The Barcelona International Jazz Festival

The autumn will resonate with jazz rhythms with the arrival of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival, offering over 80 activities on its programme, including music dinners, family breakfasts, jazz-rhythm performances at the Montjuïc Magic Fountain and an area for professionals that is still to be decided on. The festival will also support Barcelona’s promising new jazz artists.

Homegrown talent

Andrea Motis (16 years) has become a new sensation, along with the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, on the Barcelona jazz scene. The trumpeter and singer will perform with Europe’s youngest big band during the Barcelona International Jazz Festival.

The event gives resolute support to new Catalan talent, as it did for Llibert Fortuny, who will give a guest performance with La Locomotora Negra, a group that celebrates their 40th anniversary this year, and is due to receive the festival’s Medal of Honour. The award will be shared with the composer and band-leader Maria Schneider.

Paolo Conte will draw the festival to a close at the Auditori on 1 December, offering songs from his latest project, Nelson. Other attractions in the festival include Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Michel Camilo Trio with Giovanni Hidalgo, Pat Metheny Trio with Larry Grenadire and Bill Stewart and the Joshua Redman – Brad Mehldau Duo.

::.. Barcelona International Jazz Festival ..::

Music in the Parks of Barcelona

Last wednesday, 2nd June, started the inaugural concert in the latest “Music in the Parks” cycle, organised by the Barcelona City Council Environment Area, with a performance by the Sant Andreu Jazz Band – the youngest big band in Europe – in the Teatre Grec Gardens.

Music in the Parks

The concert has opened new “Music in the Parks” programme. Now a traditional event, this year it aims to reach more people by raising the number of city parks holding the concerts to eight, doubling last year’s total.

It includes three parallel programmes, classical music, jazz and sessions by the Banda Municipal de Música of Barcelona, and these run from 2 June until 25 August.

There are 28 concerts in this year’s cycle. The Municipal Band’s concerts will take place in the Creueta del Coll, Diagonal Mar, Barceloneta and Guineueta parks. Turó Parc, the Príncep de Girona Gardens and the Hivernacle (Winter Garden) in Parc de la Ciutadella will hold the classical music concerts, while the Drets Humans (Human Rights) Gardens and the Hivernacle will hold the jazz sessions. The Municipal Band concerts start at 8 pm and the classical music and jazz concerts begin at 10 pm. All concerts are free and in the open air and you don’t need to book in advance.

Parc Güell by Gaudí

The summer park concert programme came about fifteen years ago. The aim is top bring quality music to every kind of audience and to encourage performers by young musicians, while promoting the possibilities offered by parks as meeting places and recreational areas on summer nights and evenings.

Sponsored by DAMM Free, the event is being collaborated on by Cespa, UME Unión Musical, El Periódico, Time Out, Aigües Veri, the Conservatori del Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).