JazzEñe will run for the third consecutive year at the 58th San Sebastian Jazz Festival with eight concerts showcasing the national jazz scene, from 22-25 July, in the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.
The SGAE Foundation, in collaboration with the San Sebastian City Council, Donostia Kultura and the 58th San Sebastian Jazz Festival / 58th Jazzaldia held a news conference today to present the IX edition of JazzEñe, the national jazz showcase encompassing eight concerts in the shape of double bills on the mornings of 22-25 July. For the third consecutive year, JazzEñe features on the programme running at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre as part of the 58th San Sebastian Jazz Festival / 58th Jazzaldia.
The presentation saw the participation of Miguel Martín, Director of Jazzaldia, Garbitxu, President of the SGAE Euskadi Regional Board, and Javier Estrella, the Director of JazzEñe. The event featured a performance by the pianist and composer Lucía Rey, who gave a brief taste of things to come in her live show at JazzEñe 2023.
JazzEñe 2023 offers eight concerts starting at 12:30: Lucía Rey Trío and MOVE (22 July); Carles Margarit Quinteto and NGBM Cuarteto (23 July); Alto For Two and Niño Josele (24 July) and Bandolero Quarteto and Gonzalo del Val (25 July). Tickets are on sale at €8 for each date on the websites of San Sebastian’s Victoria Eugenia Theatre and the festival itself. The concerts can also be viewed in live streaming mode via the festival’s YouTube channel.
Eleven international programmers to export Jazz in Spanish
A SGAE Foundation programme, JazzEñe seeks to take Jazz made in Spain onto the international scene. The body therefore rounds off JazzEñe with three professional gatherings at which the eight selected groups will meet promoters and programmers from festivals and jazz clubs around the world.
The aim is to create links enabling them to work together in the future and to take their projects beyond our borders by signing for tours and performances. Invited by the SGAE Foundation, the programmers will also attend the live concerts.
This ninth edition of JazzEñe has invited eleven guest programmers to Jazzaldia: April Jazz Festival (Finland); Beaux Jazz & Sound of Europe Festival, Bimhuis (Netherlands); Jazz Plus (Bulgaria); Jazz sous les Pommiers (France); Münsterland Festival and Uli Fild Concertbüro (Germany); Offbeat Jazzfestival Basel (Switzerland); Saint-Louis International Jazz Festival (Senegal) Sudtirol Jazz Festival (Italy) and WartaJazz Booking Agency (Indonesia).
The meetings will take place on 23, 24 and 25 July at 11:00 in the Victoria Eugenia Theatre’s Sala Club.
More than 250 Jazz projects submitted
The aforementioned eight groups have been selected by a committee of professionals from the 262 projects submitted. Said committee, which met online on 21 March 2023, was made up this year of Javier Estrella, Director of JazzEñe; Miguel Martín, Director of Jazzaldia; Verónica Ferreiro, writer and singer, participant in JazzEñe 2016 and 2022; and Abe Rábade, writer and pianist, participant in JazzEñe 2017.
About JazzEñe
JazzEñe is a programme created by the SGAE Foundation to internationally launch the jazz made in Spain, to encourage the participation of jazz groups in festivals, to promote international tours for SGAE members and to foster meetings and the exchange of experiences and knowledge between professionals in the sector (authors, artists, managers, programmers, festival directors, record labels, etc.) from here and from the rest of the world.
Following its first edition, held in Madrid in 2014, the competition travelled first of all to Valencia and later to Zaragoza and Málaga. Now, in its ninth edition, this show bringing the reality of Spanish jazz to the public and festival directors from all over the world returns for the third year running to the context of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival which, with its 58 editions, represents one of the great bastions of jazz not only in Spain, but also in Europe and the rest of the world.
Over the years, numerous artists have taken their music to festivals throughout Europe thanks to the SGAE Foundation’s Eñe programmes. Artists Chicuelo & Mezquida, participants in Zaragoza edition, have since performed at the Tokyo Jazz Festival. And in 2018, the SGAE Foundation presented Eñe artists Antonio Lizana, Rycardo Moreno and Pedro el Granaíno in the framework of the Biennale’s Flamenco White Nights project in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Special mention must also be made of their participation in the 2017 Amersfoort International Jazz Festival (Netherlands) by four ensembles participating in JazzEñe: Camerata Flamenco Project, Nono Garcia Trío, Alexey Leon Trío and Marco Mezquida Solo. In 2022 the Festival opened to Basque groups, programming Oreka TX, whose peculiar and distinctive sound comes from the txalaparta.
