Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street, as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas once sang. Well, the organisers of Jávea’s XII Jazz Festival are determined that the town’s citizens should have every opportunity to do just that.
Fortunately for lovers of this perennially popular musical genre, the town’s jazz fest has managed to escape the economic cuts that have affected so many similar events all over Europe. This year’s XII Jávea Festival will take place from Saturday 4th August until Monday 6th August at 22.30hrs each night in the town’s picturesque Plaza de la Constitución.
The festival’s dedicated artistic director, Kiko Berenguer, announced that it was his job to ensure that only artists of the highest quality would be chosen to perform, and it seems that he has more than lived up to this promise.
The first concert on Saturday features bassist Omer Avital, whose personal history has thrown together some interesting influences; born in Israeli to Moroccan and Yemeni parents, Omer has been inspired by jazz greats such as Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and Sam Jones. More contemporary influences include Scott LaFaro, Eddie Corvsez, Charlie Hayden and Ron Carter; no doubt his set will include a performance of his recently released Suite of the East.
Sunday’s concert will feature Frenchman Richard Galliano who is both a talented composer and an exponent of that most Gallic of instruments, the accordion. Galliano is famous for his ability to marry jazz influences with French tradition, so Francophiles are guaranteed a treat.
The XII Jazz Festival closes on Monday night with a celebration of instrumental and vocal jazz as the young and incredibly versatile Mortis Andrea (trumpet, sax and vocals) performs with the Joan Chamorro Group. This is predicted to be an especially crowd-pleasing event, with a mixture of Dixieland, swing and bossa nova.
Jávea is well known as a town with a heart, and this year’s jazz festival is set to prove that it beats to a syncopated rhythm.
