The Festival will run from July 21-25 and the tickets will go on sale shortly
This is a time for prudence; but it is also a time to maintain the cultural offer, to meet with social distancing, precaution and a mask, so that we can enjoy music.
We present the 56th San Sebastian Jazz Festival. With all sorts of caveats. We don’t know how many people will be able to attend the concerts or at what time; nor do we know if we’ll be able to move around freely. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to find out.
The artists we mention below have confirmed their desire to come to the 56th Jazzaldia. That’s why, with excitement, we give you their names; so that you can start getting used to the idea.
This will be a Festival of female voices: the great Cécile McLorin Salvant; Noa, in collaboration with the pianist from San Sebastian, Iñaki Salvador; Buika, sweet and sensual; Arlo Parks, London’s new sensation; the Cuban Aymée Nuviola; and, of course, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, with the Farsa Circus Band.
It will also be a Festival of pianists; to that of the aforementioned Iñaki Salvador we must add further names: the Italians Franco D’Andrea, glorious doyen of transalpine musicians, and Giovanni Guidi, budding star of European jazz; the genius Brad Mehldau; the indispensable and sensational Kenny Barron; Gonzalo Rubalcaba, supreme Caribbean virtuoso; Poland’s Marcin Masecki, versatile and unpredictable; and Marco Mezquida, with his new project, another step forward in his irrepressible rise to musical stardom.
Dave Douglas, dexterous trumpet player; the Ethiopian vibraphonist and percussionist Mulatu Astatke; the distinguished bass player Dave Holland; the sax player Jean Toussaint, disciple of the Jazz Messengers’ Blakey School of Music; the sax player Eric Seva, with a fantastic homage to the album Summit in which Gerry Mulligan and Astor Piazzolla merged their sounds and ideas; the surprising flute player Naïssam Jalal and the guitarist Bill Frisell are among the other musicians who have promised to attend and participate in the coming 56th Jazzaldia.
We will also have a large number of Spanish musicians: a short while ago we published a list of 19 groups chosen following the selection processes to have run in recent months; said groups will be joined by the maestro Jorge Pardo, accompanied by Niño Josele, in a nod to the memory of Chick Corea; La Locomotora Negra, doyen of Catalan jazz ensembles, on its farewell tour; and the 8 groups selected to participate in JazzEñe.
We hope that the evolution of the disease and its consequences will allow the programme to go ahead. Take care of yourself so that we can bring the damned figures down, put an end to the virus once and for all and get down to enjoying this programme.
Miguel Martín
Director of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival
