The blues of Vintage Trouble and the tribute to Wes Montgomery by Peter Bernstein and Mark Whitefiled join the July line-up
There is a way not to fail: embracing musical diversity. Jazz San Javier dresses for the 22nd edition with its most eclectic outfit. From the explosive guitarist Steve Vai with his three-neck guitar, who will provide powerful music and a guaranteed show, to the delightful pianist Emmet Cohen -listen to ‘Dardanella’ from his latest album and you’ll wake up in a better mood-, including jazz and the blues.
In the advance of its programming for July, it leaves honey on the lips as always with some doubly appetizing bites after two editions contained by the pandemic. The mayor of San Javier, José Miguel Luengo, and the Councilor for Culture and director of the Festival, David Martínez, announced a special guitar program, although there will also be a strong presence of the piano. “There will be more parallel activities and more music in the street,” Martínez announced. The free concerts will return in La Manga, the beach of Santiago de la Ribera and the Plaza de San Javier. As a novelty, the festival “will fill green areas of the municipality with music during the three weeks, with special prominence from the San Javier Conservatory of Music and local artists such as Dora Helena,” said the director.
Jazz vocalists receive their particular tribute this year with the poster by the Valladolid illustrator Doctor Juanpa, author of this year’s poster with a marked comic style. A cartoon-like drummer and a grizzled double bass player escort an exotic female singer on the brightly colored, vintage-influenced lineup.
The most explosive concert arrives on July 15 with the new tour by Steve Vai, who already played in 2016 at the Parque Almansa auditorium. The New York guitarist is best enjoyed live, when he amplifies his string contortions, his virtuoso plucks and that sound pyrotechnics that drags the audience on his musical rollercoaster. This time he will bring his new ‘friend’, the Hydra, the three-neck guitar with which he shares the limelight on the cover of his latest album, ‘Inviolate’, a dense and vigorous 9-track session. With this instrumental wonder equipped with a 12-string neck, a 7-string neck and a four-string bass, he creates an enveloping and dense atmosphere, sometimes mysterious and always stimulating between rock and his own peculiar style. “It’s very Vai,” said the musician.
At the opposite pole is pianist Emmet Cohen, who enchants with his agile touch, warm harmony, and the originality with which he incorporates classic jazz styles with a touch of New Orleans. Emmet will make possible one of the most delicious evenings of the festival, with his new look at the classic jazz of the seventies and eighties. Accompanying the young musician, 31, is the Japanese double bass player Yasushi Nakamura and the drummer Kyle Poole, who brings his surprising capacity for improvisation.
From blues to bop
Between the two musical poles, there are proposals such as that of the blues rock band Vintage Trouble (VT), from Los Angeles, with its repertoire of rock, blues, soul, rock and roll and other genres from the fifties and the two decades later to remove the public’s musical wardrobe. “They are difficult to describe,” explained the former director of the Festival, Alberto Nieto, who advises on the programming of Jazz San Javier. “The singer himself describes it as James Brown singing with Led Zeppelin, a mixture of blues, rock and soul that come together in this formation to invite you to dance,” he said.
Another night will feature a duel of jazz guitars, those of the Americans Peter Bernstein and Mark Whitefield. The festival has proposed a tribute to Wes Montgomery, whose virtuosity influenced Whitefield, closer to hard bop and ‘rhythm and blues’.
Between three the game will walk in the concert of the pianist Bruce Barth, the trumpeter Terel Stafford and the vocalist Sara Dowling. At one of the vertices, the overwhelming swing of Californian Bruce Barth, attached to the roots of jazz and the school of the Marsalis brothers, Terence Blanchard and John Patitucci. In another angle, the trumpeter from Florida, currently Director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. He has played in the Lincoln Center Jazz Ochestra led by Wynton Marsalis and with McCoy Turner’s band.
The other end of the trio is the British singer Sara Dowling, faithful to the American songbook and bossa nova, with gifts for classic ballads and great power of communication.
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