diana Krall and Barbara Streisand.
During this same period of time, he initiated his work in the composition of ‘fados’, a type of music which is very much part of his life, when he lived together with his Portuguese grandparents. In the year 1977 he wrote and recorded his first fado, simply titled Um fado. His work and musical themes are also present in various cinema & television sound-tracks. He enjoyed many successes with his composing partner Vitor Martins, but his melodies have also been the base for lyricists & poets, like Caetano Veloso, Dudu Falcão, Lia Luft, Elisa Lucinda, Paulo César Pinheiro, Celso Viafora, Ronaldo Monteiro, Abel Silva, Martinho da Vila, Aldir Blanc, Chico Buarque, Moska, Nei Lopes, Chico César and Salgado Maranhão.

In 2005 he recorded Cantando Historias, a CD & DVD, a compilation of many of the hit numbers during his career, but with new arrangements and the participation of various guest artists. He won two Latin Grammy Awards; one for Album of the Year and Best MPB (Best Brazilean Music), one of the very best of the Academy. Also in 1981, the song Dinorah, Dinorah won a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental, and in 1982 the song Velas, recorded by Quincy Jones, received the same award. In the year 2004 he recorded with Sting and won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal with She Walks This Earth. Then in 2009 he won the Latin Grammy Award for his album Ivan Lins & The Metropole Orchestra. In 2015 Ivan celebrated his 70th birthday and 45 years of his musical career; he released an album titled América Brasil, in which he re-recorded old melodies which hadn’t been quite that prominent or had been recorded by other musicians.

Brooklyn (New York) based singer-composer & multi-instrumentalist, Becca Stevens built her career drawing upon elements of pop, indie-rock, jazz and traditional Appalachian folk music. Hailed for her unique ability to craft exquisite compositions both for her own band and for other artists, like the legendary David Crosby, singer José James and classical pianist Timo Andrés; she has toured the world with her band and collaborated with artists, such as Brad Mehldau, Esperanza Spalding, Billy Childs, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jacob Collier, Vijay Iyer and many others.

During her short career she has received numerous accolades and excellent reviews by critics, being described as “the best kept secret” of popular contemporary music. In April 2015, her third album, Perfect Animal, produced by engineer Scott Solter and released by Universal Music Classics, consolidated her place as one of the great current jazz artists. Her work featured in Snarky Puppy’s album Family Dinner Vol 2, rates as among one of her most outstanding collaborations.

Becca’s new album, Regina, released in March 2017, features creative & performance collaborations with prominent & promising young artists, like Laura Mvula & Jacob Collier, and the legendary David Crosby. It was produced by Troy Miller (who has also collaborated with artists of the calibre of Gregory Porter, Laura Mvula, Amy Winehouse) and co-produced by Michael League of Snarky Puppy.

Regina is a tribute to strong women in literature, music, science, history …. as well as other great nameless women. Becca uses Regina as a muse, or alter ego, enabling her to write in a new way, fearlessly mixing pop, folk, rock, jazz, funk and much more. The innovative Japanese designer Koshiro Ebata (Lady Gaga, Dior, Louis Vuitton) has designed the look for her album & videos.

Becca Stevens when referring to the disc, assures us that “it’s the story of my life. I grew up in a house filled with opera and banjo tunes, majored in classical guitar in high school, studied composition in college in a jazz school, and in New York City I am surrounded by every musical sound you could possibly imagine. I love and am inspired by good music, no matter the genre or where it came from.”

Ximo Tebar was born in Valencia in 1963, and began playing the guitar at the age of seven. At seventeen he decided to turn professional and since then has performed in concerts & recordings in Spain, Europe & America, leading his own group or accompanying prestigious soloists like Johnny Griffinn, Benny Golson, Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell, Tete Montoliu, Anthony Jackson, Lou Bennett, Lou Donaldson, Louie Bellson, Joey DeFrancesco, Jan Ackerman, etc.

His more personal, creative & innovative side is clearly shown in his fusion album Son Mediterráneo (WEA 1992), consolidating his talent as composer as well as arranger, a skill he not only applies to his own compositions but to other adventurous versions he tackles. The disc was rated by the magazine “World Music” as one of the 100 best jazz albums of the 90s. The title of the album was aptly named by its creator, for it reflects the theme of fusing jazz & flamenco with a Mediterranean aroma.

Ella at 100

Marking the centennial of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald, a group of musicians settled in the Canaries formed a band especially with the intention of paying a well-deserved tribute to her repertoire, her style and her voice, doing so in a Latin tone & key with original arrangements by Rayko León. This tribute is a completely novel project, not only in the Canary islands but worldwide; the fact being that there isn’t a group in existence that boasts a complete repertoire of Ella Fitzgerald with Latin versions. ‘Ella at 100’ has tried to establish its own sound identity using a somewhat different instrumental configuration of the group, concentrating mainly on the arrangements to provide the septet its distinguishing & identifying sound, endorsed by the meticulous work of the band’s members.

At the head of the septet is the main singer Esther Alfonso Da Costa, one of the most symbolic voices representative of the Canaries; a specialist in the great jazz diva’s repertoire, also playing the viola; conducting the combo is Rayko León on piano, with José Ángel Vera (flute & saxophones), Ximo Martínez (vibraphone, marimba & lower percussion), Rodolfo Lussón Fofi (contrabass & electric bass), Alberto García (congas & tambours batás) & Osvaldo Hernández (drums & pailas).