Roberto Fonseca heads the new edition of l'Escala's 'Jazz by the sea' cycle

The Afro-Cuban composer, Roberto Fonseca arrives this Friday at the Jazz by the Sea festival in l'Escala to open the cycle that will fill the coastal town of the Costa Brava with music until October.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
05 May 2024 Sunday 16:59
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Roberto Fonseca heads the new edition of l'Escala's 'Jazz by the sea' cycle

The Afro-Cuban composer, Roberto Fonseca arrives this Friday at the Jazz by the Sea festival in l'Escala to open the cycle that will fill the coastal town of the Costa Brava with music until October. During this month of May, the group Kuma and Adrián Cunningham will also perform in trio format. A music cycle that lasts until October with high-level international figures such as Giulia Valle, Endea Owens and Gorka Benítez, who will perform on weekends at the Ultramar room.

Starting at 10:30 p.m. this Friday, attendees will be able to enjoy the voice of Roberto Fonseca, who lands at the Costa Brava venue and who has become a benchmark in Cuban music. Through his melodies, the pianist and composer has managed to inspire young Cuban musicians with his work as a composer, as well as a producer and band director.

Kuma is a group formed by Mattjieu Llodra on piano and Arthur Donnot on sax. The duo - a live quartet accompanied by Fabien Iannone on bass and Maxence Sibille on drums - plays with different sounds of hip hop and techno culture in their latest work, Honey

The last weekend of May comes with Adrián Cunningham, accompanied by Abel Boquera on the Hammond organ and Caspar St. Charles on drums. The Australian based in New York is known for his ability with multiple instruments and his swing sound, with mastery of organ sounds that navigate between Groovy jazz, Funk and Rhythm blues.

The Italian-Catalan Giulia Valle will stop on June 14 at Jazz by the Sea. She does so with a new musical proposal, Eden Club, the ninth album by the composer, a benchmark of new European jazz. Throughout her career she has performed in London, Berlin and Amsterdam, in addition to visiting South Korea.

On Friday, July 19, the Costa Brava venue will host the veteran American trumpeter Eddie Henderson, who at 80 years old remains active as an international jazz reference. The New Yorker will perform in quintet format alongside trombonist Steve Davis, Mark Hodgson on double bass, Will Barry on the piano that he learned to play at the prestigious Guildhall School, while Stephen Keogh will take the controls of the drums, with which he has toured and recordings with the Irishman Louis Stewart.

At the end of August, one of the most vibrant emerging artists in current jazz arrives, Endea Owens, a sought-after artist and composer born in Detroit, a student of great jazz icons such as Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker and Ron Carter, among others.

To make the rentrée more bearable at l'Escala, the elements of jazz and improvised music will come from the hand of the flutist and saxophonist Gorka Benítez. The artist has created a repertoire from a series of compositions that are part of a new project. As a novelty, they have incorporated a new member into his trio, the organist Abel Boquera, who brings a new and different air to what is already known.

As a cloenda, on October 10 Antonio Lizana will take the stage with his fusion of flamenco and jazz. The young singer has made his way into the world of blues without losing his Andalusian roots. Surrounded by a quartet of musicians, Lizana manages to reconcile the rhythms of flamenco and the beautiful harmonies of his most jazzy compositions.