For yet another year Puerto de la Cruz & Santa Ana host the end of the festivities of ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’

For yet another year Puerto de la Cruz & Santa Ana host the end of the festivities of ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’
  • Michael League & Friends, a group joined by Jorge Pardo, will put the golden touch to a new presentation of the Festival
  • There will also be performances by Susana Sheiman & Chano Gil Quartet, The Cuban Jazz Syndicate feat. Pepe Rivero, Antonio Lizana Quintet, Steffen Morrison, Alexis Alonso Quartet & ST Fusion

The final stage of the 29th edition of the Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Más will once again have as a backdrop the seafront promenade of Puerto de la Cruz & the ‘Casas Consistoriales’ and the Santa Ana Cathedral in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, settings that will host the last three nights featuring some of the best ensembles of the billing. In its most complex year, due to the situation caused by the virus Covid 19, the festival adapts, as it has no other option, to the ‘new normality’ regulations, thus assuring health safety measures are complied with, both for the general public and the musicians who have been participating since 31 July, staging nearly fifty concerts that make up the programme. On this occasion, the concerts will be paid-entrance (2€ each night) and tickets can be obtained via tickety.es.

The first night, Thursday 13, Puerto de la Cruz will open the concerts featuring the spectacular voice of Susana Sheiman, one of the most individual & acclaimed artists on the current Spanish jazz scene, and the warm sound of Canarian trumpeter Chano Gil; later, time for The Cuban Jazz Syndicate, a band with a solid background led by drummer Michael Olivera and featuring great Cuban musicians, who will perform on this occasion accompanied by composer & pianist Pepe Rivero. In Santa Ana, in addition to the group at the Fábrica La Isleta, directed by Cristina James & José Alberto Medina and featuring students from their school, there will be a performance by Michael League, bassist of the band Snarky Puppy and three-time Grammy winner, together with a group of friends composed of Magda Giannikou (Banda Magda) keyboard player Justin Stanton (Snarky Puppy) and percussionist Adri Trujillo (Antonio Lizana), to which he has also added the renowned Spanish jazz musician Jorge Pardo, who just last 25 July received the prize Donostiako Jazzaldia awarded by the prestigious San Sebastián Jazz Festival; a prize to append to others as important as the award for Best European Jazz Musician given by the French Jazz Academy on 15 January 2013 and the award ‘Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales’.

On Friday 14, Puerto de la Cruz will open up to two worlds seemingly far apart, but with many common features. Flamenco from the young flamenco singer & saxophonist Antonio Lizana with his quintet, will later fuse with the retro-soul airs of the young Dutch musician Steffen Morrison. In Santa Ana, it will be the turn of performances by Susana Sheiman & Chano Gil Quartet and The Cuban Jazz Syndicate feat. Pepe Rivero.

And the last leg will be on Saturday 15, with a grand opening in Puerto de la Cruz featuring two local bands, Alexis Alonso Quartet and ST Fusion; a great introduction to the band called upon to mark the decisive moment of the festival, Michael League & Friends feat. Jorge Pardo. In the public square of Santa Ana, the final touch will be put by the Local Jazz Band, Antonio Lizana Quintet & Steffen Morrison.