• The award winning vocalist -2 Grammy Awards- will stage three concerts this weekend (Tenerife, Lanzarote & Gran Canaria)

• Shinkarenko Jazz 5N perform tomorrow in the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall) of the university ULPGC and on Saturday La Laguna (Santo Domingo Convent Square)

• Ara Queen of Drums & Ruth Mahogany and The ARB Music Band are the star feature for Noche de África (Africa Night) (Saturday & Sunday)

Islas Canarias, 30 de junio de 2023. The 32^nd edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más kicks off this weekend with the participation of five musical ensembles that will stage concerts on the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife & Lanzarote. Musicians & artists from different backgrounds and with completely different offerings, as the programme exemplifies and shows, will be staged on the eight islands from today till 23 July at more than twenty different venues. Kurt Elling, one of the great attractions of this edition, will stage three concerts alongside the exceptional guitarist Charlie Hunter, in the presentation of their album Superblue, today Friday 30 June at the Tenerife Auditorium, Saturday 1 July at Jameos del Agua (Lanzarote) and on Sunday 2 July at the Pérez Galdós Theatre (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).

Another of the groups that will be opening this new edition of ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’ comes from Lithuania. Shinkarenko Jazz 5N, an ensemble led by bassist Leonid Shinkarenko, will present their first two concerts in the Canary Islands; the first is today Friday in the Paraninfo (Assembly Hall) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (calle Juan de Quesada, 30), the second on Sunday in the Ex-Convent of Santo Domingo Square, in La Laguna, Tenerife. Both concerts are free, although for the first it is necessary to withdraw invitations (see on the webpage canariasjazz.com).

This weekend also features the two groups that begin their tour of Spain, having been selected in the programme relating to the encounter Vis a Vis, organized by Casa África and which took place in Nigeria this year. From there come two women with extraordinary force and bands with deep roots, ancestral, but also with a touch of contemporaneity that make them special. Ara Queen of Drums will perform on Saturday with her talkng drums at the Museo Elder (free admission collected in advance at the entrance); and on Sunday she will take her tribal rhythms to MUNA in Santa Cruz de Tenerife together with Ruth Mahogany & The ARB Music Band, musicians who mix Afrobeat with R&B rhythms.

The weekend is completed with with the launch of concerts staged in collaboration with other clubs/halls of the archipelago, which in this first installment of the programme, features the group Stablemates at the Café Teatro La Rayuela, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (calle Bethencourt Alfonso, 4).

“SUPERBLUE” – KURT ELLING & CHARLIE HUNTER

Kurt Elling y Charlie Hunter.

Renowned for his singular combination of robust swing and poetic insight, twice Grammy winner Kurt Elling has secured his place among the world’s foremost jazz vocalists. He was delared “the standout male vocalist of our time” by The New York Times. Over the period of twentyfive years of tours & recordings, Elling has garnered unprecedented accolades, including three ‘Prix du Jazz Vocal’ (France), two ‘Echo’ awards (Germany), two ‘Edison’ Dutch prizes and fifteen Grammy nominations. He has a fourteen-year run atop the DownBeat Critics Poll, and twelve Jazz Journalists Association awards for “Male Singer of the Year.” At this concert he shares billing with guitarist Charlie Hunter, a musician who, age-based, has had two very marked influences on his work. His academic references are based on Joe Pass; he gets his current vision from Tuck Andress, Californian guitarist who made up the duet with singer Patti Cathcart.

SHINKARENKO JAZZ 5N

For decades Leonid Shinkarenko has been one of the most prolific jazz musicians of Lithuania and there is probably no other bass player in this Baltic state better known than him.The story of his current band goes back many years, back to the times when Shinkarenko was part of the ‘Lithuanian Jazz Trio’. Another member of that trio is also part of the new band, saxophonist and keyboard player Vytautas Labutis, a legendary Lithuanian jazz musician as well. Also drummer Linas Būda has a long career and history with different bands and projects, as well as the new band member, trumpeter Valerijus Ramoška.

ARA QUEEN OF DRUMS

ARA is an electrifying cultural icon on stage. Hailed as the first woman to play the traditional Nigerian ‘talking drum’, she leads & directs an orchestra of musicians & dancers that create pulses of entertaining symphony of World music accentuated by African talking drums, recognized as the most sophisticated musical communication instruments of Yoruba heritage. She is a singer, percussionist, composer, dancer, producer & actress of great talent who has performed alongside international stars such as Stevie Wonder, Angelique Kidjo, Femi Kuti, Wiz Kid, David O Burna Boy, Wyclef Jean, etc.

RUTH MAHOGANY & THE ARB MUSIC BAND

This group stems from the fusion of the sensitivity and committed themes of a poet and singer-songwriter Ruth Mahogany, with the force of a classic Afrobeat band like the ARB Music Band. We are before a fusion of artists passionate about creating art with awareness and relate stories through their music. The acronym ARB stands for Alter-Reflective Beats, that indicates the band’s goal of entertaining listeners while inspiring reflection. Their aim is to create music that not only entertains, but also encourages listeners to think deeply about the stories and messages it conveys. Regardless of the musical genre, the common thread of their work is the use of deliberate themes to convey a message or emotion through their music.

STABLEMATES

‘Stablemates’ is the title of an entertaining & interesting piece composed by the great composer Benny Golson, which he gave to his friend John Coltrane to play with Miles Davis, who decided to record it praising the creativity of the young Golson. In March 2023, four friends who love jazz, got together to give a performance at the ‘Café Teatro Rayuela’ in Santa Cruz, Tenerife under this title, to recreate this and other standards, to the delight of the audience. The band’s members are Fernando Barrios (sax); Samuel Labrador (piano), Sergio Díaz (drums) & Caín Delgado (double bass).

The billing of this 32^nd edition of the festival is completed with performances by the Metropole Orkest & Kandace Springs, Portuguese Salvador Sobral, winner of the Eurovision Festival in 2017; the drummer Manu Katché, regular member of Peter Gabriel’s band; one of the great voices of the moment, Jazzmeia Horn; Richard Bona & Alfredo Rodríguez feat. Michael Olivera, the American Nik West, Carmen Souza, Caramelo de Cuba, Shinkarenko Jazz 5N, Rey & Syl Dorrey _ Lin Lyles – Sylwester Ostrowski, Both Sides of Joni Mitchell feat. Monika Herzig and Alexis Cole, Second Brain, Mo Van Der Does – Motet, Kutu, Lucas Santana with Sven Rozier Quintet, Daniel García Trío, Lehmanns Brothers, Daïda, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, Ayom, Javier Infante & José Alberto Medina Dúo, Puertas al Sur 5Tet, Pere Bujosa Trio, Furte, LuisMo Valladares Quartet, Yul Ballesteros Trío, Paco Perera, José Vera Bello Quinteto, Althay Páez, Alba Serrano & Cristóbal Montesdeoca Dúo, Stablemates and Vanessa Hechavarría Quartet all feature on the billing of the festival, which also recovers Noche de África (Africa Night), with performances by Ara Queen of Drums and Ruth Mahogany and The ARB Music Band.

The ‘Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más’ will again have the support of the Canarian Government through the deputy minister of Culture & Heritage as main sponsor; the Island Councils of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife & Gran Canaria; the Gran Canaria Tourist Board; the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria & Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Halls, the Santa Brígida, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz, Adeje, Los Llanos de Aridane, Alajeró, Arrecife & Teguise Town Halls; and stage venues, such as the Tenerife Auditorium, Theatre Leal, Auditorium-Theatre Foundation, Theatre Guiniguada, Theatre Cuyás, MUNA in Tenerife, the Elder Museum of Science & Technology, the ‘Paraninfo’ at the ULPGC, the Santo Domingo Convent in La Laguna, Art, Culture & Tourism Centres of Lanzarote (CACT) and Fábrica La Isleta.