Canarias Jazz Y Más 2025 Jazz Festival

Canarias Jazz Y Mas 2025 Jazz Festival
Plaza Santa Ana and Lago Martianaz
Gran Canaria & Tenerife, Spain
July 4-26, 2025

The 34th edition of Canarias Jazz Y Más arrived in July as innovative and well organised as ever. With 59 concerts set over all eight islands of the archipelago in 28 different locations this annual festival is one of the most exciting in Europe, featuring top artists from Europe and America as well as presenting some outstanding local talent. This was also the year when the dancing and the "duende" came to the Canaries, but more on that later! The legendary three-time Grammy Award-winning jazz and blues singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and her all-female quartet opened the proceedings on Santa Cruz de Tenerife on July 4th as the festival began in great style.

Canarias Jazz Y Más is the brainchild of founder and Festival Director Miguel Ramírez who admits he started the festival in a somewhat itinerant way back in 1992 on Gran Canaria. "From the very beginning the idea was to bring jazz and associated music to the public whilst satisfying the needs of many jazz lovers. The purpose was also to give visibility and space for Canarian musicians whilst conquering the rest of the archipelago..." explains Ramirez, who is always keeping an eye on the international scene and looking to discover new talents to build up a good program each year.

Wednesday, July 23rd

I was here to experience some of the highlights of the festival on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. The first concert on July 23rd was held in the wonderfully quirky Museo Elder, (The Museum Of Science & Technology) in Las Palmas where the Las Albitas group were performing. This was a showcase of two of the rapidly emerging talents of the Spanish jazz scene, the award-winning Catalan trumpeter and vocalist Alba Careta and the Canarian saxophonist Alba Gil Aceytuno. Supported by the pianist Luis Sanchez, the electric bass of Jose Carlos Cejudo and drummer Juan Perez, the concert was largely made-up of original compositions from Careta and Aceytuno.

The auditorium was full, the crowd eager with the anticipation of seeing their local jazz heroes. Las Albitas are unique in that they blend the progressive tempos of jazz fusion along with musical nods to other genres such as hip hop and Canarian folklore. The first couple of numbers, "Finaos" and "Panical" saw the trumpet and saxophone of the leaders weaving sympathetic patterns before engaging in fiery call and response improvisations interspersed by Careta's vocals as the show began to pick up pace. Careta's delicate trumpet solo on the third number brought some vibrant interplay from Aceytuno's saxophone along with some harmonic piano from Sanchez, steady drum patterns from Perez and although sometimes a touch indulgent, some good progressive bass lines from Cejudo.

The two leaders were so obviously passionate about the Las Albitas project with Careta going to great lengths to explain to the audience about the songs and the music throughout the show. Then came a special moment as the supporting trio left the stage and the two Alba's each sang an emotional song about their homeland accompanied solely by the instrument of the other with Careta singing "Dona D'Aigua," by the Catalan composer Teresa Rebull. With the full band back on stage, the concert moved towards a finish with two original Careta compositions, "Plesiosauraus" and the Latin-tinged "Hard Worker" bringing a standing ovation from the hugely enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

Thursday, July 24th

The setting for the next two days of free concerts was in the outdoor confines of the atmospheric Plaza Santa Ana with two bands appearing on each night. The first band on the Thursday evening double bill was the Joven Canari Jazz Big Band conducted by the prominent Canarian saxophonist and educator Jose Vera Bello. This non-profit educational and cultural enterprise project was created for the purpose of promoting the training and awareness of jazz and modern music among the youth of the Canary Islands. The ensemble is made up of young musical talent between 13 and 30 years old with an average age of 15 from across the Canary Islands. For this concert, the band was paying a tribute to the great female vocalists of jazz across the ages. Classics such as "Shiny Stockings," "How High the Moon," and "Round Midnight" vied with more modern funkier numbers such as Aretha Franklin's "Respect" with some swinging arrangements for the young vocalists such as Maria Zerpa, Gabriella Suarez, Vanessa Lemoine and Carla Baldo to get their chops around.

Now was the time for the dancing and the "duende" to arrive at the Canaries—but first the dancing, courtesy of the six-piece band Zuco 103 from the Netherlands whose dynamic electro-funk set brought their pioneering rhythms of Brazilectro to the Plaza Santa Ana, re-inventing the drum and bass tempo and infusing the rhythms of Samba, Bossa Nova and jazz and dub to create their own unique musical sound. Together with the three founding members, vocalist Lilian Viera, drummer Stefan Kruger and keyboardist Stefan Schmid, the group featured guitarist Valentijn Bannier, bassist Alex Oele and percussionist Lauriane Ghils.

Brazilian-born vocalist Lilian Viera's vibrant stage presence immediately impressed as did her highly melodic singing, at once reminiscent of an early Tania Maria with perhaps a nod to the new wave singer Anitta, but with her own very distinct style all the same. Growling bass lines, highly rhythmic electro tempos from the keys and irresistible beats from the drums and percussion joined together with funky guitar grooves and suddenly it was dancing time at the Plaza Santa Ana as virtually the entire audience rose to their feet to embrace numbers such as the perennial favorite "Zabumba No Mar."

Friday, July 25th

And now it was time for the "duende," a magical mix of passion and emotion inspired by the music and dance of Flamenco, which was featured in Friday's concerts as percussionist, composer and arranger Jorge Perez brought his Madrid based band Patax to Plaza Santa Ana in an inspired fusion of flamenco, funk, jazz, soul and Afro-Cuban rhythms. With a large pool of musicians, it means that Perez can cover the demands of the concert circuit wherever that may be. For the concert in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in addition to Jorge on percussion, the group featured Aurora Garcia, lead vocals, Dani Morales, drums, Raul Venagas, guitar, Santiago Greco, bass, Federico Lechner, keys, Roberto Pcheco, trombone and the energetically dazzling flamenco dancer Sara Sanchez. As Perez explains "I have been putting flamenco dance into Patax's shows for a decade now, the thought behind this decision was to make the show more interesting in the visual aspect as well as having an 'energy glue' that tightens everybody together..."

Well known for their unique reinterpretations of iconic songs as on their album, Patax Plays the Beatles (Youkali Music, 2021), the band's set included Toto's "Rosanna," The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun," Prince's "Kiss" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" as well as a few Perez originals. These were all arranged by Perez in the innovative Patax fusion style with the show providing a stunning combination of visual energy and virtuoso musical grooves, which instantly won over the appreciative audience.

Saturday, July 26th

The following day we took the one-hour forty-minute ferry crossing over to Tenerife to catch two more free concerts set beside the sea at the scenic Lago Martianez in Puerto de la Cruz for the final day of this year's Canarias Jazz Y Más Festival. The first concert featured the Tenerife guitarist and composer David Minguillon, whose musical repertoire encompasses jazz, classical and flamenco influences, as on his album Dialogo con un Duende (96K Music, 2016). Minguillon, whose rich and harmonious sound was heard to good effect on numbers such as Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" and Wes Montgomery's "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," where he was ably supported by double bassist Augustin Buenafuente and drummer Ancor Miranda.

The second concert of the evening was from the New York City group Kennedy Administration who had played a day earlier in Las Palmas De Gran Canaria. The band is driven by its founder, keyboardist and producer Ondre J. Pivec, with the powerhouse vocalist, the dynamic Ms Kennedy. There is a solid soul/jazz, Funk, R&B feel to the music with the emphasis coming from the groove of Ondre's keyboards on numbers like "Will It Go Round in Circles" and their latest single "Be Your Lucky Number" from the new album Second Term. A highlight of the show was an interesting version of Roberta Flack's classic "Killing Me Softly with Your Song" which showed off Ms Kennedy's powerful vocals to great effect.

And so, the 34th Canarias Jazz Y Más came to an end—what another great festival it proved to be. The last word must surely come from Festival Director Miguel Ramirez on moving forward: "We've decided to stick to our format as much as possible and offer a mixture of small venues, medium-sized spaces and larger theatres and auditoriums that can host established and emerging artists from international, national and local circles. The audience response continues to be fantastic despite so many offerings which gives us confidence in our programming. Therefore, our commitment for the future will continue to offer an extensive and varied program where improvisation and creativity continue to play a decisive role. 2026 will be our 35th anniversary and we will try to maintain and improve our structure to make it a worthy celebration..." says Ramirez. Amen to that—I think we all agree that it will be a great anniversary celebration.

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