XXIII Palau de la Música de València Jazz Festival

Written by | Festivals, News

The early Spanish summer signals the start of the Jazz Festival of the Palau de la Música de València. Every year the festival continues to grow, embracing the city.  From June to September with thirty concerts on fifteen stages in which more than 300 musicians will perform.

For some time, the Valencia Jazz Festival has incorporated some of the best factors of the great European jazz festivals, bringing jazz closer to the general audience and devoted jazz lovers!  Offering rich programs that embrace different styles, formats, and languages. “The key, I think, is not to have prejudices and try to accommodate all the colours of jazz. That’s why we find everything from classical jazz to contemporary jazz. Also with keeping space for world music and other popular projects. It is about trying to empathize with the audience. Furthermore, we pay special attention to Valencian jazz musicians in order to support their work and give them the opportunity to present their projects in front of a great audience” explains Enrique Monfort, coordinator of the Festival.

This year the festival opens in the gardens of Palau with two free concerts that will showcase the diversity of this years festival program. The audience will enjoy the Cuban pianist Pepe Rivero and his Yoruba Latin Project (June 26) and the performance of the Municipal Band of Valencia with the singer Martirio (June 27).

July will be the month of the big names at the Palau beginning with the voice and jazz blues guitar of the Madeleine Peyroux (July 2). That same night, in the La Nau, you can enjoy Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin and the Dances of West Side Story with the pianist Óscar Oliver and the trumpeter Rubén Simeó together with the Orchestra of Valencia.

Latin jazz will flood the Iturbi’s Saloon with the saxophonist and clarinettist Paquito D’Rivera (July 03) who will cover songs by Albéniz, Falla, Rodrigo or Tárrega with the flavour of his Caribbean Tour. There is also a night reserved for African influences fused with gospel-soul by the Bamako to Birmingham project of Amadou & Mariam and the Blind Boys of Alabama (July 09). The divergent nature of the festival can also be experienced in the NES concert (July 04), in which you can listen to the talented percussionist David Gadea, together with the French cellist Matthieu Saglio, among which the energetic voice of Nesrine Belmokh fiercely rises.

For 2019 the international jazz performers include –  the legendary pianist Kenny Barron (July 07), the famous singer Gregory Porter (July 09) and the bassist Kyle Eastwood (July 13). In addition, Bobby McFerrin, one of the greatest connoisseurs of the human instrument, returns to Valencia, you will be able to listen to a capella with Gimme 5 and his project Circlesongs (July 10).

Another of the main concerts will be the Orchestra of Valencia & Abe Rábade Trío. The Galician pianist, one of the most creative personalities of the European jazz scene, will be accompanied by a robust rhythmic base formed by drummer Bruno Pedroso and bassist Pablo Martín Caminero with the repertoire Tránsitos project.

The contemporary jazz language will be represented by the concert of the saxophonist Melissa Aldana (July 05). Also with a tribute to the trumpeter Don Ellis and his record Electric Bath, which fifty years later is still a provocative proposal full of psychedelia, electric influences, dissonances and oriental nuances: Perico Sambeat and an ensemble of Valencian musicians will guide us on a jazz trip to enjoy in full freedom (July 06). To the proposals of Valencian musicians are added the presentation of the projects of the pianist Albert Palau Flight Mode Quintet and the drummer Vicente Espí Espiral Quartet (July 11).

Likewise, in parallel to the celebration of the Festival, the XX International Jazz Seminar organized by Sedajazz will take place, which will be located at the “José Iturbi” Conservatory (from 09 to 12 July). And, like every year, children can also participate in the Festival with concerts such as Jazzejant amb Xiquets (July 07) or the Jove Big Band of Sedajazz (July 13) and in all the open concerts that will flood the neighborhoods and some villages of Valencia from the end of July and until the first week of September.

There is no doubt, this is a diverse festival in which the music program covers a broad spectrum of sound based on quality and inclusion. You will have the opportunity to choose between a rich heterogeneity that highlights the freedom and diffuse borderlines of jazz. Just come to Valencia and feel it live!

More information and TIX: València Jazz Festival 2019

Writer: Martha Ramon

Photo credit:  – Willian Justen de Vasconcellos

Last modified: June 21, 2019