The selected groups are the Ariel Brínguez Quintet, Caminero Quintet, Chano Domínguez Trío, Daniel García Trio, Smack Dab, Sumrrá, Alba Careta Group and Manolo y Curra
The SGAE Foundation, in collaboration with the Donostia/San Sebastian City Council, Donostia Kultura and the 56th San Sebastian Jazz Festival, has organised the VII edition of JazzEñe, an initiative aiming to internationalise Spanish Jazz scheduled to run from July 22 to 25 in San Sebastian, in the framework of the 56th Jazzaldia.
Over four days, the institution will organise a total of eight 45-minute showcase concerts featuring some of today’s most representative Spanish groups in the genre: Ariel Bríngez Quintet, Caminero Quintet, Chano Domínguez Trío, Daniel García Trío, Smack Dab, Sumrrá, Alba Careta Group and Manolo y Curra.
The groups have been selected from a total of 252 applications received in response to the call for submissions issued by the SGAE Foundation to its members in the scope of Ibero-America. A committee made up of José Miguel Carmona, institutional music director at the SGAE Foundation; Javier Estrella, director of JazzEñe; Miguel Martín, director of Jazzaldia; José Franciso Tapiz, director of Tomajazz and Lara Vizuete, author and Jazz singer participant in JazzEñe2018, had the task of selecting the eight artistic proposals.
Together with the audience, and invited by the SGAE Foundation, JazzEñe2021 will enjoy the presence of representatives of different European Jazz festivals and promotors interested in discovering the reality of the genre in Spain. As a complement to the concerts, all participants will have the opportunity to explain and discuss their proposals with the international guests in the endeavour to attain international collaboration agreements enabling them to take their work beyond our borders.
Eight concerts over four days, in matinée sessions
JazzEñe2021 will offer a total of 8 concerts in four double matinée sessions (12:30pm). The concerts will be held at the Teatro Victoria Eugenia and the tickets will go on sale shortly.
The event will kick off on July 22 at 12:30 with the Ariel Brínguez Quintet, who will present Nostalgia Cubana, a journey to the Cuban soundscapes of the 50s paying tribute to the forms cultivated by great artists including Bola de Nieve, José Antonio Méndez, Eliseo Grenet, Cachaíto López and Juanito Márquez, among others. An hour later, in the second session, it will be the turn of the Caminero Quintet, an ensemble headed by Pablo Martín Caminero combining Jazz and flamenco. Pablo touches down in JazzEñe2021 with his latest work, Bost, in which he revisits the traditional flamenco palos such as granaína, siguiriya, bulería or soleá from his particular point of view.
The following day, on Friday July 23, the Daniel García Trío will give a live performance of their latest and energetic Travesuras, which has taken them to some of the biggest European stages. Daniel García Diego, Reinier “El Negrón” and Michael Olivera make up one of the strongest and most original European Jazz trios. The event will end at 13:30 with the live show by the Chano Domínguez Trío, who will perform Chumbulum, an album in which they recover hitherto unheard-of compositions never recorded before while offering original pieces created during the lockdown. Rounding off the ensemble are Horacio Fumero, Argentine bassist and regular collaborator of Tete Montoliu and Gato Barbieri, and the multi-talented David Xirgú on the drums, the perfect bill to convey the beauty and charm of this unique Spanish Jazz mixture.
Having become one of the most consolidated projects on the Catalan Jazz scene, Smack Dab will open the third day (July 24) of JazzEñe2021. Here, the quintet featuring Joan Casares, Oriol Vallès, Lluc Casares, Jöel González and Pau Sala builds a space from which to review their careers bestride the tradition of Jazz and Afro-American music from collective freedom and improvisation. The day will end with the proposal of the Galician trio, Sumrrá, who, after a career of 21 years, present their seventh studio album: Sumrrá 7 Visións. Pianist Manuel Gutiérrez, bassist Xacobe Martínez Antelo and drummer L.A.R. Legido reflect with seven powerful and lucid points of view on the present time, where we come from and where we’re going.
The JazzEñe2021 will be brought to an end on July 25 by the last two groups: the Alba Careta Group and the duo Javier Galiana and María La Mónica: Manolo y Curra. Alba Careta Group returns at the head of one of the Catalan Jazz scene’s most promising bands, with Alades, her second album, with which she displays the experiences of her recent years studying the trumpet in Amsterdam, subtly and with an organic and emotional language that confirms her place as one of the leading lights of contemporary Spanish Jazz. This seventh edition will finally be brought to a close by Manolo y Curra, a project born from the fusion between the stage art of the pianist Javier Galiana and the singer from Chiclana, María ‘La Mónica’, conceived almost like a play for the theatre, in an improvisation planned down to the very last detail.
