Big names, space for young people and innovative projects are the stars of the first tasting of the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival line-up, which this year will celebrate its 55th edition with the aim of spreading jazz throughout the city, as they will do this Sunday with the celebration on Paseo de Gràcia of International Jazz Day.
Among the performances that were announced this Wednesday, and that represent approximately half of the final lineup, artists such as the Californian saxophonist Joshua Redman stand out, who will lead a project for the first time accompanied by the voice of Gabrielle Cavassa. Sergio Mendes can also be heard in the festival debut of this disciple of Jobim. The Brazilian, winner of three Grammys, arrives with the band of being the Brazilian musician who has sold the most records in the US.
Ron Carter, a member of the Miles Davis quintet between 1963 and 1968, will perform at Paral·lel 62 as part of a European tour that could be the last for the 82-year-old double bass.
Other dates marked on the calendar will be those corresponding to special projects, such as the duet performance of Michel Camilo together with Marco Mezquida, an innovative proposal that will be seen at the Palau de la Música Catalana, with the curiosity that Michel Camilo acted for first time at the festival in 1987, when Mezquida was only one year old. It is the first meeting of the two pianists, who will celebrate a unique duet.
Another special project is the one starring Andrea Motis, who will perform accompanied by the Camerata Conservatori Liceu, the string ensemble made up of 24 musicians that combines professional musicians with interpreters of the classical discipline of the Liceu Conservatory. This is the most ambitious project of the trumpet player from Barcelona, which will only be repeated in Madrid and with a reduced formation. She will perform a Latin American repertoire as well as jazz standards.
Another performance to highlight in this section is the collaboration of the Cameroonian Richard Bona with the Liceu Big Band. "We are very excited about the possibility of having young people starring in major concerts," said the festival's director, Joan Anton Cararach.
In addition to this first batch of artists, the festival will also present several original projects with the participation of the Liceu Conservatory. We are talking about the duet formed by Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson, the debut of vibraphonist Joel Ross, the return of Chris Potter or that of Aaron Parks, as well as the quartet formed by Javier Colina, Albert Sanz, Antonio Serrano and Israel Suárez.
Other concerts that were confirmed this Wednesday are the solo guitar recital by Ralph Towner with his combination of jazz and classical music in his first solo performance at the festival. Also the project of Los Fumeros Horacio and his daughter Lucía, double bass and piano. Or the saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who took part in Black Star, David Bowie's latest album, after the British genius discovered him during a performance in a New York bar. Also Bad Plus, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band and, in the flamenco section, performances by Tomatito or Miguel Poveda.
Tickets for these concerts, which with some exceptions will start next October, will go on sale this Friday with the exception of those by Andrea Motis, who will go on sale today, and those by Sofiate Pamart, Ron Carter and the joint concert by Michel Camilo and Marco Mezquida, who are already on sale and aim to sell out in a few days.
The presentation of these performances takes place the same week as International Jazz Day, a commemoration supported by Unesco that established April 30 as an international day dedicated to the genre, and which will mean the celebration this Sunday on Paseo de Gràcia of concerts by jazz throughout the day. Starting at twelve in the morning, groups such as the Sant Andreu Dixie Band, Joan Mar Sauqué or the duo Hamilton from the Netherlands and Nduduzo Makhathini, among others, will perform. "We bring cultural value to the city by opening the festival in a popular way", explains Tito Vilanova, who has highlighted the will that UNESCO choose Barcelona as the main city for the world celebration of 2024 and 2025, an objective that he wants “to be consistent with what the city of Barcelona is for jazz”.
