Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires Festivales de Buenos Aires Agenda Cultural de Buenos Aires

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A MAJOR CULTURAL EVENT

The Festival’s great opening concert scheduled for this coming Wednesday at 8.30 PM at Usina del Arte will feature stellar artists: the Dutch ICP Orchestra, a long-standing ensemble at the forefront of European jazz. BAJ Artistic Director Adrian Iaies has written a praiseful note about them, which allows us to understand what they represent to the Festival and the local jazz scene:

"In 2002, I had the good fortune to travel with my quartet to the San Sebastián Jazz Festival to debut "Round midnight & otros tangos". On the previous night, in the same room where we were to play, there was a performance by Dave Douglas’s band – featuring Misha Mengelberg, Chris Potter, Brad Jones, and Han Bennink on drums – which captivated the entire audience in a magnetic kind of way, even when the concert was headlined by Douglas, because he was that year’s artist in residence. I hadn’t witness something like this since the tribute concert to Miles Davis in the early 1990s at Estadio Obras Sanitarias, when from a second-row seat just behind Herbie Hancock I couldn’t take my eyes off of Tony Williams, on either of the two nights they played.

That afternoon of July 25, 2002, at the Kursaal concert hall in San Sebastián, Bennink finished his set drumming on the stage’s parquet floor, and earlier he played just a snare drum with brushes solo and a great version of Monk’s "Evidence" in a duo with Misha Mengelberg.

I had traveled with my children, and Laura, who was very young at the time, was thrilled by Bennink’s performance. When the concert was over, the Dutch musician stayed and sat on the edge of the stage to sign autographs and (yes, it is true...) to sell his albums himself. We approached him with Laura because she wanted his signature, and Bennink, instead of just signing an autograph, raised her and sat her next to him on the stage, grabbed a piece of paper and watercolors he was carrying with him and made her this great drawing in the span of a few minutes, while everybody else waiting for their fetish-souvenir couldn’t believe their eyes – the same feeling they had earlier when he was playing the drums.

I didn’t know at the time that, just like some other artists, not only did Han Bennink play music but he also drew and painted.

I remember my thought at that moment that Bennink was the kind of artist one needs to see live, in the flesh. The album is not enough.

I had never imagined that ten years later I would have the opportunity to help bring him to Buenos Aires for the first time, and with none other than the ICP Orchestra. In his beginnings with the orchestra in the late 1960s, together with Misha and Willem Breuker, what today is known as “the European jazz sound” was still a budding yet promising idea. He is without a doubt one of the artists that helped to shape that sound.

So I’m very proud and happy to be part, even if tangentially, of a true cultural event for the city."

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IMAGES FROM THE LAST DAY

Yesterday, Monday, was an atypical holiday in the Recoleta area, one of the most traditional tourist spots of Buenos Aires. Large crowds visited the Centro Cultural when doors were opened early in the mostly gray afternoon. So thousands of people were able to enjoy the rich program of live music events that started at El Aleph with performances by Julián Midón Trío and notable pianist Nicolás Guerschberg, and ended on the Terraza – along with a spring breeze – with an enthusiastically applauded concert featuring the participants of the Ensemble Workshops (photo) held in this edition, the show by the Paula Shocron Trío, and at the very end of the evening, the performance by the trio of guitarist Lito Epumer, bassist Machi and drummer Cristian Judurcha. Playing some classics by Luis Alberto Spinetta, these three legendary musicians, who have been active on the Argentine jazz and rock scene for the last 40 years, closed the wonderful BAJ 2013.

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MAGNIFICENT CLOSING AT USINA DEL ARTE

Last night, with a standing ovation from a full house at the Auditorio of the Usina del Arte, Italian trumpeter Flavio Boltro, Belgian pianist Eric Legnini and French musicians Franck Agulhon (drums) and Thomas Bramerie (double bass) gave a brilliant concert at the formal closing of BAJ 2013. In a perfect setting, in terms of comfort and acoustic quality, the quartet delivered a solid performance, thanks to Boltro’s talent, who is regarded as one of the brightest stars in contemporary European jazz. The concert proved that he is one of today’s most influential trumpeters, with an extraordinary technique and mastery of harmony, whether as a soloist or quartet member. This was one of the Festival’s highlights, an unforgettable experience for those who had the privilege to attend.

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THE OUTCOME OF A GREAT FESTIVAL

BAJ 2013 attracted 85 thousand people during six full days of excellent live music, what evinces the artistic and conceptual quality of its program as well as confirms the active participation of its audience, composed of locals and thousands of tourists who visited the City over the past long weekend. Held at different places across town including its two outstanding main venues (Centro Cultural Recoleta and Usina del Arte), the legendary Teatro Presidente Alvear and the new stages for the “Crossings” and “The Jam” sections (Thelonious Club, Café Vinilo, La Trastienda), in addition to the free concerts at the Anfiteatro de Parque Centenario and the amazing Brazilian show by Rosa Passos and Banda Mantiqueira on the large stage mounted at Av. del Libertador and Agüero with successful turnout, the Festival offered a lot of good times with performances by renowned international artists and a vast overview of various generations of Argentine musicians, in different formats and with diverse musical visions. Just like a wide palette of colors, it has showcased all available approaches to such lively music as jazz.

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NOCHE DE CELEBRACION

Fue una noche extraordinaria en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, en donde una pequeña multitud disfrutó cada minuto del concierto que ofreció la cantante Rosa Passos junto a sus excelentes músicos, presentando su último disco en homenaje a Djavan y con un delicada selección de clásicos de la música popular de su país. Luego la Banda Mantiquera volvió a deleitar al público como en su anterior visita, a puro virtuosismo y sentimiento. De la mano del saxofonista, clarinetista y arreglador Nailor “Proveta” Azevedo recorrieron los distintos ritmos de la música del Brasil y coronaron una noche mágica. El momento más emotivo llegó cuando Rosa Passos se sumó para interpretar con su voz única "Insensatez", himno de la bossa nova compuesto por Tom Jobin que sonó perfecta para una noche cálidad en la capital cultural de América Latina.

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CC RECOLETA SAYS GOODBYE IN A MAGNIFICENT WAY

>With two concerts at Auditorio El Aleph and three on the Terraza of the Centro Cultural Recoleta, the program of free live music at this venue comes to an end today. The lineup at El Aleph will include Julián Midón Trío (at 4.30 PM) and pianist Nicolás Guerschberg (at 4.30 PM). Then at 5.30 PM on the Terraza, there will be a performance by the participants of the Ensemble Workshops conducted by Juan Cruz de Urquiza, Gerónimo Carmona and Mariano Loiácono; Paula Shocron Trío will take the stage at 7 PM; and the closing concert will be at 8 PM, featuring the trio of outstanding Argentine musicians Lito Epumer (guitar), Machi (bass) and Cristian Judurcha (drums), who are very active on the local jazz and rock scenes.

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