Veronica Swift & the Dave Douglas Gift Quartet, an appetizer at the start of the third week

Islas Canarias, 16 de julio de 2024. The Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más Músicas Creativas faces its third week of concerts with an excellent appetizer featuring two of the most attractive ensembles of the billing; one led by trumpeter Dave Douglas and the other with the vocalist Veronica Swift. Both will present their concerts at venues in the two main island capitals, following a weekend where the venues of Adeje and Maspalomas were full to capacity, and also an excellent audience attendance at the ‘Palacio de Formción y Congresos’ in Fuerteventura with the performance by Estrellas de Buena Vista y Más.

In 2024, trumpeter & composer Dave Douglas presents a new ensemble: Gifts Quartet, with Rafiq Bhatia, Ian Chang & Jon Irabagon. Inspired by the life and music of Charles Lloyd, Gifts Trio reflects on the wisdom, vision, and positivity of the composer and saxophonist in an innovative way, notably exploring Lloyd’s fascination with the music of Billy Strayhorn.

Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer and educator from New York City known for the stylistic breadth of his work, the lyricism and wide-ranging curiosity of his music, and for keeping a diverse set of ensembles and projects active simultaneously. Douglas has previously collaborated with Bhatia and Chang on the acclaimed Greenleaf Music albums Marching Music (2020) and Uplift (2018), respectively. Both these albums centre themes of activism, justice, and advocacy. And Jon Irabagon is part of the Dave Douglas Quintet. Gifts Quartet envisions a new sense of interaction through expression of song form, using sound and atmosphere as a field of action.

The formation which will be presented in these two concerts is composed of Dave Douglas (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (sax), Rafiq Bhatia (guitar) & Ian Chang (drums & electronics).

Meanwhile, Veronica Swift comes here with her third album, a masterful coming-out story. In her previous albums, Confessions (2019) and This Bitter Earth (2021), she ascended to the upper echelon of early 21st century jazz singers because of her virtuosic brilliance, interpretive ingenuity, bracing songwriting, and keen arrangements. Simply put, Swift is not only one of the most dazzling singers to emerge in her generation, she’s one of the most versatile.

While her first two albums solidified her position in modern jazz, Veronica Swift shows she’s more than a jazz singer, exploring French and Italian opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk, & vaudeville. And she pulls the feat off without the results sounding callow or pastiche. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains intact regardless of genre.

In this tour of the festival Veronica Swift (vocals) is accompanied by Gary Joseph Potter Jr. (guitar), Max Gerl (bass), Carey Frank (piano, keyboard & guitar) and Brian Viglione (drums).

CONCERTS:

Wednesday 17

Tenerife – Teatro Leal (La Laguna)

Veronica Swift

Gran Canaria -– Auditorio Alfredo Kraus (Rincón del Jazz)

Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet

Thursday 18

Tenerife – Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)

Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet

Gran Canaria – Teatro Pérez Galdós (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)

Veronica Swift