Now that pandemic restrictions are easing, the city is slowly recovering its usual cultural rhythm. We realize, little by little, that no matter how many pandemics arrive, there are things that will never abandon us. The Barcelona Jazz Festival could be an example of this. The organizers of the 53rd Voll-Damm Jazz Festival have put together a luxury definitive lineup, "full of great international names, for all audiences, with performances throughout the city and a strong commitment to our local scene", according to the artistic director of the event, Joan Antoni Cararach.
The program begins this Wednesday and will run until March 10, 2022. Maria del Mar Bonet opens the festival on the first day at the Palau de la Música leading the Big Band Begues. The Mallorcan singer presents her jazz project and thus inaugurates a festival full of exciting events. To the great names that will arrive in our city, those of the sextet led by Richard Bona and Alfredo Rodríguez, the versatile vocalist José James, and the explosive Cimafunk, one of the musical sensations of recent years, have recently been added.
The presence of women will have a greater weight in this year's lineup, and among the most prominent figures we can find, for example, the Catalan composer Sílvia Pérez Cruz, who, together with Javier Colina Trio, commemorate the tenth anniversary of their album En la imaginación. Maria Schneider ---who has always presented all her works at the Festival---, Andrea Motis, Estrella Morente, Melissa Aldana, Madeleine Peyroux, Cécile Mclorin, or the aforementioned Maria del Mar Bonet are some of the female figures appearing on this year's lineup.
The Festival, exceptionally, will run from October to March and "will be full of great international names, for all audiences and with performances throughout the city" according to Joan Antoni CararachThe Black Locomotive---emblematicbig bandBarcelona---will say goodbye to the stageafter more than 50 years of career with a last concert at the Palau de la Música. For his part, the young Menorcan pianist Marco Mezquida will close the Festival with the presentation of his latest album, whose title is still unknown.
All these names join the rest of the artists who were already announced before summer, among whom are musical personalities such as Chucho Valdés ---who, according to Cararach, has prepared a musical selection with some of his masterpieces---, the saxophone genius Kenny Garrett, the guitarist Mary Halvorson, Vijay Iyer, María José Llergo, the Israeli Avishai Cohen and a long etcetera.
The Festival, which will be dedicated to the memory of George Wein ---American jazz pianist and promoter who recently passed away---, wishes to "transmit a desire to live with music", as explained by Tito Ramoneda, director of Barcelona Jazz and of the organizing company, The Project.
One of the most notable attractions will be, as every year, the series dedicated to flamenco, titled De Cajón! and featuring extraordinary names within the national music scene. Some of the participants will be, among others, the singer Tomatito, who will pay tribute to Camarón in a show called Viviré ---performed together with Duquende, Antonio Reyes and Miguel Poveda, guests of honor---, the previously mentioned Estrella Morente, the pianist Dorantes, the guitarist Rafael Riqueni, the pianists Diego Amador and Chano Domínguez or the ineffable Antonio Carmona, who will offer us a new proposal in which he will feature his family on stage. In addition to all this, we will find the self-produced show called Una nit amb Solera, a unique and original project imagined by Jordi Franco, co-owner of Solera Flamenca.
Beyond the guest artists, the presentation also discussed the importance of the Liceu for the Barcelona Jazz Festival, which has accumulated ten years of participation in this project. As a token of gratitude, it has been decided to award this year's Festival gold medal to María Serrat, director of the Conservatorio Superior. Derived from a common agreement between the two parties, this year at the Liceu not only will 27 concerts be held, but master classes will also be offered with many artists as teachers. Anyone with a ticket to one of the concerts we will see during the Festival will be able to attend, so that the general public can enjoy the musical education that some of the great masters participating, such as the aforementioned Chucho Valdés, Tomatito or Maria Schneider, can offer us.
One of the most attractive offers of this edition is the Descoberta season ticket, which offers five agreed concerts for 50 euros, thus allowing to discover and enjoy artists who are also teachers at the Liceu, such as Carme Canela (who forms a duo with Jurandir Santana), Gonzalo del Val Trío with Benet Palet, Kevin Díaz Double Trio, Òscar Latorre and Marco Mezquida.
The Festival will also collaborate this year with the Mapfre Foundation, preparing an exhibition dedicated to the legendary American photographer Lee Friedlander. This author exhibited portraits of historical jazz figures in the second half of the 20th century, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington or Aretha Franklin. Friedlander specialized above all in illustrating jazz album covers, becoming a true celebrity of photography.
Proposals such as the master music classes at the Liceu or five-concert season tickets for 50 euros aim to bring this musical and cultural project to the public.Jazz is a celebration of life and of the diverse ways music has of hurting or moving us, of connecting us with what is intimate, but also with what is universal. If this festival teaches us anything, it is that we are in need, now more than ever, of common feelings and collective joys. I can't think of anything better for that than a good jazz concert.