The 45th International Jazz Festival of Barcelona
The programme includes more than 60 performances and runs until the beginning of December
The International Jazz Festival of Barcelona has arrived at its 45th edition and, as is customary, will include performances by big names from the genre that gives the festival its title while also including more novel and attractive proposals for fans of other styles.
The programme of more than sixty concerts and other activities in under a month and a half leaves a lot of room for manoeuvre. Among the artists with extensive careers behind them we may highlight Richard Bona (20/10), Ravi Coltrane (22/ 10), Diane Reeves (25/10), Avishai Cohen (22/11), Wadada Leo Smith (26/11), Kurt Rosenwinkel (6 /11) and Chucho Valdés (30/10). The Valdés lineage will also be the protagonist of a performance by Rumba para Bebo (29/10) which will pay a cheerful tribute to the much lamented pianist, much as he would have liked it.
The selection of artists more in line with pop and rock circles will include such attractions as Tindersticks (31/10), John Grant (26/11) and The Tallest Man on Earth (29/11) as well as the charismatic Jamie Cullum (28/11), whose style is somewhere between the aforementioned artists and more orthodox jazz. In representation of other sectors of the musical spectrum the programme includes The Cat Empire (9/11), Chris Thile (12/11), Childo Tomás (22/11) and Martirio and Raúl Rodríguez (13/11).
As a warm-up, nothing could be better than the Barcelona Jazz Weekend, an extensive and tasty appetiser with performances throughout the city from the 11th to the 13th of October and including the now emblematic free concert in the Parc Central del Poblenou, which will take place on Sunday the 13th at midday and whose banner this year is Swing als quatre vents: 70 anys de Big Bands (Swing to the Four Winds: 70 years of Big Bands).