Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & más

The Jazz Festival was born in 1992 on an island, Gran Canaria, in which the word jazz meant something for only the few that were in the know. And with it a world of musical and leisure possibilities opened up, at first on the island where it was created and later in the rest of the archipelago. Nowadays, the Festival is a musical reference both on a national level as well as international, and has altered the way to experience music and a live show forever.

Despite its modest beginnings, the ‘Canarias Jazz & Más’ transposed the margins of a “plain” festival and, as its name indicates, it became something ‘more’. With time, it was established as a mandatory date in the calendar of summer festivals; an event to have fun and a gathering place that as well as providing entertainment, has managed to interconnect, train & thrill people. In the end, it has become a large family in which the love of jazz is passed on from generation to generation.
The Canarian public have known how to respond to what they have been offered during all these years, well behaved while getting the most out of the occasion. There are thousands of spectators who get together every summer for this great jazz party, namely the ‘Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz & Mas’.

The outstanding support by sponsors and its Canarian institutions to the various editions of cinema and jazz events have endeared them to the Canarian spectators, and it is now become tradition to hold specialized seminars or master-classes, tutored by the most important musicians participating in the Festival. With this contribution, it fulfils an important function of the Festival, the training & educational aspect.

The most varied jazz styles and those others that are akin to jazz, the most representative musicians and groups of their respective countries & time periods, have made their mark in the Canaries by means of the Festival; bringing together renowned musicians, up-and-coming musicians and those from the Canary Islands, many of whom were trained by virtue of the Festival.

It would be impossible to detail in this space the long list of those guests who have visited us, because each and every spectator has had their special great night, sometimes quite unexpected, coming as a surprise, but we can mention a few in able to understand the dimension and scope the Festival has achieved: Johnny Griffin, Tete Montoliu, Hermeto Pascoal, Jorge Pardo, Yellow Jackets, Bill Evans, Paquito D’Rivera, John McLaughlin, David Sánchez, Kurt Elling, Stanley Jordan, Joe Zawinul, Charlie Haden, Phil Woods, Arturo Sandoval, Mike Stern, Danilo Pérez, Joe Henderson, Larry Corell, Mike Manieri, Spyro Gyra, Michael Brecker, Diana Krall, Marisa Monte, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Tuck & Patti, Terence Blanchard, Scott Henderson, Kevin Mahogany, Herbie Hancock, Chuck Loeb, Bela Fleck, Claudia Acuña, Joe Sample & Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Rosa Passos, Tok, Gary Burton, Richard Bona, Nnenna Freelon, Eliane Elias, Maceo Parker, Wayne Shorter, Incognito, Randy Brecker, Eric Trufaz, Ivan Lins, Steps Ahead, Al Jarreau, Marcus Miller, Victor Bailey, Paolo Fresu, George Duke, Joe Lovano, Lee Ritenour, Carlinhos Brown, John Pizzarelli, Hiromi, Josh Dion, Christian Scott, Chucho y Bebo Valdés, Branford Marsalis, Crusaders, Kyle Eastwood, Madeleine Peyroux, Esperanza Spalding, Freddy Cole, Jose James, Snarky Puppy, Kneebody, The Bad Plus, Teo Croker, Joe Louis Walker, Robert Glasper, … to these we would have to include the Canarian musicians and groups: José Antonio Ramos, Kike Perdomo, Santi Roque Quartet, Polo Ortí, José Carlos Díaz, José Machado, Atcheré, Gran Canaria Big Band, ST Fusion, Javier Infante, David Quevedo, …
With this superb record & background, every summer the Festival has become an eagerly awaited annual event, where some of the best jazz music of now and forever, is shared en masse.