The International Festival Canary Islands Jazz & More Creative Music faces its third week of concerts with an excellent appetizer starring two of the most attractive projects on its lineup, led by trumpeter Dave Douglas and vocalist Veronica Swift. Both will offer two concerts on the two capital islands, after a weekend where the stages in Adeje and Maspalomas were once again filled, and the great turnout at the Palace of Training and Congresses of Fuerteventura with the visit of Estrellas de Buena Vista y Más.
In this 2024, trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas presents a new project: Gifts Quartet, with Rafiq Bhatia, Ian Chang, and Jon Irabagon. Inspired by the life and music of Charles Lloyd, Gifts Quartet reflects on the composer and saxophonist’s wisdom, vision, and positivity in an innovative way, notably exploring Lloyd’s fascination with Billy Strayhorn’s music.
Dave Douglas is a prolific New York trumpeter, composer, and educator known for the stylistic breadth of his work, the lyricism and wide curiosity of his music, and for simultaneously keeping a diverse set of ensembles and projects active. Douglas has previously collaborated with Bhatia and Chang on two albums Marching Music (2020) and Uplift (2018), respectively. Both albums focus on themes of activism, justice, and advocacy. And Jon Irabagon is part of the Dave Douglas Quintet. Gifts Quartet envisions a new sense of interaction through the expression of song form, using sound and atmosphere as a field of action.
Veronica Swift / Matt-Baker
The lineup for these two concerts will feature Dave Douglas (trumpet); Jon Irabagon (sax); Rafiq Bhatia (guitar); and Ian Chang (drums and electronics).
Veronica Swift arrives with her third album, a masterful story of overcoming. In her previous albums, Confessions (2019) and This Bitter Earth (2021), she ascended to the top tier of early 21st-century jazz singers for her virtuosic brilliance, interpretive wit, vigorous songwriting, and sharp arrangements. In short, Swift is not only one of the most dazzling singers of her generation but also one of the most versatile.
While her first two albums solidified her position in modern jazz, Veronica Swift shows that she is more than a jazz singer, exploring French and Italian opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk, and vaudeville. And she achieves this without the results sounding bland or pastiched. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains intact regardless of the genre.
In this festival tour, Veronica Swift’s lineup (voice) is completed by Gary Joseph Potter Jr. (guitar); Max Gerl (bass); Carey Frank (piano, keyboards, and guitar); and Brian Viglione (drums).
CONCERT PROGRAMME:
Wednesday 17
Tenerife – Leal Theatre (La Laguna)
Veronica Swift –
Gran Canaria -– Alfredo Kraus Auditorium (Jazz Corner)
Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet
Thursday 18
Tenerife – CajaCanarias Cultural Space (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Dave Douglas Gifts Quartet
Gran Canaria – Pérez Galdós Theatre (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Veronica Swift
