Salvador Sobral is in excellent form. He knows this is his moment and he’s making a great job of it. He’s a great communicator with the audience, makes a fine display of his vocal resources and moves comfortably between jazz, bossa nova and ballads, accompanied by the fabulous pianist, Júlio Resende. Thanks to these arms, he had already won over the Plaza de la Trinidad when he set about putting the cherry on the cake with a nod to Basque Culture playing Mikel Laboa’s Txoria txori on the piano.
Sobral voiced his astonishment at being able to perform after Benny Green, one of his favourite jazz musicians. Green, fronting his trio, gave an exquisite and varied concert, never straying far from the limits of classicism.
In the Kursaal Auditorium, Kenny Barron led his quintet, and what a quintet, in a recital which delighted the audience. Barron is the most elegant of the veteran pianists, and perhaps the most elegant since the disappearance of the always greatly-missed Hank Jones.
Cécile McLorin Salvant gave her second concert in the Victoria Eugenia, after her thrilling performance the evening before in the Plaza de la Trinidad. And this was another extraordinary concert, with a different repertoire, only repeating three songs, demonstrating that she has plenty to say, and all of it good.
Another person with plenty to say is the flute-player Naïsam Jalal, who organised around his nay (Arabian flute) a group uniting the musical souls of the Middle East and Europe.
Others who are also making a good job of it are Morgan, the surprise of the year among Spanish groups. Fans gathered in their thousands for their early evening concert on the Green Stage, and all left contented.
There’s no space for thousands at the San Telmo Museum; only for two hundred. Every day it fills with people eager to enjoy the interesting talks on the subject of jazz given by Patri Gioalde and the concerts following them. Yesterday the lead part was taken up by the Polish saxophonist Andrzej Olejniczak and his reinterpretation of Chopin.
