The International Canarias Jazz & More Creative Music Festival kicks off its final week of concerts in style, featuring performances by two headliners, who together have accumulated a total of 8 Grammy Awards and 48 nominations. On one hand, the project led by saxophonist Chris Potter (1 Grammy and 10 nominations); alongside pianist Brad Mehldau (1 Grammy and 16 nominations); bassist John Patitucci (3 Grammy and 15 nominations); and drummer Johnathan Blake (1 nomination) will be presenting their album Eagle’s Point, released by Edition Records; and on the other, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (3 Grammy and 6 nominations), who also comes with a new album titled Ogresse, a musical fable in the form of a cantata blending genres (folk, baroque, jazz, country). Both projects will be showcased in Gran Canaria (Teatro Pérez Galdós and Teatro Cuyás) and in Tenerife (Teatro Leal and Teatro Guimerá).
In March 2024, ‘Eagle’s Point’ was released, an album on its way to becoming the best jazz album of 2024. The album features saxophonist Chris Potter, known for his boundless creativity, technical prowess and immaculate swing feel, performing with Brad Mehldau, described by The New York Times as “the most influential pianist of the last twenty years”, and bassist John Patitucci, a four-time Grammy winner with a thirty-year career. Joining them on their European tour for the Canarias Jazz & More Festival is drummer Johnathan Blake, whom NPR describes as “the ultimate modernist”. With credentials ranging from Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter, to Sting, Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Avishai Cohen, these four virtuosos collectively encompass nearly every style under the sun.
Cécile McLorin Salvant is a composer, singer and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described Salvant as “a unique voice backed by full intelligence and musicality, illuminating every note she sings”. Salvant has developed a passion for storytelling and finding connections between vaudeville, blues, theatre, jazz, baroque, and folk music. Salvant is an eclectic curator, unearthing forgotten and rarely recorded songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humour.
Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010. She has received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Window”, “Dreams and Daggers”, and “For One To Love”, and was nominated for the award in 2014 for her album “WomanChild”. In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur Fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Nonesuch Records released “Ghost Song” in March 2022, earning Salvant two Grammy nominations since then, and appearing on several best of 2022 lists. On March 24, 2023, Nonesuch Records released the highly anticipated follow-up, “Mélusine”, an album primarily sung in French, as well as Occitan, English, and Haitian Creole.
Salvant’s latest work, Ogresse, is a musical fable in the form of a cantata blending genres (folk, baroque, jazz, country). Salvant wrote the story, lyrics, and music. It is arranged by Darcy James Argue for a thirteen-piece orchestra of multi-instrumentalists. Ogresse, both a biomythography and a tribute to the Erzulie (painted by Gerard Fortune) and Sara Baartman, explores fetishism, hunger, diaspora, cycles of appropriation, lies, alterity, and ecology. It is in development to be turned into an animated feature film, which Salvant will direct. Cécile will be accompanied by a trio consisting of Sullivan Fortner (piano); Yasushi Nakamura (double bass); and Kyle Poole (drums).
CONCERT PROGRAMME:
Tuesday 23
Tenerife – Teatro Leal (La Laguna)
Potter | Mehldau | Patitucci | Blake
Gran Canaria – Teatro Cuyás (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Wednesday 24
Tenerife – Teatro Guimerá (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Gran Canaria – Teatro Pérez Galdós (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Potter | Mehldau | Patitucci | Blake
